Google News has a new function that when you Google certain names, the first thing you see at the top of the results page is a quote. In a blog post titled, “Words Matter,” Google explains the new service:

Be it poetry or public speech, words matter. Consider this election season. All along the campaign trail we have heard candidates’ thoughts on the future of health care, the war in Iraq, and even each other. These debates have generated untold pages of commentary, and it’s only too easy to lose track of original quotations. Unlike much of the surrounding rhetoric, these quotations cited in news articles are not conjectures but facts – transcriptions of actual words and thoughts – be they campaign promises, arguments or opinions. Wouldn’t it be great if they were easily searchable? As part of Google’s mission to organize the world’s information, we’ve been hard at work making quotations in news articles easy to search and browse. You can now more easily keep track of what your favorite politician, actor or sports star is saying. You can even search within their quotes for specific topics. To access these new features, first search for a person’s name on Google News. If we have a recent quote, we’ll show it above the search results.

Sorry Obama, words matter…

“Bill Ayers”:

“I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough”

“Obama”:

“The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense”

It looks like Google changes the quotes based on some sort of secret Google procedure. When re-Googling “Obama,” this one now comes up:

“You have a real choice in this election. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain”

“Clinton”:

“He always says in his speeches that he is running a positive campaign, but then his campaign does the opposite”

“McCain”:

“They are out of touch when they want to raise taxes at the worst possible time when we’re in a recession”

It’s almost as if Google has joined the VRWC…