Cross-Purposes

Seth Godin reports an interesting juxtaposition.

• Pain reliever recalled after metal found in pills.
  
• Google finds a matching image to illustrate the story.
  

Google is trying to be helpful here - repurposing an image (from elsewhere) to add value to a service.



Unfortunately, it's the right drug but the wrong brand. For many purposes, Google's semantics would be adequate. For recall purposes, however, the difference between DRUG and BRAND is very important.

This kind of semantic mismatch is what causes some of the trickiest interoperability risks.

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