Who’s afraid of Google? Not Salman Khan, certainly. The American multinational technology company known for its search engine ‘Google’ annoyed billions of fans of the Bollywood superstar by finding Salman to be “Bollywood’s Worst Actor” yesterday. While social media reactions to the actor’s recent film, the outrageous action thriller Race 3 that got savagely ripped apart by critics, perhaps support and justify Google’s search for Bollywood’s worst actor resulting in Salman, the fact is that the ‘Universal Bhai’ (as Salman is popularly known) is anything but a terrible actor. Surely Google could not have forgotten his endearing performance in Bajrangi Bhaijaan? Or his show stealing act in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo? And the paisa vasool feat he pulled off in Dabangg? Not to forget his melting moments in Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun. Yet, the search engine chugged out only one result yesterday when asked who was Bollywood’s worst actor – Salman Khan!

Recommended Read: Ouch: Google shows up Salman in Worst Bollywood Actor search 

Now PeepingMoon.com, which does not believe that an actor is only as good as his last film, decided to dismiss Google’s finding and get to the heart of the matter. Critics are unforgiving. They will nitpick about Race 3 because, frankly, there has not been such an awful Bollywood film made since Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag in 2007. But Salman’s legion of fans pooh-pooh the suggestion that the actor’s fame and izzat have sunk to rock-bottom along with the fortunes of Race 3. Proof of their undying love for ‘Bhai’ is the fact that the ill-fated third installment of the franchise crossed the 100 crore yardstick measure on the opening weekend itself. Still, PeepingMoon.com put the actor to the test. We ran a dipstick poll on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram asking all social media followers whether “Google was right in branding Salman Khan as Bollywood’s worst actor”?

The answer was not surprising. After we compiled the votes and did the math, it was found that only 3% agreed, while a staggering 97% said ‘No!’ in unequivocal terms. Majority of the people think Google got it wrong this time. But there is an explanation as to why Google came up with this result. According to reports, when you type a keyword on Google it shows up articles, threads, and posts that have meta tags as that particular keyword. Meaning, tons of people uploaded images, published articles or written posts about Salman with “Worst Bollywood Actor” as a tag. A Google spokesperson told the media, “Our search results are determined by algorithms and there is no individual group deciding what results to show for each query.” Google believes that the negative reviews of Race 3 panning the actor and having keywords or tags such as “worst actor” could have also added to Salman’s ignominy by pushing his name to the top of the search result. How does this search result “glitch” get fixed then, the actor's fans want to know? By Salman Khan delivering a blockbuster performance in his next release!

We are waiting for Bharat, now. Or will it be Dabangg 3 before that?