Late last night, Google conversion onebox showed that one dollar was exchanged for 184 Naira as against the true rate of about 360.
This went viral and elicited interesting reactions on social media. And this even caused a favourite currency exchange site, Abokifx.com, to crash for a while presumably due to traffic to confirm this exchange rate. (The site is now back up).
Here are some of the interesting reactions on Twitter.
1 Dollar changed to 184 Naira in my country, on Google, a day before the general elections…and abokifx suddenly crashed. 🤔 https://t.co/4YJ9eQNC6o
— Fisayo Fosudo (@Fosudo) February 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/Christianani1/status/1099008329626591233
That Google Dollar to Naira Exchange rate is a tailored information, don't fall for it…Yes Naira appreciated in the last 24hrs but the accurate exchange rate as at 19:39 is #358/$ at parallel market.
— Asiwaju (@officialasiwaju) February 22, 2019
Google has since fixed the glitch and issued a statement on Twitter..We’re aware of an issue causing inaccurate conversions for Nigerian Naira currency, so we will remove the conversion onebox from appearing in search results until we are able to diagnose the issue’.
We’re aware of an issue causing inaccurate conversions for Nigerian Naira currency, so we will remove the conversion onebox from appearing in search results until we are able to diagnose the issue.
— Google in Africa (@googleafrica) February 22, 2019
The exchange rate correctly shows US$1:361.75 Naira