Many, especially those within the design or online space, are familiar with a certain chunk of Latin text that is so prevalent on the Internet that it often goes unnoticed. Known as Greeking or Lorem Ipsum, this Latin text is used by numerous designers as a placeholder for Internet page text. Up until recent years, this could have been a secret code for spying activities.
Historically, Lorem Ipsum text was found on large sheets of stickers called Letraset, used by designers to replace real text in spec designs. As Internet design advanced, Lorem Ipsum was adopted as the standard placeholder, replacing phrases like “Text Goes Here.” Over time, it has become the background noise of the Internet, an essentially harmless gray substance that often goes unnoticed. For example:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In sapien augue, tempor nec dignissim vel, varius at tellus…
An intriguing development around this text was reported by Brian Krebs. He highlighted a bug in Google Translate where various arrangements of Lorem Ipsum were automatically translated into contemporary and suspicious-sounding English phrases. However, this bug was shortly corrected by Google.
The question is: how did this happen? We know that Google Translate works by leveraging translated content from across the Internet, essentially tapping into a global network of translated phrases and sentences. It’s plausible that numerous Chinese pages with English equivalents containing Lorem Ipsum were causing these bizarre translations.
Yet, Krebs remains uncertain and, despite efforts with his security team to decipher the translations, no solid explanation was found. Shortly after Google was informed, the translations were adjusted.
The real reasons behind this glitch may forever remain a mystery. As of August 16, Google Translate has ceased to translate the word “lorem” from Latin to English to anything but “lorem.” While Google Translate can still produce odd results when translating Latin to English, a Google spokesperson insisted the adjustment was made to correct an algorithm bug, not due to a security vulnerability.
One theory is that Internet activists (or the CIA) were using Lorem Ipsum as a way of sending coded messages over the Internet, raising intrigue and amazement at the notion. Either way, it’s back to the drawing board for those of us still attempting to crack the code.
It’s worth noting that the shift in Google Translate’s handling of Lorem Ipsum may have been requested for the Defcon badge puzzle, an interesting aspect in and of itself.
Ref: John Biggs /TechCrunch
Light edits were made in 2025 to improve clarity and relevance.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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