Previously, the first results shown when googling the word were videos and images which sexualised lesbian women’s bodies.

This unnecessary sexualisation of lesbians has been cited as one of reasons behind the homophobic abuse many lesbian women experience — including the recent attack on a couple on a London bus.

The search engine’s algorithm has now been changed thanks to a campaign led by the Twitter account @SEO_lesbienne and French news site Num.

They noted that only the word ‘lesbian’ linked to sexualised pages, whereas searching for ‘gay’ or ‘trans’ displayed Wikipedia pages, articles and specialised blogs.

Numerana began investigating after seeing that the pornographic results appeared beneath Google’s special Pride banner in memory of the Stonewall riots.

After a few days the banner stopped appearing for lesbian-related search terms, and Google reportedly would not provide an explanation for its disappearance.

When questioned at a later date, Pandu Nayak, Google’s vice president of search engine quality, said: “I find that these [search] results are terrible, there is no doubt about it.

“We are aware that there are problems like this, in many languages ​​and different researches. We have developed algorithms to improve this research, one after the other.”

He noted Google’s prior issues with the words ‘girl’ and ‘teen,’ which also linked to porn sites before algorithm changes were made.

“We have taken measures in cases where, when there is a reason for the word to be interpreted in a non-pornographic way, that interpretation is put forward,” he explained, adding that such structural changes “take time.”

Google has since taken action and as of July 19, the top search results for the term ‘lesbian’ are news articles and the lesbian Wikipedia page. These results will appear even if Safe Search is not active.