Google tips hat to gran whose polite search charmed the internet

Google has responded to a photo of a grandma's extremely charming search habits.

Earlier this week Ben John from Wigan, in northwest England, tweeted a snap of his nan's laptop screen, which showed that his grandma, 86-year-old May Ashworth, adds a super-polite "please" and "thank you" to her Google search requests.

The endearing tweet soon went viral, leading to media interviews and a response from Google itself. The search giant tweeted, "Dear Grandma, no thanks necessary," while Google UK went one better, translating the Roman numerals in the original search.

Ben found the polite search when he was visiting his gran to do his washing, the BBC reports. Ben's original tweet has been retweeted more than 17,000 times at time of publication.