THE NEWS WRAP: If you type “n—– house” into Google Maps it directs you to the White House

Google has apologised but failed to explain why searches for “n-gger” are directing users to the White House, home of US President Barack Obama.

“Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologise for any offence this may have caused,” a Google spokesperson told The Huffington Post.

“Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly.”

Despite the story breaking yesterday, Google has still not fixed the issue – at least for Australian users.

Smartwatch startup Pebble in trouble despite record-breaking Kickstarter campaign

Pebble has landed itself in hot water, with the startup turning to a Silicon Valley bank for a $5 million loan and local venture capitalists turning down the company’s requests for more funds.

Many employees are also unhappy with the direction of the company, according to TechCrunch.

The startup’s Pebble Time project is the world’s most-backed Kickstarter campaign, raising more than $20,000 from more than 70,000 backers.

Investors cough up $US30 million for disease prediction startup Metabiota

A company specialising in disease outbreak prediction has raised $US30 million in Series A funding in order to ramp up its offerings to government organisations and expand on a global scale.

The round was led by previous investor RSTP, with managing director Jon DeLoche telling TechCrunch the startup has the potential to become a multi-billion dollar company.

“Metabiota is digitising the world’s microbial threats so that governments, insurance companies and corporations in multiple industries can be proactive about fighting disease spread and epidemic risk financing,” he said.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 26.99 points, falling 0.15% to 18,285.4. The Aussie dollar is currently trading at around 78.7 US cents.