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Censorship on Google Instant


GOOGLE INSTANT X390 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

The Web is buzzing about Google's latest advancement, Google Instant, which doesn't even wait for the user to click the search button after typing a query. It simply goes straight to the page by predicting what you will type, as you type it.

However, it's been discovered that the "autocomplete excludes certain terms related to pornography, violence and hate speech," according to Google. The feature also happens to exclude the words "bisexual" and "lesbian" while allowing "homosexual," "gay," "queer," "dyke," "transvestite," and "transgender" to be searchable instantly.  

A petition at Change.org
urges the search engine giant to reverse the censorship, as the terms are not exclusive to pornography.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Rich
    Date posted: 9/14/2010 5:46:33 PM
    Hometown: NY

    Comment:

    Exactly. Thank you!

  • Name: Todd
    Date posted: 9/13/2010 6:54:46 PM
    Hometown: Terre Haute

    Comment:

    Hey, I am bisexual! And not everything I do is pornographic (I wish)! Yes....we DO exist!

  • Name: Jon
    Date posted: 9/13/2010 12:59:47 PM
    Hometown: Toronto, ON

    Comment:

    Joseph, Thank you! You're right, this isn't censorship. Everyone who thinks Google might be Anti-Gay, have a look at their track record with LGBT employees... You'll think twice about going to that microsoft option (whose name I refuse to use) - I'm an Android/Linux nerd. :-)

  • Name: Joseph
    Date posted: 9/10/2010 1:42:36 PM
    Hometown: NJ

    Comment:

    Folks, folks! It's not CENSORSHIP! Sheesh! This type of prediction has been made possible due to data mining algorithms. Good lord, no one's hand-generating Google's search index. The algorithm found a statistical significance between pornographic websites and those terms, hence the non-instant search on them. It's no different than my spam filter filtering out an e-mail I received about a watch I'm selling online because I probably get half a dozen emails a month trying to sell me fake Rolexes. It's a statistical pattern found by a machine learning algorithm. There's no censorship and no reason to switch search providers over it. Google didn't wake up one day and decide to oppress bisexuals any more than my spam program didn't decide to go communist and hinder my sales transaction.

  • Name: RJ
    Date posted: 9/10/2010 8:12:13 AM
    Hometown: Savonarola

    Comment:

    Time to move to Bing.

  • Name: gaythiest
    Date posted: 9/10/2010 3:45:45 AM
    Hometown: Fort Worth, TX

    Comment:

    For the record, it also censors boobies, tits, vagina, slut, pussy, and strip clubs (making this the only time in my entire life that I have searched for any of those terms). Google's an equal opportunity offender here. But, it can be easily turned off on the "search settings" page. I turned it off because I thought it was annoying.

  • Name: LostBoy68
    Date posted: 9/10/2010 1:05:54 AM
    Hometown: Hollywood

    Comment:

    What, is this for all the people that are too lazy to hit "enter"?

  • Name: John
    Date posted: 9/9/2010 10:47:44 PM
    Hometown: Pineville, LA

    Comment:

    It's annoying. As seen on HuffPo: "If you don't want to see results as you type, you can turn off Google Instant by clicking the link next to the search box on any search results page, or by visiting your Preferences page."

  • Name: doug
    Date posted: 9/9/2010 10:23:11 PM
    Hometown: vb

    Comment:

    there was nothing wrong with the old google- occassionally annoying when it would give you 10 options when you knew what you were looking for....otherwise, I see no reason behind this change, unless it's now easier for them to catalog sites we're going to....I have bing search and will use yahoo from now on.

  • Name: VAinWI
    Date posted: 9/9/2010 10:22:33 PM
    Hometown: Milwaukee

    Comment:

    Is that what that is? I was looking for stuff today and NOT liking it. and censorship on top of it? put it back!



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