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MSN Search Blocking Results For XFree86?

Posted by simoniker on from the because-they-made-a-mistake? dept.

Peacefire writes "Thomas Shaddack spotted this on http://www.root.cz/ (in Czech) -- if you go to http://search.msn.com/ and search for 'XFree86', it tells you that you've 'entered a search term that is likely to return adult content', and directs you to the porn search engine NightSurf.com, which lists a bunch of porn sites that ostensibly match the term 'XFree86'. If you search for 'XFree86' on Google, however, it's clear that the top matching terms returned by a normal search, are XFree86 sites, are not a bunch of porn sites. MSN is apparently blocking the specific term 'XFree86' and not just filtering on something stupid like the 'X' or the 'Free', since you can search for 'XFree85' and 'XFree87' with no problem. And search terms like 'Linux', 'AOL' and 'Macintosh' are allowed, so at least MSN hasn't simply blacklisted all competitors' keywords as 'porn', but why would they be blocking 'XFree86'?"

11 of 875 comments (clear)

  1. Mirror List by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since it's about to get Slashdotted, here is the mirror list section from the xfree86.org site:

    Web Mirrors

    Our web site is very busy and often causes timed out connections. The following sites have been verified as being both accurate and reliable in their mirroring process, and so we recommend these for the best access:

    Costa Rica
    Copenhagen, Denmark
    Paris, France
    St. Denis, France
    Berlin, Germany
    Dortmund, Germany
    Athens, Greece
    Seoul, Korea
    Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Bucharest, Romania
    London, United Kingdom

    Not posting as AC 'cause the troll potential would be too high...

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    1. Re:Mirror List by gal1264 · · Score: 3, Informative

      try free and 86....what comes up first? Either it's really a mistake.....or they didn't try very hard....which sounds more like mister softie?

  2. Re:X Windows by trmj · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just look how "Lindows" Has had to change it's website to l---ws.com in several European countries

    I believe you mean lin---s.com

    --
    Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
  3. Re:X Windows by Hal-9001 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I guess then it's a good thing that it's not actually named "X Windows", but rather the "X Window System."

    --
    "It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
  4. Re:What's weird by arkanes · · Score: 5, Informative
    XFree86 is certainly blocked specifically. XFree86+any other term is not. It's _not_ that the porn site results are hits for XFree86, nightsearch returns the exact same first page results for _any_ search, including random garbage.

    As other people have said, I doubt theres any gain for MS from doing this, so it's probably a term that was tossed in by programmers for debugging purposes or just for the hell of it, rather than some sort of official policy decision.

  5. Re:nightsurf! by arkanes · · Score: 4, Informative
    Despite the implication, nightsurf is not actually a search engine. It returns exactly the same results for any search term.

    Ah ha, upon further checking this is not true. It returns the exact same search results for anything thats not porn related, so this is probably a listing of the sites that paid for "any results" postings (Nightsurf doesn't even pretend to be anything other than pay-for-placement). A search for the sexual fetish of your choice does return results related to that fetish, however.

  6. This is Microsoft bashing, plain and simple by dalabrat · · Score: 5, Informative

    Goto http://search.msn.com select "Advanced Search" put in XFree86 then click on search.

    You'll get a page with a box that has "Sponsored Sites" at the top and a link to NightSurf.com

    Now click on the link below that box that says "Go Back to MSN Search"

    OMG.... it's the results of the search for XFree86.. perhapse their "BETA" search engine is having problems with the basic search and sponsored links code. Overall the original article is BS since they rushed to slam Microsoft and didn't double check everything.

  7. Follow the money folks by Tin+Foil+Hat · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm a fairly competent internet programmer, so here's my analysis: follow the money. First thing to examine is the url that MS presents. I've split it into multiple lines for readability. Notice that it contains two other urls as parameters.

    http://search.msn.com/adpassthru.aspx
    ?ADTARGET=http://ads.msn.com/ads/adredir.asp
    %3F&TARGET=http://apps.NightSurf.com/~wsapi/nssear ch.dll
    %3Fdealcode%3Dmsn%26src%3D1%26key%3D&QUERY=xfree86
    &IMG=http://ads.msn.com/ads/IMGWB3/004400170001_TR .gif

    This url takes you back to the msn search site so that it can record your click. The search site responds with a code 302 (Document moved) and redirects you to ads.msn.com. Here is the url for that. Notice the similarity.

    http://ads.msn.com/ads/adredir.asp
    ?url=http%3a%2f%2fapps.NightSurf.com
    %2f%7ewsapi%2fnssearch.dll
    %3fdealcode%3dmsn%26src%3d1%26key%3dxfree86
    &image=http://ads.msn.com/ads/IMGWB3/004400170001_ TR.gif

    This ad site responds with another redirect that finally takes you to nightsurf. Here is the url for that.

    http://apps.NightSurf.com/~wsapi/nssearch.dll?de al code=msn&src=1&key=xfree86

    Now here's where it really gets interesting. Notice the dealcode and key parameters in particular. They would seem to imply that MSN has some kind of deal with NightSurf.

    I have to conclude that NightSurf paid MSN to feature it's ad (that's what it is, not a search result) when users type in 'XFree86'. I had difficulty understanding why a porn search site would want to do something like that, so I started investigating. First stop, betterwhois.com. Here's what they have to say about NightSurf.com.

    Registrant:
    WebPower Inc.
    ATTN: NIGHTSURF.COM
    c/o Network Solutions
    P.O. Box 447
    Herndon, VA. 20172-0447

    Domain Name: NIGHTSURF.COM

    Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
    Inc., WP av4xg8hq3ck@networksolutionsprivateregistration.co m
    ATTN: NIGHTSURF.COM
    c/o Network Solutions
    P.O. Box 447
    Herndon, VA 20172-0447
    570-708-8780

    It seems that this is a private listing from Network Solutions and any further investigation will have to include sending an email to the listed address.

    So the question remains, why is NightSurf.com (A.K.A. Web Power, Inc.) paying Microsoft for the XFree86 keyword? Did Microsoft knowingly accept that or was it more automated? Do I or do I not have a hole in my hat?

    --
    No matter how many of my rights are taken away, somehow I still don't feel safe. -Frigid Monkey
  8. Search for GNU or GPL by giannifive · · Score: 4, Informative

    You know what's fun? Search for "GNU" or "GPL" on MSN, and compare that with Google. The GNU website is the first hit on Google, but doesn't even appear on the first page of MSN. The first MSN result is an African safari thing... The first MSN hit for "GPL" is: "InfoWorld - SCO: IBM Cannot Enforce GPL". Insane.

  9. Re:MS Links Back to Slashdot by UserGoogol · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or, more practically, XFree86 of, which, as it happens, returns no porn.

    Now, either porn sites have something against prepositions, or Microsoft is doing something funny.

    --
    "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's Razor
  10. Re:XFree 86 by Principal+Skinner · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those who missed it, the parent put a space between "XFree" and "86". Indeed, it does work, and returns about 3525 results.

    --
    one hundred twenty
    is just enough characters
    to write a haiku