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MSN Search Blocking Results For XFree86?
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'?"
XFree85 seems to work
And so does XFree87
Here's a search for a possible culprit - just x86. Seems fine, although notice how the first 9 results are all AMD, with some impostor Intel claiming #10 spot (and it's not even Intel's site, it's Solaris on Intel document).
But back to searches for XFree86. So it wasn't the X86 part, how about
free86 - oh, look, XFree86.org is listed with Microsoft search engine after all. You just don't search it by name, search it by keyword that's reasonably close.
Perhaps they are blocking it because anything that uses the term "Windows" they consider to be a threat. Just look how "Lindows" Has had to change it's website to l---ws.com in several European countries
This is a use of market share to gain market share, which could easily be seen as an antitrust violation. The question is, does it count as hindering a consumer's capability to investigate competitors in this unique situation, where users would be attempting to do so via the infrastructure of the original company. Interesting indeed...
Hotmail blocks my best friend's last name, which is Raper, because it's "offensive"...
MSN returns all sorts of hits, it does not say anything about likely to return adult content.
Regards,
Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies
I really just can't get over how obviously shameless Microsoft is in their business practices. This is a blatant and obvious attempt to mislead searchers, and potential users of XFree86, and what _REALLY_ pisses me off, is that stuff like this never seems to make it into the news. Why isn't this stuff taken to the masses via TV / News networks to show the rest of the world (eg: not just /. reader) how completely screwed up the business practices at Microsoft really are?
java guy, tech blog...
In my (admittedly limited) use of MSN, top non-sponsored results are vaguely comparable to what Google returns.
I bootleg Fizzy Lifting Drinks.
MSN lists itself first, and google is fourth - higher in the rankings than it is on google itself.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Thats not too surprising. My neighbor is a director in MSN, though on the NBC side so none of the news trickled down to him. Its kind of interesting someone just contacted me about a new position at MS. It is a non-publically advertised position for a LINUX sys. admin for the new hush-hush linux test lab just set up. Apparently there looking for people. The manager of the lab needed linux right away just to be productive , so I was told while he learned MS. I heard they have a lab, but can never find any information on it. From what there looking for, heavy linux knowledge and lots of shell scripting in bash. And from my friends at MSN, Linux is usually not ever mentioned in the worlplace, but is the top thing on everyones minds. I dont know, working as a linux admin for MS? Sac-religeous?
And while XFree86 gets blocked on MSN, let's see how a search for "SCO" fares on the two engines. (Top 11, "Because it's one more, you see".)
Hmmmm. Yep, no surprise there.
MSN Search Results "SCO" (Top 11):
1. SCO www.sco.com
2. California State Controller Kids Site www.kids.sco.ca.gov
3. Newsgroup: biz.sco news:biz.sco
4. Reuters - MyDoom Worm Aimed at SCO Web Site
5. DealTime - Sco Product www.dealtime.com/xGS-sco~NS-5320
6. InfoWorld - SCO: IBM Cannot Enforce GPL
7. Computer Business Consultants, SCO Unix Sales, Service & Support
8. Calibex.com - Simple Tech SCO-QUBE3/256 256MB for Sun
9. Bagpipe Marches & Music of Sco CD - Amazon.com
10. Northern New Jersey Council - Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco www.nobebosco.org
11. Northern New Jersey Council - Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco www.nnjbsa.org/camps/nobebosco
Google Search Results "SCO" (Top 11):
(Note: Includes the Google News "teaser" links just added.)
News:
1. SCO posts $2.3 million loss - InfoWorld - 2 hours ago
2. Perth firm files complaint against SCO - The Age - 9 hours ago
3. User group hits out at SCO - VNUNet - 11 hours ago
4. www.caldera.com
5. SCO | SCOsource www.caldera.com/scosource/
6. OSI Position Paper on the SCO-vs.-IBM Complaint
7. The SCO Group | SCO Grows Your Business sco.com/
8. the SCO v IBM info website
9. Analysis of SCO's Las Vegas Slide Show
10. California State Controller's Office www.sco.ca.gov/
11. GROKLAW www.groklaw.net/
isnt blocked either. Something odd here. for sure
Xfree86 +sex +porn +boobs +nudity
no porn warning on this one.
what a f***** up world
How many computers are too many?
Perhaps they are doing soundex/metaphone type matching on the words to see if they are sex-related. Perhaps "xfree86" sounds like something you might find on a porn site.
Maybe it does, but "xfreee86" sounds the same, and returns real search results, and "xfree66" has more "six/sex" sounds in it and returns real search results. They're not filtering by sound.
Nightsurf.com must be a paying partner with MSN search. I bet they bought the keyword "xfree86" from MSN search, such that any searches on *precisely* that keyword will reroute the user to their search engine.
My theory is backed up by the fact that if you search for "xfree86 xfree86" rather than just "xfree86", you get back the right results.
I bet MSN Search would like to be notified of Nightsurf.com's trickery...
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Interestingly XFree*^ (SHIFT+86) returns the correct site listed as number one (xfree.org). Yeah, I did it by accident.
I think I'll stop here.
Interestingly, if you search for xfree86 xfree86"you get the xfree86 home page
No sign of porn.
anyone else notice google on msn returns google as a 'top pick'? kind of like use this search engine instead please
We talked about doing the full investigation, and suing, etc. and even called the district attorney since this seemed to be criminal behaviour to us. We decided we were too small and too poor to pursue the matter as a civil case, and I don't know what happened w/ the DA.
I thought it was pretty foul play, it was one of a number of incidents that helped turn me into a bitter Microsoft-hater.
Catholic Schoolgirls
Hot teen sluts
upskirt shots
pictures of women licking my balls
sexy XFree86 girls
So, even if XFree86 was unintentional, what content do they think they're protecting us from?
"x free 86" returns xfree.org as the first search result. Something funky is going on..
XFree86+XFree86
no warning either.
it is very strange
According to http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/128100.html it means:
"To refuse to serve (an unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant. To throw away."
So MSN must think that XFree86 is some kind of restaurant fetish. Oh waitress.....
online, only msn france has some fancy keyword charts (might take a while until french /. readers' xfree searches turn up there):
ie only
(won't work with opera, for obvious reasons)
I hope I didn't brain my damage.
X FREE 86 also returns the correct Xfree86 homepage, and XXX free 86 doesn't generate a warning.
Never confuse volume with power.
Uh, your algorithm would label something very important to Microsoft as "possibly porn-related"
The Xbox has more than likely been searched for more than 10,000 times.
I'm willing to bet our boys in Redmond have sold this search term to a porn site and nothing more. If I was running a porn site, the lonely geeks looking for XFree86 would look pretty much like my target demographic. So why not pay to hijack a popular search term amongst lonely geeks - Microsoft will take the heat, and in the meantime, many lonely geeks will take a "side trip" from XFree86 to hotblondeswithgoats.com
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
Oh, you mean like XBox, right?
I tried to submit similar article on Jan 22 but it was not accepted. Evidently Microsoft responded to the complain and Apache is not blacklisted anymore. Below is my original one month old post. Sorry URL show proper results now and I did not saved the original search results.
A few days ago I noticed that every time I use Internet Explorer (i.e. MSN search) to look for apache related projects I never got a reference to apache.org websites.
Examples: jelly script , maven apache , cocoon framework .
*.apache.org sites never came up. I am not even talking about listing it as "featured web site". It never came up as the link at all!!! The best you would get is a reference to XML.com website discussing the technology but not to technology itself.
Even search for "apache web" got the reference www.apache.com as the featured site instead of www.apache.org Only "apache" got "apache.org" as the featured site at the second place after oil related Apache corporation. Yahoo and Google as you would expect did proper job.
Searching for Xfree86 porn works, too! Strangely enough ...
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
Oddly enough Searching for [XFree86 "No devices detected,"] returns what you would expect (w/o any stupid warnings).
I suspect it's probably a bug instead of malicious intent (I know, what's the chances of Microsoft having a bug...)
-- Rushfan
I like your keyword theory. It doesn't explain why XFree86 was chosen, but it does a pretty good job of explaining the other results.
/. :)
But this:
"x sex" does not block. "xx sex" does not block. "xxx sex" blocks. "xxxx sex" blocks. "xxxxx sex" does not. "sex xxx lesbian" does not block. All of those searches do returns tons of porn, however.
Could also stregthen my argument. In my opinion at least, of these terms, "xxx sex" and "xxxx sex" are the one most likely to be used by someone searching for porn, and would therefore have the highest search frequencies. They all have more or less the same porn triggers, like the 'x' and 'sex', but the ones with the greatest theoretical frequency are the ones that get blocked.
The "sex xxx lesbian" is the exception, I would have assumed that to be more frequent as well. But it's also the only three word phrase, which means that while the concept of "sex xxx lesbian" might be frequence, perhaps that particular order is not very common.
To further the test:
sex xxx lesbian PASS
sex lesbian xxx PASS
lesbian sex xxx BLOCK
lesbian xxx sex PASS
xxx lesbian sex BLOCK
xxx sex lesbian PASS
What does that mean? I have no idea. The two blocked searches are what I was expecting to be the most common searches, but that's just my opinion. Actually, analyzing this, I think it supports your theory. The keyword could be "lesbian sex" and the attachment of "xxx" is just coincidence.
But it was fun to type in a bunch of sex terms and claim I was doing research for
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Yep, I tried "XFree86" and was warned away... ...I tried "Free Pussy" and did not get a warning at all...just a lot of porn sights.
That is why I am EX-msfty
Good work, I was just about to post the same thing my self. An interesting search is this one site:nightsurf.com It looks like the dealcode paramater is the affiliate, for lack of a better term, who nightsurf is paying. Bomis is some kind of bogus search engine, and any key word that is listed on the google search in Bomis gives you a very similar page to the one search.msn.com gives you for the XFree86 result.
Something very fishy is going on as it looks like there has to be some sort of agreement for nightsurf to like a specific query. Changing the dealcode to msn on one of the Bomis search strings redirects you to the dealcode=other site and porn is only for grownups warning.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
I just tried "XFree86 XXX" and guess what? No porn warning and the first 15 of about 4768 links to domains like sourceforge.net, gnomedesktop.org...
The inner workings of corporate MS are truly beyond human comprehension.
Wow! What a horrible search engine! Xfree86 porn doesn't bring up the warning because it's not the EXACT term which they have in their database. I suspect that they compiled a list of terms likely to bring up adult content, but they fail to check if somebody used a combination of those words.
Seach for porn, and you'll get the nightsurf thing. Search for nude, and you'll also get the nightsurf warning. But- if you search for porn nude then you'll get no warning at all!!! This is stupid even for microsoft standards.
They all pointed to an Xfree86 page. Kinda funny how just "XFree86" doesn't work. No wonder they want to own the search engine world. I'm not even anti-M$, but that's crap!
The users of MSN (search engine) are mostly those who have a windows box and dont know about the alternatives (microsoft customers). IE brings up msn as the default home page. These people are usually in the same demographic group as those who install GATOR and HotBar et al.
Usualy such windows software that spies, snoops or hijacks your browsing experience, to be legal, has to have a written disclaimer that you must click through. Gator for example, does warn you (if you read the microscopic print) that it will distort your browsing experience.
I would say that MSN is as much of a browser hijacker as that in terms of manipulating the sites you view, but without the legality of the click through agreement.
MSN's lack of any such statement or click through combined with it's default homepage status has to be ripe for an anti-trust suit I would say. You just can't get more incriminating evidence than this.
while sco {
wget -O
}
I just put a space between the 'Free' and '86', and the first link was Xfree86.org. I'm not a Linux user, but I know about the program and always thought that it used logical english and had a space in the name, wouldn't the general population as well? Or those that just don't care about being exact?
and note the space between Xfree & 86. This will return xfree86.org link as desired.
Looks more like a (stupid) bug, but then again bugs always cause undesired results.
While I hate Microsoft for all the same reasons most of you do, I think in this case there's a non-malicious explanation. That redirection is probably triggered by the following conditions:
(1) The search term contains certain things that tend to find X-rated content. The algorithm might look for dictionary terms and try to form seperate words out of the serch phrase (so if you looked for hothornybabes it would notice that it contains the words "hot" and "horny" and "babes".) So, "Xfree86" probably gets flagged because it's "X" followed by "free" and some irrelevant number. But, wait, you say 'Xfree87" and "Xfree85" don't trigger, so that can't be it, right? Well, it still could be because of the next point:
2) It probably *also* only triggers the redirection if the search result returns a lot of hits.
So 'Xfree86' triggers a lot of hits, and contains red-flagged terms, while 'Xfree87' has the same flagged terms, but triggers few hits, and so isn't assumed to be porn.
Anyway, that's one possible explanation. I'd attribute this to stupidity on the part of the algorithm before attributing it to maliciousness.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
My guess is that since 'X/Freee/86' is a plausible keyword combo for a porn site, *and* a popular search term for that other reason, those running porn sites would be tempted to submit a lot of sites optimized for that keyword. If the web crawlers that feed MSN's index pick up a lot more porn sites for "xfree86" because the keyword is being targeted more by porn sites, then it shouldn't be surprising that searches for xfree85 or xfree87 don't set off the message.
Then again, I typed "xfree85" into nightsurf.com, and got the EXACT SAME 162 RESULTS, in the same order, with only the keyword changed...