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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'?"

7 of 875 comments (clear)

  1. they don't want another linux by meatbridge · · Score: 0, Redundant

    where is linux on their enemies list? they don't need someone else coming up and stealing more market share.

  2. More likely a stupid mistake... by The+Uninformed · · Score: 2, Redundant

    otherwise searchinf for Free86 would have been blocked... right now it returns xfree86.org

  3. Re:Well... by silverbolt · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Doesn't seem to work like that.. if search terms Xfree85 and Xfree87 are behaving normally.

  4. Why were you using MSN? by bee-yotch · · Score: 1, Redundant

    My question is why was the author using MSN as a search engine in the first place? Shouldn't any self-respecting geek be using google? ;-)

  5. Re:Mirror List by prell · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Searches for "xfree87" and "xfree85" work perfectly fine. Sounds suspicious to me, and worthy of investigation.

  6. Re:Why this probably isn't intentional... by martingunnarsson · · Score: 1, Redundant

    No, XFree85 and XFree87 doesn't give you the porn-message.

    --
    Martin
  7. Re:Mirror List by bhtooefr · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Actually, XWindows is not/was never a buzzword. It's X Window System.