Slashdot Mirror
Seven Words You Can't Say On Google Instant
theodp writes "Back in 1972, Georgle Carlin gave us the Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Thirty-eight years later, Valleywag reports on The Definitive List of Words Google Thinks Are Naughty. You've probably noticed how the new Google Instant tries to guess what you're searching for while you type — unless it thinks your search is dirty, in which case you'll be forced to actually press ENTER to see your results. Leave it to the enterprising folks at 2600 to compile an exhaustive list of words and phrases Google Instant won't auto-search for."
Guess I'll discard the "always have to press ENTER" bug report.
Please stop trying to make everybody a victim of your own personal frustrations.
It's not our fault you can't get laid.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
I just love the endless amusement of typing "Is it wrong..." into google and seeing the list (to sleep with my dog/brother/mother).
Well done Google.
I read the list. I was expecting words that usually mean something everyday but have broadened to include potential offensive material. Amateur for example.
What surprises me is the list includes words where the definition would have to be known, and the person consciously wants to find the subject matter. a2m for example.
But its broader. A few choice ones on the list: fecal(legitmate medical/anotomical usage), lesBian, and finally, redtube gets the censor treatment.
I like the comment next to "cucold" - this one dates back to 1250, but it dies here.
And google has the gaul to climb on a soap box about censorship, the great wall filters of Australia etc.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Most people aren't going to want to accidentally see the contents of that list when they use Google at work, or with their kids. We've hit enter for years and survived, I think we can still manage it.
I giggled like a little schoolgirl when I read that.
We, the family, were talking about nipples last Sunday at dinner.
Our guinea pig, Jason, died a few weeks back. We were never sure if he was a boy guinea pig or a girl guinea pig. My daughter, 10, said he must have been a girl as he had nipples. We all smiled and corrected her - boys have nipples too.
Nipples. I'm still giggling like a girl (with nipples).
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Just checked "portman petrified hot grits" isn't blocked so obviously the censors are falling down on the job!
Monstar L
Could it be that this system blacklists the words based on the content to be displayed and not based on the input itself?
This has nothing to do with censorship. They just don't want people searching "assignment" to have their screen jammed full of porn before you finish typing.
They just took terms that have a high probability of having something many would consider offensive showing up in the first few results. You have to remember they haven't disabled the searches, just disabled the instant search (which I hate anyhow). So you can type in the search press enter and Google will search as normal. What it won't do is instantly search.
That might be why there are some normally benign terms there, because when searched for they come up with potentially offensive links.
I'm ok with this idea. They aren't stopping the terms from being searched for, they aren't reordering their search. They are just trying to make sure people don't accidentally see things that would get them mad at Google. While I'm a proponent of the idea that people should stop being so whiny and easily offended, that doesn't mean Google shouldn't be pragmatic about it. This doesn't really affect anything in the big scheme of things.
I doubt the second - very processor intensive.
However, I propose a third option, that the blacklist is automatically maintained.
That is, they classify web-pages: offensive, Y/N? And then their index automatically tags terms strongly associated with offensive web-pages, which are automatically blacklisted. This is how you'd get "white power" (present on many offensive webpages), but not "black power" (present mainly in scholarly articles, let's be blunt). This is why you'd get "futanari" and not "hermaphrodite", this is why "schoolgirl" is offensive, etc.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Or the fact that, you know; blacks are a minority, have been historically oppressed, are still the subject of discrimination and were the subject of much greater discrimination when the black power movement was at it's peak popularity. And lets not forget that 99% of the people who use the phrase 'white power' are openly racist dickheads.
Certainly, if there was, full stop, no discrimination against black people, 'black power' would be just as racist as 'white power' but as it stands there's a pretty big difference between a rallying cry to defeat historic racism against your ethnicity and a rallying cry to reinstate historic racism against anyone not of your ethnicity.
The results are going to disappear if the bulk of the returned links are Adult-Oriented, it has nothing to do with the Keywords you type.
There is no magical 'banned list'.
They probably use the same metrics as their 'SafeSearch' algorithm.
Unless of course you are in Zimbabwe were the white minority is being suppressed by the black majority
If I type in "I hate cheeseburgers", it doesn't show me the results. Yet when I press enter all the results are completely benign. Even if I cut it off at "I hate", the results are still rather safe.
If they are really doing as you say, then their algorithm for determining "naughty" things is more wacked than my mothers.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I'm just as against that as I am the discrimination against minorities in this country.
If white Zimbabweans need a rallying cry though, I'd personally suggest one with less... unfortunate implications... than are attached to 'white power'.
Trying to use 'white power' for anything but a racist cause these days, well, it's like if your parents named you Adolf Josef Stalin Hitler Fuckthejews McFaghater, it doesn't much matter how sensible a platform you run on, come election day no one's gonna tick a box next to that name, too many bad connotations. Best just do distance yourself from the whole fiasco if you want any credibility, ya?
See if you can spot the difference...
X Power! We Xs have been oppressed for too long! Within living memory our ancestors were explicitly legally discriminated against. Their grandparents were held a slaves. Even today we make up a disproportionate percentage of the prison population, face gaps in education, employment and wages and suffer numerous minor acts of discrimination on a daily basis. We must keep fighting until we have equality!
Y Power! We Ys are the master race! Those dumb fucking Xs should go back to their rightful place as our slaves. If we have to kill a couple of 'em to make it happen, well you have to break a couple of eggs if you're making an omlette. And if they've tasted too much freedom to get back under the yoke where they belong? Well I guess they'll all just have to fucking die. Not like they're proper humans anyway, untermensch that they are...
Now tell me again, why you think these are the same thing? (In case you're especially dense, we're talking fucking iridium here, just because a statement is racist in one context doesn't mean it's racist in every context. If a minority group is being discriminated against they pretty much need to pull together and make their voices heard to make that discrimination stop. It's like the difference between pulling a gun on someone to mug them and pulling a gun on the guy who's trying to mug you. In an ideal world no one would need point a weapon at anyone else (or call on people by their racial affiliation) but when people seek to do you harm sometimes unfortunate measures need to be taken.)
blacks are a minority
So are Muslims, but I'd bet people would get upset at "Muslim Power".
have been historically oppressed
So have the Jews. What does historical oppression have to do with the present? When "Black Power" came to be, discrimination against blacks was entrenched and pervasive, but it simply isn't the case today. Racial discrimination is blatantly illegal in the US. That's not to say that racism doesn't exits, but I suspect there are more blacks who hate whites for their color than whites who hate blacks. IMO anyone today (not 1965, but now) who espouses either White Power or Black Power is a racist, plain and simple.
That wasn't the case when there were "whites only" signs, Jim Crow laws, and lynchings, but those are all things of the past.
Today, classism is far more pervasive than racism, and just as evil. It, unlike racism, is not only accepted but exalted by our mammon-worshiping society.
Free Martian Whores!
While very true.... it actually is kinda sad that thats true. One genocidal madman wears a toothbrush mustache and now nobody can rock the toothbrush. I dunno about you, but I always liked the toothbrush and occasionally silently lament that I can never even consider sporting it in peace.
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"