Google Censors "Piracy Terms" From Instant Search

Chaonici writes "A few weeks ago, Google promised that, on behalf of the entertainment industries, they would begin filtering 'piracy related' terms from their search system. Now, TorrentFreak reports that Google has lived up to their promise, and certain keywords (such as 'bittorrent' and 'rapidshare') will no longer produce results with the Autocomplete or Instant Search features. The standard search feature, however, continues to display results as normal. Simon Morris of BitTorrent Inc., RapidShare, and Jamie King (the founder of Vodo) are critical of the change, pointing out the many legitimate uses of popular file-sharing technology."

Comments

Applies only to incomplete words

[PARENA]

The summary is misleading. This only refers to incomplete words. If you type "bitt" or "rapidsh" you won't get the (desired?) results, but if you type "bittorrent" or "rapidshare" you will get the results you expect.

Apart from that, it's quite childish. Also "pirate" gives me results leading to The Pirate Bay, for example.

Re:Applies only to incomplete words

[bughunter]

Yes, it only applies to autocomplete. But since this story hit the media a month ago, I've been watching how I use autocomplete, and learned something:

I use autocomplete to help me phrase my search terms, almost subconsciously. Any geek knows that phrasing a search is the key to getting proper results. I will frequently use the autocomplete to validate or invalidate several attempts at phrasing the search before I hit enter. Same goes for spelling. Autocomplete results in me creating more successful searches with more pertinent results.

Now, I seldom use this for porn because, 1) i use filestube as my porn search engine, and 2) I usually don't need help phrasing a search for "big butts." (And, I've noticed that Google autocomplete stopped working for pornstar names a long time ago, far earlier than their announcement in late 2010.)

But, for torrents, autocomplete is sometimes a valuable tool. No, I don't need it, but the responsiveness of autocomplete is an aid to the thought process of editing the search phrase. If they start extending their autocomplete bannination to other topics, I'd start getting concerned. Right now it's only the top of a slope which may or may not be slippery.

But "its just autocomplete" isn't a valid excuse, for several reasons. Google is making editorial decisions when they're relied upon to be a neutral, content-independent indexing service. It scares some people because, there's no easier and more effective way to censor something than to cripple its index entries. What's next?

Re:Bloody Hell

[RobbieThe1st]

Do notice that they -didn't censor anything! All they did is hide certain terms from the auto-complete. Big deal. There's plenty of other words in that "censored" list. Now, they can claim to be "helping prevent piracy" or whatever without actually doing anything. I see it as a win-win situation.

Re:Bloody Hell

[dkleinsc]

Yeah, my searches on "nine-pounder", "pieces of eight", "scurvy dogs", and "Arrrrrrr" all totally failed.

Get a grip!

[jareth-0205]

Just press like you used to! Jeez, they just don't want people in sensitive places getting potentially dodgy links coming up on their screens. I know when i'm at work I'd rather not have pirate sites coming up on my search result screen while I'm typing...

Awesome!

[just_another_sean]

That's great, so now I just have to start my search with "torrent" or "arrrr" and I won't have to suffer through Google's rediculous "instant" crap? Sign me up!

In all seriousness; if you like Google just blacklist it for JavaScript, no more instant results. Or search from the address bar. Or, best option IMHO, use https://ixquick.com./ *

* google it for more details!

Re:Bloody Hell

[mwvdlee]

Oddly enough, other piracy related search terms like "pegleg", "eyepatch" and "jolly roger" are still auto-completed.

Re:Bloody Hell

[nanospook]

So I have a 75% hearing loss. I go to the movies anyways and enjoy the show but can't understand most of the script. So now if I want to do so I should go buy the movie or pay more to rent it? Noooo.. I download it and get the subtitles. I already paid for it. Does this make me evil?

probably prudent

[Trepidity]

As others have noted, they're not filtering any results. They're just not suggesting piracy-related terms in the autocomplete, along with some other filtered terms like sex-related terms. Probably a prudent decision, because while returning search results for a query the user entered is fairly safe legally, prompting the user with something illegal that they didn't actively look for might be more questionable. Not sure if they could actually be liable, but it at least is less solid.

Baby/bathwater

[mwvdlee]

Besides "bittorrent", "rapidshare" and a couple of other, the following words are now also unable to auto-complete:

http://www.morewords.com/starts-with/bitt/
http://www.morewords.com/starts-with/rapid/
http://www.morewords.com/starts-with/torr/

Re:Not a big deal

[TheRaven64]

The problem is that they filter "breast" on what they think might be offensive to us.

No, they filter breast on what they think might be offensive to the 'think of the children' crowd. They filter 'torrent' based on what is offensive to a different pressure group.

If they were filtering based on what might be offensive to you, then it would be opt-in.

Re:Bloody Hell

[cheekyjohnson]

Well, you robbed them of profit that they never even had, so yes. You are a very, very evil individual.

Re:Bloody Hell

[HungryHobo]

"can i get pregnant from a dog" however is still autocompleted.
Seriously, I keep meaning to write some kind of program to itterate through all the possible autocomplete options to see all the wierd stuff which turns up.

there's already lots of things which aren't autocompleted.
it's no big deal.
as long as their search still works they can autocomplete what they like.