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The New Censorship: 'How Did Google Become The Internet's Censor and Master Manipulator?' (usnews.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Robert Epstein from U.S. News and World Report writes an article describing how Google has become the internet's censor and master manipulator. He writes about the company's nine different blacklists that impact our lives: autocomplete blacklist, Google Maps blacklist, YouTube blacklist, Google account blacklist, Google News blacklist, Google AdWords blacklist, Google AdSense blacklist, search engine blacklist, and quarantine list. The autocomplete blacklist filters out select phrases like profanities and other controversial terms like "torrent," "bisexual" and "penis." It can also be used to protect or discredit political candidates. For example, at the moment autocomplete shows you "Ted" (for former GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz) when you type "lying," but it will not show you "Hillary" when you type "crooked." While Google Maps photographs your home for everyone to see, Google maintains a list of properties it either blacks out or blurs out in its images depending on the property, e.g. military installations or wealthy residences. Epstein makes the case that while YouTube allows users to flag videos, Google employees seem far more apt to ban politically conservative videos than liberal ones. As for the Google account blacklist, you may lose access to a number of Google's products, which are all bundled into one account as of a couple of years ago, if you violate Google's terms of service agreement because Google reserves the right to "stop providing Services to you ... at any time." Google is the largest news aggregator in the world via Google News. Epstein writes, "Selective blacklisting of news sources is a powerful way of promoting a political, religious or moral agenda, with no one the wiser." Google can easily put a business out of business if a Google executive decides your business or industry doesn't meet its moral standards and revokes a business' access to Google AdWords, which makes up 70 percent of Google's $80 billion in annual revenue. Recently, Google blacklisted an entire industry -- companies providing high-interest "payday" loans. If your website has been approved by AdWords, Google's search engine is what ultimately determines the success of your business as its algorithms can be tweaked and search rankings can be manipulated, which may ruin businesses. Epstein makes an interesting case for how Google has become the internet's censor and master manipulator. Given Google's online dominance, do you think Google should be regulated like a public utility?

138 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. He really hates Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    He seems to have it out for Google ever since they detected malware on his website. All of his articles since then have been Google bashing.

    1. Re:He really hates Google by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's never any historical context to these bitch sessions against Google. Prior to services like Yahoo and Google, searching the Internet could be a very difficult and frustrating experience. The idea that somehow Google is some sort of blacklist is absurd, because prior to Google, there were a lot more sites that were not easy to find. I remember the early days with services like Altavista and Webcrawler, which, while better than nothing, were not very good at all. Hell, I remember in the pre-web days when Archie and Veronica were the best you had for searching.

      The Internet does not need Google. Anyways is free to set up their own search engines.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:He really hates Google by homey+of+my+owney · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Be that as it may... How did it happen? We let them.

    3. Re:He really hates Google by MightyMartian · · Score: 1, Troll

      Because Conservatives never go around trying to ban things...

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re: He really hates Google by Pizza · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You meant to write *legally* gotten gun, right?

      --
      -- I ain't broke, but I'm badly bent.
    5. Re:He really hates Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Prior to services like Yahoo and Google, searching the Internet could be a very difficult and frustrating experience.

      Oh bullshit. This is what DNS was for. People use Google as DNS now. People type domain names into the google search box all the time. Then there is the facebookernet. Google and facebook, that's it now, no need for DNS really.

      'How Did Google Become The Internet's Censor and Master Manipulator?'

      Because you were all sucked in by the name. There were plenty of perfectly good search engines before google. But because you were all sucked in by the name, they all pretty much died. dogpile.com used to use dozens of search engines, now like many others, they're just a google proxy, like Yandex's duckduckgo.

      I was able to navigate the web just fine from 1990 to 2001 before people let google take over the internet.

      Fucking kids, get off my non-existent lawn.

    6. Re:He really hates Google by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      This is perhaps the most spammy link slashdot has ever put out. Just random drivle from a tabloid. What does Bat Boy think about Google? What do the Martian Overlords think? Just turn the page, it will be there.

    7. Re: He really hates Google by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      You mean the part where the doctor didn't actually do his mental health assessment and he rode on the coat tails of his G4S(which appears to have falsified his MH review) contract for it?

      Nothing legal about it.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    8. Re: He really hates Google by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      You are an illiterate shit face.

      I was able to navigate the web just fine from 1990...

      If you are one of the idiots who think the web is the internet, you deserve a slow and painful death from termites.

    9. Re: He really hates Google by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Well if you won't let the government close the loopholes, you can't blame the cops when people slip through the loopholes.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    10. Re: He really hates Google by silentcoder · · Score: 2, Informative

      > especially after all the predictions of dire consequences that haven't come true.
      None of the predictions that haven't come true were predicted to have happened yet. The things predicted for now - not only HAVE they come true, they are worse than predicted. If there's a scam with AGW - it's that scientists are so afraid of being called alarmist that they constantly under-predict the effects.

      The rate of glacial melt-off is more than 30 times higher RIGHT NOW than was predicted in the 1990s. Entire glaciers have already disappeared. The world is already dotted with abandoned ski-resorts - once wealthy holidaying places, now empty because there is no more snow to ski on. This is something that, in 1990, nobody would have predicted to happen and even if it did - not for 50 or 100 years, and it happened in less than 20.
      Meantime the ocean temperature changes have led to an octopus population explosion which is threatening marine life across the board (because that's what happens when a major predator has a population explosion).

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    11. Re: He really hates Google by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      The web is not the same thing as the internet... zip up dude your stupid is showing.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    12. Re:He really hates Google by s_p_oneil · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think the more honest answer would be: We asked them.

      "We" is collective, of course. It doesn't necessarily mean you or me, but someone asked them. Google is constantly under pressure from various groups/individuals to remove/filter/hide things, and it actually costs Google far more to go out of their way to filter them than it does for it to simply show you what its crawlers found.

      Some of these are completely harmless, like the auto-complete filtering. If you want to type "penis", you'll still get what you typed. But if a young child types the word "pen" and auto-complete fills in "penis" and the page fills with pictures of naked men and ads for enhancements, you can bet there will be a lot of people asking Google to avoid that word in auto-complete. To be honest, Google may have seen that one coming ahead of time and taken steps to avoid it in the very first auto-complete implementation. And is the poster too lazy to finish typing Hillary's name? Or is it too much trouble to click on links and read articles, so instead he thinks people will decide who is crooked based on what auto-complete shows them? He's grasping at straws there.

      When it comes to removing pictures of military bases and wealthy homes, you can bet that the government and lawyers of wealthy homeowners asked Google to remove the pics.

      Even in the case of YouTube videos being banned, it is still based on user requests. Perhaps the employees are biased on which ones they act on, or perhaps it is just simply that the complaints coming from liberals are much louder (or perhaps much more frequent). Though IMO rather than banning them, they should just flag both sides as political flame-bait and let users decide whether they want to turn those on or off.

    13. Re: He really hates Google by Kreplock · · Score: 3, Informative

      Rules or requirements there aren't enforced or followed are not loopholes. Loopholes are explicit exemptions.

    14. Re:He really hates Google by Goldsmith · · Score: 1

      In an abstract way, this is true. Practically though, no one can effectively compete with Google.

      There is not much difference in the effective power Google has compared to AT&T prior to being broken up. Both AT&T (then) and Google (now) use intense vertical integration, bundling of various services at below a-la-carte market prices, and large R&D efforts to maintain dominance. While people (such as Sprint) were free to compete with AT&T prior to 1982, the (legal) fact is that there was no economic way to effectively compete with them. The same is nearly true of Yahoo and Bing in contrast with Google today.

    15. Re: He really hates Google by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      This whole fucking thing started with name calling, so the idea that you can take the highroad after you've been swimming in the sewage lagoon is laughable.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    16. Re:He really hates Google by Jack_of_Shadow · · Score: 1

      Uh, clearly you weren't on the internet in the 90's. Back them we had WebCrawler, Lycos, and a whole host of others and search delivered a much richer experience, knowing that different engines existed, architected differently meant that one could frequently find what one was looking for (on the first page of results) just by picking the right engine to use... Now, they are all gone, you get only what Google feeds you. Or Bing, which is not nearly as good. No, the internet did not suck before Google... And FYI, Yahoo was around for YEARS before Google.

      --
      My not responding to your flame is in no way indicative of my submission to your statement, it just means I don't have t
    17. Re: He really hates Google by Jack_of_Shadow · · Score: 1

      the government is not trying to close that loophole. the 'loophole' that the government is trying to close is the one where if I want to sell my brother my pistol, I need to get a background check on him first.

      --
      My not responding to your flame is in no way indicative of my submission to your statement, it just means I don't have t
    18. Re:He really hates Google by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      What I liked about Altavista is you could do some fine tuning of the queries with + or - to filter results. But it still didn't have that large a database of sites. It wasn't until Google began to take off that you could get the depth of search results.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    19. Re:He really hates Google by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      By "richer" you mean smaller. I was there back then, and these search engines didn't have nearly the number of results that even Bing does now.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    20. Re: He really hates Google by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Google it. National geographic reported the ski resorts back in 2007 already. I imagine it is worse now.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  2. They didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google is simply buckling under the social, political and commercial pressures - it's completely external. I'm sure Google doesn't *want* to spend dollars having to dig through text to find things that someone finds offensive but we demanded it and they delivered it. Don't shoot the messenger.

    This reads as "You did what I asked? YOU IDIOT!!"

    1. Re:They didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We hate us for Our freedoms.

    2. Re:They didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This could NOT be more wrong! It is well known companies and company heads all have social agendas!

    3. Re:They didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is that really a surprise to anyone? I mean, they have a constant lobbyist presence and have kept one for years now. They've even been taking a position on the 'free trade' bills lately. How can anyone say they're simply neutral, apolitical observers?

    4. Re:They didn't. by lucm · · Score: 1

      Google don't need an apologist, what they don't like they can hide, like the death by autoerotic asphyxiation of one of their top execs in a Red Roof Inn in 2014.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    5. Re:They didn't. by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Eric Schmit is running the tech side of the Hillary campaign. That, all by itself, does not make Google guilty, but with this evidence it shows it is also internal and, yes, they are very guilty.

      Also it is considered "offensive" to speak badly of a lady or an ethnic minority or (in SV) a Democrat (see Scott Adams' article here: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/1...).

      I would rather have fair than "offensiveless" and am prepared to drop any technologies in that pursuit.

  3. How? Easy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everyone decided that censorship was OK when it wasn't the government doing it, so nobody tried to stop Google.

    1. Re:How? Easy! by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Every has a choice. Now I use bing, I fucking hate Bing but I am stuck because I can no longer trust Google, fuck you Google and attempting to corrupt politics in your favour whilst pretending to be neutral (don't know why, just can't get into Yahoo, perhaps it's the whole M&M thing, gives off that whole same google privacy invasive thing). Oh no, I forgot duckduckgo, bad me.

      I have always supported the idea of governments creating their own neutral search engines using public open algorithms, open to review and discussion, this as a service to promote competition and equal access for business and achieve considerable savings for those businesses (you can bet google will lobby and censor against that).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    2. Re:How? Easy! by lucm · · Score: 1

      wait did yahoo stop using bing?

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re:How? Easy! by matbury · · Score: 2

      When any corporation gets beyond a certain size, i.e. when they can pressure and lobby their government effectively, they become indistinguishable from government. How frequently do Google executives visit the Whitehouse?

    4. Re:How? Easy! by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Self-censorship is still censorship. It's just not wrong in any reasonable sense of the term.

    5. Re:How? Easy! by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      What's going on right now?

      There's a lot of energy in the AM world directed at this anyway.

      Other than the libs running SV I'm not sure what private sector entities are censoring.

      It's nothing compared to gov censorship.

      Same thing with killing human beings. Companies have done it (Blackwater, etc), but the gov chalks up many, many millions of lives.

    6. Re:How? Easy! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      So use Bing. There's places, like last-mile ISPs, where the "use the competition" argument doesn't work. However, it's easy to switch search engines. You can do it easily from anywhere.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. just stop using it already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stop enriching Google already. Stop sending them the contents of all your emails, stop giving them info about everything you search for, block their tracking shit that's all over the web, use alternate map services, don't send them your real time location throughout the day, etc.

    If enough people don't want Google knowing every fucking shred of personal info about them, and having increasing control over their view of the world, then stop using them and Google withers and dies.

    If you're going to keep using Google services? Fine, but then do please STFU when down the road you don't like the world you created.

    1. Re:just stop using it already. by jouassou · · Score: 2

      Stop sending them the contents of all your emails

      I dumped GMail for Kolab, and am quite satisfied with that. Costs $3 per month for a privacy-friendly webmail based in Switzerland.

      block their tracking shit that's all over the web

      Using Disconnect, Self-destructing Cookies, and UBlock Origin seems to get rid of most of the crap on the web without breaking anything.

      use alternate map services

      There's the OpenStreetMap project: check out this online and this for mobile.

    2. Re:just stop using it already. by houghi · · Score: 1

      Even if all the people in IT would stop using Google, it would not make a difference, because persons are smart and people are stupid.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    3. Re:just stop using it already. by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

      This is an odd argument on Slashdot. It brings up a few interesting points, though.

      Companies should be regulated for overstepping moral bounds. Let's split this into a couple of parts. 1) Companies have moral bounds, 2) They should be forced to remain inside their moral bounds by regulatory oversight.

      I agree with the notion that there needs to be some moral bounds of a company that may not be solely identified by a legal framework. Most corporations believe they only have a duty to enrich their shareholders. That's not a very ethical viewpoint. Companies gain value from the community they are in, and in my opinion have a duty to return that enrichment when possible. Anadarko, Huntsman, Exxon, GE, just to name a few all have *massive* outreach programs. They send out engineers, MBAs, chemists, you name it to local schools to volunteer is various programs on the company's dime.

      Whether a company should be regulated to comply with perceived moral bounds is a different question. Most slashdotters would probably argue that a better solution is for the free market to regulate it by means of a boycott. As you are well aware, this option is not always efficient or helpful. But from a practical standpoint, how would you regulate something as fuzzy as "moral bounds"? Especially now that companies can have a religion, thanks to Hobby Lobby, it would be very challenging to tell a corporate entity that it needs to participate in a specific altruistic behavior.

      I agree that there are cases in which "boycott or STFU" is an unhelpful false dichotomy. On the other hand, it is very frustrating for people who have taken what they see as a moral stand against a company, when they see people winging about Apple while using their iPad (for example). It comes across as hypocritical. Sort of like immigrants supporting tighter immigration laws (which is strangely common).

      There's also a point you didn't make, but could have. The GP says to STFU when you don't like the world you created. That's a terrible idea. If you helped cause a problem, you had better not STFU. Stand up, admit your mistake, come up with a solution, and work to fix it.

  5. Sadly, it's true by NewtonsLaw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I noticed the "google censor" effect just the other day when I went searching for some info on a piece of software that is probably considered to be "evil" because it helps aid the circumvention of copyright.

    This is a *very* popular bit of software but oddly enough, Google's search returned almost no results.

    Censorship?

    I think it's pretty obvious.

    1. Re: Sadly, it's true by Chris453 · · Score: 2

      And you decided to censor yourself why? Tell us about this "popular program that Google is afraid to tell us about". Geez that sounded like an awesome click bait link.

    2. Re: Sadly, it's true by Calydor · · Score: 4, Funny

      He didn't censor himself!

      Google intercepted his post and censored it for him! That's what the article is all about, and the proof is RIGHT THERE! Right THERE!

      Or a randumb guy on the internet is trying to make himself look cool and edgy by looking for things Google doesn't want people to know about.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    3. Re:Sadly, it's true by farble1670 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Censorship?

      I think it's pretty obvious.

      If you are looking for a white knight to fight your copyright battles, don't look to the corporations.

      Of course they manipulate their results because if they don't get GET SUED for facilitating copyright infringement. The courts tend not to make a distinction when it comes to a tool that's primarily or mainly used to facilitate copyright infringement and one that is only used for it. That's not Google's fault. They are just doing what a corporation does: maximizing profits. In this case that means not disturbing / bending to the Powers That Be.

      Google isn't an idea, a person, a set of rules, a way of living, a philosophy, or anything else. Get over it.

    4. Re:Sadly, it's true by NewtonsLaw · · Score: 2

      Yet, strangely enough, Google allows its YouTube service to only tacitly deal with copyright infringements through that service.

      This is why Swift, McCartney and a bunch of other recording artists are pushing for a change to the DMCA that would prevent YouTube from effectively leveraging their music for profit without adequate compensation:

      http://fortune.com/2016/06/20/taylor-swift-youtube/

      Google only censors that which does not stand to make it a profit.

      What I find interesting is that when you file a copyright violation complaint with YouTube (when, for instance, someone has uploaded one of your own videos to their own channel and monetized it), they often take their own sweet time to take it down. In fact, there are channels on YT that consist of nothing more than content leached from other channels. As someone who earns his living from his YT channels, I find it annoying that sometimes you have to flle a dozen or more notices against another channel carrying your videos, before YT will act.

      What I also want to know is...

      Where does the ad-revenue generated by those unauthorised uploads/views go?

      I bet that YT doesn't refund the money to the advertisers -- but t hey sure as hell don't pass it on to the original owner of the copyright.

      You can be pretty sure that this money goes straight into Google's pockets -- which explains why they're not at all interested in acting quickly to take-down such channels -- because its revenue without the need to share.

      Do no evil?

      Yeah, right!

    5. Re: Sadly, it's true by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      If only they could actually find something missing from the search results, then the complaints would be so much more troubling. ;)

    6. Re:Sadly, it's true by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Do no evil?

      Let me repeat myself:
      Google isn't an idea, a person, a set of rules, a way of living, a philosophy, or anything else. Get over it. "Do no evil" is nothing more than a marketing slogan.

      AGAIN, Google maximizes profits. If that means failing to police YouTube copyright infringements to the absolute max, of course they'll do it. You seem outraged over YouTube's hypocrisy. Well, yeah? There's no Mr. Google making moral decisions. There are just divisions maximizing profits. Moral consistency isn't an attribute of a corp.

      You know what else? BP conforms to environmental regulations only as much as they need to avoid fines. You know what else? Phizer does just enough product testing to pass FDA regulations.

      You seem really confused about what a corporation is and does. Sadly, you aren't alone. Corporations aren't people. They don't have a personality. They don't have a philosophy, other than "make more money". Marketing slogans aren't morals. They are carefully crafted phrases to get the consumer to identify with the product and consume more of it.

    7. Re:Sadly, it's true by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      He didn't say the software was illegal. Also, I don't think I'd have problems looking up murder cases on Google, and murder is very definitely illegal.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  6. Meanwhile in real life, more secret blacklists by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ever thought the no-fly list that you cannot see and cannot change is a bunch of bullshit?

    Well right now a number of house members in the U.S. are having a sit-in to try and base gun control around that same list.

    May as well integrate the YouTube block-list while you're at it I guess.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Meanwhile in real life, more secret blacklists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You can't buy a machine gun in the US since the 80s (really since the 30s, but there were some exceptions).

      You can buy a semi-automatic rifle, but that's not a machine gun.

    2. Re: Meanwhile in real life, more secret blacklists by dadelbunts · · Score: 2

      Whats stopping someone from building a bomb? OMG

    3. Re:Meanwhile in real life, more secret blacklists by farble1670 · · Score: 2

      Nobody should be able to walk into a Walmart and walk out with a cart full of machine guns and ammo.

      You do know you can't do that in the US either, right? Machine guns (automatic weapons) are heavily regulated in the US (Walmart doesn't sell them). Buddy there's plenty of facts to base an anti-gun arguments on you don't need to distort the truth.

    4. Re:Meanwhile in real life, more secret blacklists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I grew up in a "civilized society". Trust me, the uncivilized societies are a lot better.

    5. Re:Meanwhile in real life, more secret blacklists by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Welll as an side you'll be happy to know my current position is the Vive and Hololens are in better positions going forward, after trying all of them... the funny thing is I still own an Occulus and none of the others yet (again, because I got it for free, not because I'm really that in for Oculus).

      Still waiting to see how the Sony effort ends up, I hope they let you move around a bit the way the Vive does as now I think roomscale is really key to wide adoption. Seated VR is just too limited.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  7. How can this happen! by Dunbal · · Score: 1, Interesting

    People are lazy. Google is the low hanging fruit everyone picks. Therefore Google has the power, power corrupts, central point of failure, etc.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  8. Learn to fucking use line breaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As subject says. Jesus Christ, add some fucking line breaks to the summary so it's not a giant blob. English has had the idea of "paragraphs" for far longer than the internet has been around, so fucking use them.

  9. Remember Joe Cox. Sponsored by Google. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Don't listen to this conspiracy theory racist filth.

    Remember poor Joe Cox before you vote tomorrow. Don't give away our children's future to the narrow minded, hateful, economically unproductive brexit supporters. Don't let hatred win over growth!

    "Google's search results are developed by a politically neutral team of various multiculturalisms and higher income levels."

    1. Re:Remember Joe Cox. Sponsored by Google. by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Remember poor Joe Cox before you vote tomorrow. Don't give away our children's future to the narrow minded, hateful, economically unproductive brexit supporters. Don't let hatred win over growth!

      For posterity's sake: Google has changed their UK homepage to include a link, "In remembrance of Jo Cox MP", at the bottom. The link is to a GoFundMe page to raise money to "establish a foundation to continue advancing the causes closest to Jo's heart and to help give her a lasting legacy".

      Of course one of those causes is "refugee support", an issue tied to the upcoming Brexit vote. Google UK put this on their homepage one day before the vote.

  10. Bisexual? by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

    I just tested some of those "controversial" words and while "peni" doesn't even get me "penis", "torren" does get me several torrent-related things (but not "torrent" itself), and "bise" gives "bisexual" and a bunch of phrases containing that word right away.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  11. 10 Blacklists by frovingslosh · · Score: 5, Funny

    There are ten Google Blacklists. Epstein failed to mention, perhaps deliberately, the Kenyan birth certificate blacklist.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  12. Google Play censors your video games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Play bans Bomb Gaza
    http://www.israelnationalnews....
    http://www.channel4.com/news/b...

    Google bans Whack The Hamas
    http://jewishbusinessnews.com/...

    Google Play bans Milo Tosser
    https://twitter.com/riffraffga...

    Google Play permanently bans developer of "Hilliar Clinton" game
    http://www.breitbart.com/tech/...

    1. Re:Google Play censors your video games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hate games? Nice.

  13. way too much credit by AlanBDee · · Score: 2

    I think Robert Epstein is giving Alphabet (Google) way too much credit in it's ability to "manipulate" people. It is a mega corporation that is only getting bigger. Economies of scale still apply and they're probably trying a lot harder to keep cutting edge rather then manipulating things.

    My experience has been that Google news provides the least biased news source. But as everyone here will know, you get your sources from several places to avoid any bias they might have.

    As for search sources whenever I try others like Bing and DuckDuckGo I still find what I'm looking for faster with Google. I suspect that if Alphabet were to really try and manipulate people their credibility would drop like a rock and we would all find other sources for information.

    1. Re:way too much credit by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      I think Robert Epstein is giving Alphabet (Google) way too much credit in it's ability to "manipulate" people.

      You're misunderstanding his point:

      Honest spammers like him were really proud of their SEO schemes, for it to backfire on them makes them really sad. They feel like their false happiness was stolen from them. They thought they could buy popularity at a discount, that instead of buying ads they could trick an ad company's computers into listing them at the top for free. But the ad company had more programmers than them. Waaaaa, waaaaa, waaaaa.

  14. Google is NOT the INTERNET by Dorianny · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google provides a very popular, but not the only WWW indexing and search service. Personally i have moved on to DuckDuckGO because of their commitment to user privacy.

    1. Re:Google is NOT the INTERNET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I also use duckduckgo and/or startpage but that doesn't completely give you privacy.

      The best way to stop tracking you is simply set your computer's system time to an incorrect value, even the time zone. You can switch it correct at any second you wish. The monitoring and tracking done by for instance google-analytics.com and gstatic.com and facebook.net and twitter.net and the others relies on a lot of things including browser fingerprint. The easiest way to miff the tracking up is to change your clock. A lot of ISP's are DHCP meaning they give you a different IP address periodically but their lease times are long enough to not have much affect on privacy.

      tl;dr Change your PC clock to wrong time zone and date and time unless you need it right for an email or whatnot.

    2. Re:Google is NOT the INTERNET by AaronW · · Score: 1

      Before 2000 most of the other search engines sucked. They were full of spam and other crap as everyone tried to game the system until Google's pagerank came out and blew them out of the water. The other search engines also tended to have very cluttered pages full of blinking ads and they were slow. It was a HUGE improvement going from the likes of Altavista or the others to Google.

      --
      This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    3. Re:Google is NOT the INTERNET by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

      Google may as well be "the Internet" as far as most people are concerned. If your Web site isn't found by Google searches, you might as well not have a Web site. It all depends on whether you want to be found. 90% of people haven't even HEARD of DuckDuckGo.

    4. Re:Google is NOT the INTERNET by just+another+AC · · Score: 1

      90% of people haven't even HEARD of DuckDuckGo.

      I'm sure they can google it

  15. Civilized societies by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good. We need less guns, not more.

    Nobody should be able to walk into a Walmart and walk out with a cart full of machine guns and ammo.

    No other "civilized" society accepts this nonsense and neither should the US.

    Then you should get the constitution amended.

    That's another aspect of "civilized" societies - you can't just pick-and-choose which rules to break.

    1. Re:Civilized societies by Rakarra · · Score: 2

      That's another aspect of "civilized" societies - you can't just pick-and-choose which rules to break.

      We do that all the time. The Second Amendment is just about the only part of the Constitution that is rigorously defended.

    2. Re:Civilized societies by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 1

      Good. We need less guns, not more.

      Nobody should be able to walk into a Walmart and walk out with a cart full of machine guns and ammo.

      No other "civilized" society accepts this nonsense and neither should the US.

      Then you should get the constitution amended.

      Not necessary. The Supreme Court made it clear in their last previous major gun ruling that just because the second amendment exists, it doesn't mean that there can't be any restrictions on guns. Supposedly it was Scalia himself who said that. Rights in the constitution are not absolute. Keeping people from buying machine guns is a far cry from saying nobody can buy any gun for any reason, but hey, don't let logic stand in your way.

    3. Re:Civilized societies by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

      As in "well regulated"

      --
      This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    4. Re:Civilized societies by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      So why can't I just go out and buy a modern military rifle? It seems to me the Second was pretty well violated in 1986.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  16. The article screams "citation please" by trojjan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Google blocking torrent searches: using 'filetype:torrent ' gives me more search results than any other search engine, and the DMCA bullshit is not by google. If a search result is blocked you can see at the bottom of the page exactly why. As for politics, it depends on the number of search results based on a query. In your mind 'ted cruz lying' may be equivalent to 'hillary clinton crook' but the results say otherwise. Also Google did not bow down to China's demands for censorship, depriving themselves of one of the largest markets.
    It's strange to see this article on /. where people generally understand how algorithms work, and the search results are generally independent of human manipulation. The article being accepted just goes to show how far slashdot has fallen. Is it still called news for nerds?

    1. Re: The article screams "citation please" by rahvin112 · · Score: 2

      Lying ted cruz was said in speeches and tweets by trump about 300 times, and each instance generated a dozen news stories at all the major publications including the same phrase 3 or 4 times along with thousands of disscussions. The result is the page rank for that phrase is massive, all because of Trump. There has been no such use of "crooked clinton" to generate such a comparable page rank.

      His complaint about this is a complaint about phrases being used in society and he's blaming google for what Trump popularized. He's a fucking crackpot.

  17. Partial Froogle Blacklist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Try to buy ammo through Froogle. The first results won't be actual ammunition. Even becoming more specific (such as ".223 ammunition"), mostly only gives ammo boxes and belts. Live rounds have somehow been filtered (mostly, a few results seem to slip through). In the past, the results gave actual ammunition and not inert rounds and such.

  18. Democratization by snadrus · · Score: 1

    Instead of funding a censorship oversight committee, lets fund an open (and/or state-approved) search (think NOAA for weather).
    Most weather forecasts are decoration atop NOAA forecasts.

    --
    Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
    1. Re:Democratization by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Our corporate friends tried to privatize that too.

      We just need to make the internet an ad hoc network, impossible to shut down or censor. This client/server setup is too easy to manipulate and is wide open to many attack vectors.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  19. I think Google is cool by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    Just now I was typing "How many elephants..." and the moment I hit the "d", it came up with exactly what I wanted, "...does it take to change a lightbulb", first response. You can't beat that.

    Unfortunately the joke sucked, so I won't bother...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  20. Re:customized searches by bongey · · Score: 2

    Create a new google account or go through tor . You get the same results he mentions.

  21. Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People have been attempting to control information and the social discourse since always. This is not new.

    And whether you like it or not for whatever your political reason... consider that corruption that serves your political interests TODAY can be turned against you tomorrow.

    Don't be that dumb. You either believe in democracy which requires an open exchange of information or you don't and we trend towards kings, aristos, and various other elites that will just control your life for you. And again... while you might like that idea now because you assume said aristos will hold your values... consider that they might not in the future. And at that point your opinion will be literally worthless.

    Stop it now while your vote counts. Or your hypocritical complaint later will be a joke.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Retard says something retarded... uses citation of retarded statement to support further retarded statement?

      Checks yourself into a hospital. You have un-diagnosed brain damage.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    2. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Not agreeing with idiot comments from idiot on the internet does not mean I agree with ISIS... fuckwit.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    3. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Show where I suggested we surrender to Islamic law or surrender our civilization to ISIS. As to heightened vigilance against a current threat... Anyone that suggests blind business as usual during a time of threat is unworthy strategic consultation. You are literally unworthy of sitting at the table. Go to the children's room where you will be given cookies and humored. You will receive nothing but patronizing and scorn from your elders until you have matured.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    4. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Responding to something for you means surrendering to it. You're an idiot.

      So a bank surrenders to you when they raise your interest rates. The police surrender to a criminal when they arrest him. A guy eating sandwiches surrenders when he complains about not getting a pickle with his sandwich.

      You're a moron. Kill yourself.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    5. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      The point of terrorism is not to get me to kill them them. The point is to make me cower in fear and give in to their demands.

      Have I advocated for giving in to their demands or are you an idiot?

      Quote where I advocated giving into their demands. Or you concede your position by default.

      You're officially too stupid to have this discussion with me.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    6. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      So you concede that you have no evidence to back up your position?

      I knew that before I asked. Your position is as sad as claiming you know the exact number of jelly beans in a random jar you've never seen then saying that based on that knowledge you don't have a particular child somewhere in the world will grow into one of the great artists of human history.

      Everything out of you is insane conclusions that can't be backed up. I point that out and you try to evade. That sort of thing works upon the stupid and the lazy. I'm neither.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    7. Re:Why everything has to be decentralized by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      You changed the topic from one thing you were failing on to something you had failed on in the past... now you're asking why I addressed your stupid comments. That's a good question.

      The answer is that people like you have so polluted this forum with stupidity that its hard to get a real discussion about anything in here. ACs have destroyed /. And so... all I can really do is talk to the shit heads because when push comes to shove... no one else is talking anymore.

      I can't hold you entirely responsible. The site went through some bad management and the AC thing was permitted to exist even though you're pretty much uniformly retarded. Still that's the why of my response.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  22. Who cares about autocomplete by Muros · · Score: 2

    When I search for something, I type in what I'm searching for. As for the rubbish in the article, here you go.

  23. Dipshit by Chelloveck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but it will not show you "Hillary" when you type "crooked."

    Just to see how far this goes, I typed in "dipshit" and Google didn't autosuggest "Robert Epstein"! That's an omission that must be corrected!

    --
    Chelloveck
    I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
    1. Re:Dipshit by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Donald Trump went through a bit of effort associating "Lying" with "Ted." No one else has gone through quite the same amount of effort making "crooked Hillary" a thing. It doesn't matter whether you actually believe she's crooked or not, the exact phrase (that's important) hasn't gotten nearly the exposure as "Lying Ted" did.

    2. Re:Dipshit by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      OTOH, try an image search for Santorum.

      It doesn't work to have a small number of famous people on television repeat a thing. That doesn't make the internet care. You have to have lots of different people saying the thing on the internet for the internet to notice. Most of the talk on the internet about Trump is saying different things than Trump himself is saying.

      Though I am surprised about Robert Epstein, I guess there is just too broad an array of pejoratives to choose from for any of them to get a high ranking.

    3. Re:Dipshit by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I get an additional 395,000 results for "Lyin Ted".

      Together though, that's still about 60,000 results less than "Crooked Hillary," so point taken, at least in the Google results.

  24. Dear Editor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Do you know what a fucking summary is ?
    While you're researching that, you can also look up the word "paragraph".

    If this submission has been edited, I'd hate to have seen it before BeauHD got to work on it.

  25. could be worse . . . by swell · · Score: 1

    Imagine if Google tech originated with Microsoft, Oracle, Facebook or the CIA.

    Google has been pressured by many powerful forces to modify their offerings, often to reduce Free Speech. They have resisted in many justified cases where some companies would cave. There is the worrisome relationship between Google and the State Department to consider, but overall they've been 'less evil' than almost any imaginable alternative.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  26. Epstein just hates Google by Chalnoth · · Score: 5, Informative

    Back in 2012, Epstein's website got blocked by Google because it was hosting malware. He's hated Google ever since.

    1. Re:Epstein just hates Google by houghi · · Score: 1

      2012? I hate them since they raped DejaNew.com and blocking porn from the images did not help.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  27. Burying sites by golodh · · Score: 5, Interesting
    One of the things Epstein takes issue with stems from Google's tendency to retaliate against websites that create artificial websites referring to the one they wish to promote.

    This is a way of taking advantage of the way the page-rank algorithm works, in that it counts "incoming links" (they're doing a weighted, iteratively calculated count, but lets keep things simple).

    Left to its own, there would be little the page-rank algorithm can do against such obvious abuse of the algorithm to self-promote certain sites. Thus, in the best traditions of the unenlightened self-interest that so pervades our society, the wellspring of the Commons is poisoned. The best of it is that it's all "legal" (there is no law against). As a consequence the value of Google's search results is at risk, and with it the public service they provide.

    Rather than seeking redress from the law (which simply doesn't offer any), Google decided to mete out its own kind of justice: it corrected the search rank of sites that do this downward (manually or otherwise) so that they were starved of traffic. The message Google sends with this is: pull this one on us and we'll bury you.

    In cases of genuine abuse (websites inflating their rank through this kind of "Search Engine Optimization" I agree with this measure. Unfortunately downgrading a site's search rank is a powerful weapon which, even when used without malice, can lead to injustice against which there is no appeal. Simply because either people or algorithms that do the downranking will make mistakes.

    Alas, our world is not perfect. On the whole however I prefer Google to protect its search algorithm from abuse by SEO con artists at the expense of killing the odd innocent website. Sorry but my interests are better served by having high-quality search results than by preventing injustice.

    1. Re:Burying sites by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      No need to wring your hands and worry about that a private party's decision about the rankings that they give out might be according to them, and their interests. That isn't something that "can lead to injustice against which their is no appeal," it is actually just freedom. My opinion of your website, or google's, is my own and not yours to covet; there is no injustice in me exercising my own prerogatives according to my interests. And so there is no need to wring your hands worrying about it.

      The funny part is that google isn't even doing anything worth complaining about; the actual complaint here is that, oh no, google fights back against people trying to fraudulently manipulate google's rankings to return a different result.

    2. Re:Burying sites by houghi · · Score: 1

      They DO filter. Try looking for the name of a known porn actress on images. You will get a filtered result. Now try to turn that filter off. You can't.

      Sure, there are some other companies who do search, but in reality, they are the only one. Next to that they are slowly buying all of the rest as well.

      What I think that should be done is what is done before when a cartel was formed in the oil industry.

      I truly believe that they are getting too big and this not only on a national, but on a global scale.
      Remember when banks where too big to fail? That went well.

      I think Orwell was an optimist.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  28. BS by s.petry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It gets really tiresome seeing people attempt to claim that all these massive corporations and immensely wealthy people are just powerless to do anything and can't be held responsible for their own actions. Google does what they do for the same reason other powerful companies do, which is nefarious and immoral at best. It should take you all of about 10 seconds of studying the CISPA web campaign to realize that these companies have immense power on politics because masses of people can tune into the message. "Hillary want's us to censor" would have probably ended up in a Sanders candidacy, but Google knows where the power and money should be for them (read Sergey and Larry) to get the best bang for their buck.

    Reality is that people don't get rich and powerful by being stupid. We can however say that the opposite is true, so the poor and ignorant will remain so. It's really really easy to get the ignorant to remain that way too.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure. For politically charged subjects there are powerful influences behind them and lots of closed-door conversations. It's rarely easy to find the interested parties in any particular action. Heck, the funding of presidential campaigns is shrouded in mystery. Who are the donors and what do they expect to gain from any particular candidate?

      On the other end of the spectrum and "babies are tasty" type web searches it's less clear how Google gains anything by preventing these searches. It's more likely this is just caused by offense and public outcry.

      Google also gains nothing from hiding satellite imagery for military sites, although this is a very sensible thing to do and I'm sure most people would agree.

      Google search is also racist because you can't find many pictures of non-white CEOs - just kidding, Google search just mirrors our society, and our society is racist. We should have all searches show a good mixture of skin tones because I'm offended.

    2. Re:BS by s.petry · · Score: 2

      Google also gains nothing from hiding satellite imagery for military sites, although this is a very sensible thing to do and I'm sure most people would agree.

      I really don't think you thought that through, because they do get things. Money is a form of power, but there are many other kinds of power. If you really can't think of why Google would not do something for cash, you really are not trying.

      The best played fallacy to the ignorant is the ole appeal to emotion, namely intellect and ego. "All the smart people think" is a great gag, and works extremely well. Spend 10 minutes reading comments here, or Reddit, or Twitter, or any other message site, and it's painfully obvious who is too lazy to check any sources.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  29. You can turn off safe search by istartedi · · Score: 1

    You know, you can turn off safe search and get maps of all the bisexual penises you want. If it's not right there on Google, there are sites that cater to that sort of thing. Call me when Google is actually installed on all the routers and dropping offensive packets.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:You can turn off safe search by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I checked a regular search and got "About 8,190,000 results" for "bisexual penises"

      Maps doesn't give any results for bisexual penis, but "bisexual" gives me the LGBT student services at the local University, and "penis" gives me a Japanese fertility temple. I'm very slightly disappointed that google didn't figure out "penis" and list the local adult shops. But "adult shop," which is what the sign outside will actually say, does list them all on maps. "adult arcade" lists the adult shops, and also an over-21 video game bar.

      I've searched out for some pretty depraved stuff, and I've never had any trouble getting google to tell me about any of it, at least if I can figure out what google thinks it is called.

    2. Re:You can turn off safe search by istartedi · · Score: 1

      I knew the Internet wouldn't disappoint me. Thanks for the chuckle.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  30. search by bigtreeman · · Score: 1

    If search was built into the routing protocols of the internet,
    it wouldn't be a function owned by Google or anyone else.
    It is such a fundamental requirement for a large network,
    it should be an extension of DNS augmented by the servers providing the content.

    The costs in terms of money, power, server farms, etc is extraordinary
    because it has needed to be tacked on top of the internet.

    --
    Go well
  31. Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers. by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Autocomplete blacklist?

    So, he's complaining that if you want to search for "Crooked Hillary," you have to type the whole phrase, it won't complete it for you?

    Oh, your aching fingers, evil google making you have to type another seven whole characters. I am so sorry you have to do all that extra work.

    By the way, it's not really news. Here's Boing-boing in 2010: http://boingboing.net/2010/09/... (pointing to a list at 2600.com: http://www.2600.com/googleblac... )

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  32. Reality Check time by laurencetux · · Score: 1

    Not counting semi-autos that have actual conversion kits it would be a heck of a lot easier to spend the shop time to design a weapon to be motor driven from the get go than to rig up a weapon that

    1 most likely does not have the tolerances to fire all that rapidly
    2 can't just mount a drum mag of any size
    3 would most likely explode in the first 10 seconds

    please at least talk to an actual gun smith before you propose something from a cartoon next time.

    (btw you can google the instructions on how to make an AK-47 from a shovel)

  33. that's easy by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    'How Did Google Become The Internet's Censor and Master Manipulator?'

    Mostly through copyright claims, trademark claims, government pressure, lawsuits, and threats by activists.

  34. Standard Oil by John+Jorsett · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not a fan of regulation, but it might be required in order to break the stranglehold one company gets on a particular industry. The example I always think of is John D. Rockefeller and his company, Standard Oil, which was ultimately broken up into smaller companies due to its absolute domination of the industry which it used to destroy competitors. Google may be in line for at least an investigation into whether it's gotten too big for market competition. Facebook as well.

    1. Re:Standard Oil by Dagmar+d'Surreal · · Score: 1
      Why should they be subject to regulations incurred by their size when no other company has in the last twenty years?

      Google got where they are by doing a good job--not through anti-competitive practices or corporate skullduggery. If Google somehow irrevocably deletes a significant portion of the internet and then calls it "a natural network correction" while taking home millions of page views, then maybe we can talk about regulating them. Until then what they have isn't a "stranglehold" it's a winning approach.

      Epstein is apparently just looking to score readers by raising ire, because most of his arguments are deeply questionable. The bit about the payday loan companies being turned away from AdWords is a fairly disingenuous point for him to bring up. For one, Google didn't blacklist them from anything but AdWords. Search results for payday loans still find and return hits to all the shady operators out there. ...and yes, they're pretty much all shady to the degree that payday loans are explicitly illegal in half a dozen states and the predatory lending practices and rate schedules they use are illegal in most states. Epstein is rather conspicuously not remembering that the last time Google had an issue with an industry buying up AdWords, it was pharma-related and they wound up paying $500 million in fines to the DoJ. This is really no different.

  35. is "safe search" on? by srk · · Score: 1

    I think the guy forgot to switch off "safe search". Clitoris works for me.

    1. Re:is "safe search" on? by Jack_the_Tripper · · Score: 1

      I think the guy forgot to switch off "safe search". Clitoris works for me.

      In Soviet Russia, you works for clitoris.

      Umm...pretty much everywhere else too I suppose...

  36. Remember, if you get a service and pay no money... by blunttrauma · · Score: 1

    ...you are not the customer. You are the product.

  37. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Informative

    Its more the fact that if you type "Hillary In" you get "Hillary India" which google's own trends show NOBODY is actually looking for whereas you type the same phrase into yahoo or Bing? You get Hillary Indictment which actually IS trending according to Google's own trends, which is what the autocomplete is SUPPOSEDLY based on..

    Oh and just FYI the former CEO of Google is on the advisory committee of HRC and making something like half a million a quarter for his services. If you think a guy whose political views are well known and who is actually working for one side isn't gonna tilt things in his favor? I have a bridge you might be interested in.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  38. Sorry by meglon · · Score: 1

    I don't understand what the issue is..... liberals will point out that the "free speech" enshrined in the Bill of Rights is a guarantee against THE GOVERNMENT censoring you.... conservatives SHOULD be down on their knees thanks the mighty god FREE MARKET for allowing a private company to do whatever they fucking want no matter how bad the ramifications.... and libertarians shouldn't even notice as they haven't invested any energy into any search engine, so they'll simply roam off and use another....

    So what's the issue?

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  39. Re:This is mostly weaksauce... by Aighearach · · Score: 1

    The most hilarious part (and that outs you as a teenager) is that you associate buzz cuts... with cops. Uhm, yeah. When you're older, you'll have more regular examples.

    Also, when you get older you're learn that there are lots of workplace rules that are designed to protect the employees and have nothing to do with wearing a suit. No, a casual dress code doesn't mean you can say **** or ***** at work, and therefore you should also not be the one flashing it on the screen during a presentation.

  40. All your attention are belong to us google by shanen · · Score: 1

    Natural result of pandering to the users in search of more money. The original idea (back in the ancient days of "Don't be evil") was that the google would help solve the problems of the world.

    Mission creep. The new problem became how to make more money, and the answer is "NEVER enough money." Not a solvable problem, but censorship for profit is just one part of the result. Along with the support for spammers and scammers and various other business partners of the new google.

    The part that bothers me is the new corporate motto: "All your attention are belong to us google."

    My time was precious, but now it's just part of the market cap of such monstrosities as the google, Facebook, and Amazon.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  41. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by bane2571 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I get the following autocomplete results for "Hillary in":
    Hillary Indictment
    Hillary Indictment Odds
    Hillary Instagram
    Hillary Interview
    Is it possible you've previously searched for Hillary India and it is replaying your search?

  42. Hillary in-- [re: ...Oh, your aching fingers] by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    First, if you want to search "Hillary indictment" but you're so lazy that you complain if Google doesn't finish typing after you have typed the first nine letters of the search, you're seriously lazy.

    Second, when I type "Hillary in" to the google search box, its first suggested autocompletion is "Hillary indictment" and the second is "Hillary indictment news". So, your google seems to be different than mine.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  43. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Informative

    ROFL keep drinking that koolaid SJWs, but I can provide citations showing the manipulation, the fact google's own trends does NOT support what their autocomplete is coming up with, oh and the fact that the CEO is getting paid by HRC, specifically he is owner of "the groundwork" which is a company whose goal is to put HRC in the white house.

    Gee search results aren't backed up by their own trending data AND the CEO is part of a company to elect the person the results are being skewed for? Nope don't see nothing fishy here, please ignore that man behind the curtain.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  44. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by someone1234 · · Score: 1

    I got this: Hillary cr|ook

    --
    Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
  45. Oversimplified thinking by golodh · · Score: 3, Insightful
    @ Aighearach

    In my opinion you've missed the point of Epstein's article.

    Epstein contends (and I agree) that Google's services are so pervasive that it really has taken on the role of a public utility, while still being an ordinary commercial enterprise without any responsibility whatsoever to anyone except their shareholders.

    By its very nature, Google *cannot* be transparent about its page-rank algorithm because the instant it is, every SEO con artist in existence will proceed to abuse that knowledge and undermine the quality and usefulness of Google's search results.

    The bottom line is: Google is a company that provides a service that's as essential as power, water, roads, trash collection and sanitation that's beyond oversight and cannot (ever) be transparent about its service. How would you like that same level of transparency and total un-accountability with other utilities?

    What you call "freedom", I call risky concentration of power without checks, balances, or oversight. An appeal to "freedom" is, I think, an oversimplification. Why not allow utility companies to switch off the power, the water supply, or block the sewers if they it would be in their corporate interests to do so? When water authorities ration water usage because supplies are running out, everyone is up in arms, but you'd like to lie down and take it if it's in the corporate rather than the public interest? After all, nothing stops you from buying bottled water, does it? Or installing a swimming pool as a backup water cistern, right? How about allowing the wastewater treatment plant to shut down the sewers in the city centre if somebody (perhaps a restaurant) dumps a load of fat down the sink that plays hob with their sewage treatment?

    What Google does (and must do) to keep its services humming really does lead to injustice in individual cases.

    To that extent I agree with Epstein. Where I disagree with Epstein is whether it's worth the price in this particular case. However, with Google, whilst transparency is impossible oversight isn't. We may well need regulations and oversight for search engines somewhere down the line.

    1. Re:Oversimplified thinking by golodh · · Score: 1
      @Anonymous Coward

      Disagreed!

      Nobody forces you to be on the power grid (you can install your own diesel aggregate and solar panels), nobody forces you to get tap water (feel free to install a cistern and order up a tanker to fill it, or brush your teeth with bottled water), and (depending on where you live) you may be allowed to install a septic tank and a chemical toilet where you live.

      The point is: you can survive perfectly well without utilities; it will just mean additional expense. Same with Google. Nobody forces you to use it, but most of your clients will. So as a business you haven't got a lot of choice really.

  46. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by silentcoder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > If you think a guy whose political views are well known and who is actually working for one side isn't gonna tilt things in his favor? I have a bridge you might be interested in.

    And if a private citizen wants to use his private business to push his personal political views then that is entirely his right. You didn't think citizens united would only work for republicans did you ? Did you think really think only the Koch brothers would try to buy elections for candidates that suit their personal business and political desires ?
    Republicans turned the USA into a complete plutocracy, they don't get to now complain because occasionally a rich guy likes a democrat too - they made this bed now they gotta lie in it.

    Ironically - this is far less insidious than what republicans do. Republican supporting rich guys use dark money and bribes. If the worst thing the democrat-supporters do is to slant their own businesses public operations in favor of the candidate and work for the campaigns - then it's still FAR less corrupt.

    Democrat voters have been demanding that money be removed from politics, that campaign contributions be severely curtailed (or better yet - outright banned) for decades. They've been clamoring against things like superpacs. Warning that the USA would turned into an oligarchy where the rich chose the powerful if these trends were not stopped.
    They were ignored. Their own party politicians stopped fighting and went to feed at the same trough and the republican voters called them horrible people who want to censor political speech (because one dollar one vote is soooo democratic right ?).

    Now you complain ? Because of what, arguably, is the only ACCEPTABLE way a rich person can influence politics ? Seriously I have only three words to say to that: fuck you all.

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  47. Funny by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    I gave up on Google News years ago as it appeared quite the opposite: littered with right-wing dog whistle articles from Drudge, Newsmax, Brietbart, and similar dreck.

  48. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ROFL keep drinking that koolaid SJWs, but I can provide citations showing the manipulation

    Anyone else ROFL at the irony of using youtube video to bash Big G?

  49. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    Conspiracy theory much? Google filters a lot of words from auto-correct. Various crimes, the names of porn stars, all sorts of stuff. It's just removed from auto-complete, so that Google doesn't suggest things that would be inappropriate or slanderous.

    In comparison when I search for Aonal wallets on Amazon it suggests "anal" and offers me some Just Glide Anal Lubricant 50ml. I'm not upset or anything, but I might be embarrassed if I asked my Amazon Echo for an Aonal wallet and it tried to sell me anal lube, so I can see why Google tends to err on the side of caution.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  50. Google to be replaced by joboss · · Score: 1

    When I started using Google it was great. If you had Google Fu especially. Google Fu meant being good enough with language and having enough understanding of its use to search for the right phrases, etc because Google was fairly strict about things. Google Fu still applies but it's not what it used to be.

    Over time it has gotten less and less strict to the point of being obsessed with optimising for popular results. It will rewrite search queries, randomly ignore words and generally try to be clever in a way which is counter productive when you want to find information that is more obscure. This is horrific sometimes especially as the internet is now more full of pop junk than every. I remember a time that even if I put in a bunch of words Google rather than a phrase would treat them all more or less equally and find good matches with those words clustered and associated closely together. Today it's like Google plays a game when you do this, pick a word, any word.

    I worry a lot about things especially when it comes to neutrality. I experimented a while ago with Google's speech recognition in chrome which is experimental. You need a kind of Google Fu for this as well because it seems to have the same predictive problems as the search engine especially where terms are mildly similar. You sort of have to resort to the most commonly used terms of phrase for things. It's interesting because this was an early release of a technology that is better and I think that they had things tuned up so high it makes these anomalies very obvious. It was like it was way too fuzzy and smudged. What was really glaring is when saying any garbage out of range of the microphone so that it is indecipherable sound. When I looked at the read out for whatever I muttered out of mic shot it would nearly always come up with things like nike, sony, google, etc. In a way it's scarily like the human brain that does funny things predictively when a vocal sound source is just distant enough to hear but not successfully process. In this case it revealed a clear bias in their system towards popular brands. Why Sony? Why not only or like for example? I am not sure that their intention is actually to have major brands come up intentionally, rather than is a side effect of optimising for these. If someone asked for Sony they want to reduce impedance, make it a path of least resistance.

    I find that these things are actually adding a great deal of impedance for me when I'm using Google because I'm not interested in looking up celebrity gossip. I don't think the way it's going Google can cater to everyone. Some of us need a real search engine.

  51. Bing by Kreplock · · Score: 1

    Suggests "Crooked Hillary" after typing in "Crooked". It shows "Lyin' Ted" if you include the apostrophe.

  52. Rightsholder responsibilities by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    It is not up to YouTube to police your copyrights. The ad-revenue goes to the content owner — the uploader, until proven otherwise. Feel free to sue them for it.

    It was a neat trick whenever the recording industry got the FBI to investigate copyright claims. I understand it's a lot of work to try to insist that a certain set of bits are yours. I even understand that there are valid economic reasons why we try to pretend non-scarce goods are scarce. Trying to alter the law to force private third parties to police your copyrights is an exceptionally stupid move that will either force YouTube to make legal judgments about content ownership, or more likely to destroy user-submitted content entirely. It would also fly in the face of centuries of jurisprudence, which I interpret to mean that it has little chance of happening.

    Lawyer up. If you think Google is not responding expeditiously to take down infringing material, sue them. It's your work, and your responsibility. The reason why this petition is not a class action lawsuit is because Google is operating entirely within the law. That the law is inconvenient to you is no one else's problem.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  53. Torrenting Ted Cruz's bisexual penis by ememisya · · Score: 2

    I have always considered instant search to be completely and utterly useless.
    Negavites of Instant Search
    - Distracts you from what you are actually trying to type.
    - A partial "result" is not useful until you are done typing.
    - It can display subliminal bias (pull up death, fear, victim as you are searching 'Donald Trump's hat).
    - Often freezes your browser while pulling up your half typed results.
    - Undesired profanity (Try typing 'big black').
    Positives of Instant Search
    - Autocomplete feature on par with highend smartphones.
    - At times, displays multiple suggestions to save you time before you need to write the entire search query.

    I think the decision is clear.

  54. Re:People want to be Manipulated by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    Most, not all.

    Broad is the road and wide is the path that leads to destruction and many find it.

  55. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by ShaunC · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google is very happy to suggest "Hillary indictment" to me, with generally right-wing sites among the top results.

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
  56. Re:Autocomplete blacklist? Oh, your aching fingers by orgelspieler · · Score: 2

    Really? Because mine pops up with indictment right away. Don't be such a conspiracy theorist. I would like to point out that there are several disparaging things about Trump that don't show up either. If you type "does trump have tiny" it does NOT autocomplete "hands." Clearly this is a conspiracy against Marco Rubio. I mean really, anybody who says crap like that needs to realize how stupid and whiny they sound. If you type "trump frau" it does not add the "d" at the end. If you type "trump is hitle" it doesn't add "r." Perhaps Google is just more polite than Bing?

    Bing results for "trump is"

    • an idiot
    • a racist
    • the antichrist
    • a liberal
    • a liar
    • a buffoon
    • like hitler
    • disgusting

    Google's results are:

    • a democrat
    • awesome
    • right
    • god

    Still think it's a conspiracy?

  57. Way off-topic; probably feeding a troll... but... by orgelspieler · · Score: 2

    This is my problem with people who use "SJW" incorrectly. If you use it to disparage anybody you disagree with, it loses all meaning. What's the point of using letters as a slur if a) it refers to something that isn't actually offensive, and b) you use it for things that have nothing to do with women or gays or racial minorities? What does pointing out facts regarding a google search have to do with fighting for social justice?

    It reminds me of the good old days when Rush coined the term feminazi. What does fighting for equal pay for women have to do with fascist dictatorships? So stupid to muddle things up like that. What's so disappointing is how easily monikers distract otherwise intelligent people (on both sides of any argument).

    There are real problems with people who try to over-correct for perceived social injustices. Please focus on them, and people might take you a little more seriously. Hell, you might even get some people to change their point of view if you express your argument in a cogent fashion rather than relying on dog-whistles and obscure abbreviations.

  58. Re:customized searches by JoelEmmett · · Score: 2

    All Google search results have been personalized and unique to you for several years. Which is why SEO scams are scams; everyone is seeing different search results, based on their own interests.

  59. Re:Way off-topic; probably feeding a troll... but. by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

    Uhhh you haven't been keeping up with my posting history as every post is automatically downmodded by SJWs since I pointed out that BLM and several of their other sacred cows were racist.

    so before you label a use as inappropriate? Maybe you ought to think there is more going on than you know about. I can write "This is a good article" on a front page story and automatically get a -2, usually followed by one or two anons calling me filthy names or saying I should die. Sorry but its SJWs, only happened after I pointed out they were full of shit, and stalking and threats to those that disagree is a classic SJW tactic.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.