Google Removes 'Kodi' From Search Autocomplete In Anti-Piracy Effort (torrentfreak.com)

Google has banned the term "Kodi" from the autocomplete feature of its search engine because it's "closely associated with copyright infringement." This means that the popular software and related suggestions won't appear unless users type out the full term. TorrentFreak reports: It turns out that Google has recently removed the term "Kodi" from its autocomplete results. While Kodi can be abused through pirate add-ons, the media player software itself is perfectly legal, which makes it an odd decision. Users who type in "Kod" get a list of suggestions including "Kodak" and "Kodiak," but not the much more popular search term Kodi. Similarly, when typing "addons for k" Google suggests addons for Kokotime and Krypton 17.6. While the latter is a Kodi version, the name of the media player itself doesn't come up as a suggestion. Once users type the full Kodi term and add a space, plenty of suggestions suddenly appear, which is similar to other banned terms. Ironically enough, the Kokotime app is frequently used by pirates as well. Also, the names of all of the pirate Kodi addons we checked still show up fine in the autosuggest feature. Unfortunately, Google doesn't document its autocomplete removal decisions, nor does it publish the full list of banned words. However, the search engine confirms that Kodi's piracy stigma is to blame here. In a statement to TorrentFreak, a Google spokesperson said: "Since 2011, we have been filtering certain terms closely associated with copyright infringement from Google Autocomplete. This action is consistent with that long-standing strategy."

Comments

Re:whew

[Anonymous Coward]

But Google uses Linux on their servers, open sources things that has no value business-wise and said they’d Do No Evil. So now all those Google defenders get to reap what they sow from the company who holds control over more than 80% of the search engine market.

Funny how Slashtards always raged over OS monopolies but would defend Google having a near Microsoft-level monopoly on search results because they feigned being an open source company. All this widespread filtering is a direct result of them having the market power to silence things they don’t approve of. Because who are you going to switch to? Bing?

Re:whew

[emaname]

Because who are you going to switch to? Bing?

How about DuckDuckGo? I switched to it about 4 or 5 years ago, right after I was filter bubbled by Google.

Re:whew

[rtb61]

Or more accurately https://duckduckgo.com/?q=kodi... . I don't even understand what everyone is talking about, search for Kodi right there. Is it me or has the rest of the internet gone nuts, I stopped using https://duckduckgo.com/?q=goog..., I don't see a whole slew of problematic searches any more. The googlites have seemingly turned into a whole pack of problematic control freaks, their market lead, their stint in the sun, seems to have caused the arrogantly flow of blood from the bug brain to the egotistical undefined genitals brain, you think from down there and you will make stupid decisions.

You have to keep tech companies small, otherwise they just all go nuts, absolutely nucking futs.