Google’s No Fly List. How did we get on it? How do we get off?
[blowfish] is on it. [blowback] is not. [nina hartely] is on the list. [annie sprinkle] is not. [tony comstock] is on the Google “no fly” list. [peggy comstock] is not.
In each of these cases, and many others, the common thread to whether or not a search string will auto-populate in Google’s search field is whether or not there are potentially “objectionable” websites with high rankings the search returns; so Google will “suggest” [sexual intercourse] or [sex offender], but not [sex toys] or [sex education].
Of course by “objectionable”, Google means “sexual”. [stormfront], [nazi], and [white power] all auto populate, and searches on those terms give high rankings to stormfront.org, americannaziparty.com, and whitehonor.com respectively.
It is an incredible slap in the face. Yeah, I get it. Google wants to stay out of hot water, and so they don’t want their “Google Suggests…” pointing anyone to boobies (much less cunts and cocks.) But Nazi skinheads? No problem there. Don’t be evil? How about don’t be a dickhead?
A bigger concern than the fact that there’s a list with [tony comstock] and [comstock films] on it as terms that won’t populate is the worry that somewhere inside of the Google there is a list with comstockfilms.com on it as a site they don’t want to send people to. Is that getting factored into our pagerank? Is that why our visitors on [real sex] dropped from 100-200/day to almost zero? Who can know?
And as far as I can tell, tinynibbles.com is on that list, blowfish.com is on that list, vividvideo.com is on that list, and a whole bunch of other sexually explicit sites, spanning a wide range of attitudes towards sexuality. And all of us — from goodvibes.com to buttman.com — are, in Google’s estimation, worse than racist hate sites.
I am angry. I am angry at Google, and I am angry at a world that wants to be “offended” by two men wanting to fuck each other for the rest of their lives than by the people who would kick those men’s faces in with the heels of their jackboots.
“Don’t be evil” Really? Matt Cutts or anyone else at Google: show me how I’ve misconnected the dots. I’d rather be wrong than angry. I’d rather be the one who’s lost his mind.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
If it helps you feel any better (not sure if it would), both Comstock and Comstock Films Podcast show up in the auto fill, as does [damon and hunter trailer] and [xana and dax movie].
I’d still like to know the logic behind what’s happening, is it one of those ’seven words you can’t say on television’ things? If so that makes NO sense, seeing the kind of stuff you can easily find on Google.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I know that when I ‘claimed’ my blog on Google (or whatever it is when you register your site with them) my search engine hits dropped. As soon as I unclaimed it, they returned to normal. I’ve done this experiment with both of my sites (the blogspot version and my now paid hosting version) and both times the results were the same. The crawlers stopped coming over, and I’m not entirely sure why.
I also found that installing a plugin that built a site map apparently to make it easier for Google and Yahoo to find content on my site, it was detrimental to my search hits, so I removed it, and again the search hits improved.
Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it certainly didn’t seem like it to me.
When I was on blogspot my site was flagged and one of those click-thru advisory pages appeared before you could gain access to my content. My incoming hits dropped from around 1200 per day to 200. I believe on some level Google was avoiding my site due to the mature content flagging. Who knows really, it was just a huge pain in the ass.
I’m just as angry as you are, and it’s taking a long, long time to rebuild my search traffic now that I’ve moved to proper hosting.
It’s beyond me how sex is MORE offensive than hate and racism. It reminds me just how far we still have to go to gain any sort of understanding or acceptance in this ass-backwards society of ours.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:32 am
@ Ben Look at the search returns for the things that autofill and I think you’ll see a pattern.
@ While I’ve leery of concluding that using Google’s tools harmful, the anecdotal evidence is mounting. The association between that will autofill and search returns is not something we have to guess it. It’s right there in the open for anyone to see. It is certainly suggestive that certain kinds of sites are treated differently on the basis of site content.