Google starts censoring autocomplete and instant

[Wishbone]

What are torrents BTW? (ducks, runs away, using Arnie as shielding)

 

[orbekler]

This is a bad news only for lazy pirates. At least until the RESULT list is not censored.

 

[JEL]

So you make a consumer choice and use another search engine.

Does Google inform anywhere on what they censor? Otherwise it might be hard for the consumer to even become aware that they need to use another search-engine.

As Ghostrider says, if Dalai Lama is censored, and nobody knows about it, people might just think there are no further pages available than those the search-engine shows.

 

[RisingFury]

Today torrents, tomorrow something else. It's the "eh, what the hell" attitude that's gonna get us screwed...

 

[marooder86]

Today torrents, tomorrow something else. It's the "eh, what the hell" attitude that's gonna get us screwed...

Have no fear it's only New World Order, it has to be that way

 

[Tex]

Time to use another search engine... goodbye Google!

That's right, torrents sites have their own search engines so what's the point of using Google for that purpose anyway.

For me, it's not that you can't search for torrents on Google with the autocomplete, but rather the fact they are censoring legitimate businesses from search results and the fact they are censoring anything at all. They should be providing a list of search results only IMO. It is the responsibility of said websites in those search results to prevent and or censor piracy on their own sites.

 

[cjp]

After Google moved its Chinese activities to Hong Kong and stopped censoring for the Chinese government, the Chinese government managed to out-compete Google with the Chinese search engine Baidu. I believe Baidu is now the most popular search engine in China.

I never really understood how Baidu was able to become more popular than the established Google. After all, Google was offering a better service. Maybe the Chinese were afraid to be punished for using Google, but I've never heard that the government made any statement to indicate that using Google was not done. During my short visit to China, I've never received any warnings about not visiting certain websites (on the other hand, it was made clear that some subjects were too sensitive to talk about!).

Then I read somewhere that Baidu offered services for searching copyrighted materials. Don't you think that would explain a few things? And it makes perfect sense. Most people are not really interested in politics, but they are interested in downloading, and the Chinese government knows that.

You know, I'm more afraid of political censorship than commercial censorship. With commercial censorship there is always enough demand to keep the illegal circuit alive.

When the big search engines fall victim to pressure from governments and corporations, I think it's time to make millions of smaller search engines that offer good quality results. It's time for a peer-to-peer search engine. I think it is possible. Does anybody know a good publicly known algorithm for sorting the search results? I'd like to adapt it for distributed searches.

Did anybody try Baidu for searching things like movie torrents? I guess we netizens can play one party against another...

 

[TSPenguin]

Baidu is more chinese than google could ever be. And from my experience, chinese users tend to prefer local products. This goes for content and software. So I wouldn't necessarily say that Baidus success has so much to do with piracy and policy as one might believe.
This is also in canon with torrent client statistics: http://torrentfreak.com/thunder-blasts-utorrents-market-share-away-091204/

 

[jedidia]

Move to Bing...

I'm still confident to see the day when Bing censors everything that got "apple" in it... :lol:

Anyways, I'm kinda torn about the google decision. On a purely pragmatical basis, it'seems ok and pretty reasonable. On a principle basis, of course, it's very problematic. I guess when I'm trying to get informed on a topic in the future, I don't only have to use different sources, I'll also have to use different searchengines to get those sources to make sure that I get everything essential together.

In short, I don't oppose this particular decision by google. However, the fact that they started censorship at some point could indicate that they will continue it somewhere else. After a precedent has been set, the censored content of the future will mostly be defined by law and the ethics of the Google leadership, and I don't think that's too good a thing...

 

[Hielor]

...who has actually bought a Windows license?

Some 300 million people, apparently: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/...1/27/windows-7-300-million-licenses-sold.aspx

Also, your comparison is kind of silly anyway. Of course no one has pirated a software that is given away for free.

...but rather the fact they are censoring legitimate businesses from search results and the fact they are censoring anything at all.

They're not censoring anything from search results. You can still search for the stuff, it just won't show up in autocomplete (so they're not going to suggest to you that you pirate things, but they're not going to stop you from doing it yourself).

 

[RisingFury]

Some 300 million people, apparently: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/...1/27/windows-7-300-million-licenses-sold.aspx

:facepalm:


Sorry, couldn't resist! :lol:

 

[Tex]

They're not censoring anything from search results. You can still search for the stuff, it just won't show up in autocomplete (so they're not going to suggest to you that you pirate things, but they're not going to stop you from doing it yourself).

I understand that, but given the default way of searching there now is by the autocomplete feature, then they are censoring it to some extent. Google has always been against censorship in the past, but like so many others, I fear this is the beginning of more to come...

 

[Hielor]

I understand that, but given the default way of searching there now is by the autocomplete feature, then they are censoring it to some extent. Google has always been against censorship in the past, but like so many others, I fear this is the beginning of more to come...

I suspect it might be a "CYA" feature on their part. If you're looking to buy "Action Kittens X II The Sequel Of Awesomeness" on dvd, and you start typing it, only to have google offer up "full movie online" as an autocompletion, you could conceivably go and change your mind and end up acquiring it that way. That might get people like the MPAA mad at Google.

Worst-case scenario, if they start actually censoring the real search results, just move to another search engine. Personally, I've already gone to Bing--it has pretty pictures :lol:

 

[marooder86]

... and the fact they are censoring anything at all. They should be providing a list of search results only IMO.

I second this but internet is being censored anyway, do we like it or not, so it's not that Google by such decision has become less trustworthy or something.

They should be providing a list of search results only IMO

Are you sure they "should"?
Google is a corporate which provides product, we as consumers have to agree to the terms or change the vendor. Shortly we are dependent to their good will, cause they can provide full list of search but they don't have to(unless there is some law that requires it and I don't know anything about it).

It is the responsibility of said websites in those search results to prevent and or censor piracy on their own sites.

That would be the best solution but again, it reqires adequate laws so sites owners couldn't bypass them like they're doing right now.

Google has always been against censorship in the past...

AFAIK it's not true.

I fear this is the beginning of more to come

I feel the same.