TorrentFreak reports that Google updated their transparency report to now show the number and specific details on the false takedown requests attempted. You can see this level of detail by going to a specific takedown request. For example, looking at takedown request ID 266534 shows that of the 886 URLs reported for DMCA violations, 3% […]
TorrentFreak reports Google has removed The Pirate Bay from showing up in Google’s search suggestions within Google Instant Search. Google Instant Search will auto-complete the search phrase based on search popularity and other factors. Prior to today, Google would auto-complete for the domain thepiratebay but now, Google has added that to their piracy filter list. […]
Google has released data from its latest Transparency Report covering censorship and content removal requests. The report features separate presentations of copyright-based removal requests and government requests. Google began publishing this data about two years go. The report is updated regularly; however government censorship and removal requests are updated every six months. The number of […]
After China and the US, India is the third largest internet market in the world. But India has philosophically aligned itself more with China in pursuing a policy of censorship toward publication of content deemed “offensive” or “objectionable” by individuals, groups or the government. A recently enacted law seeks to remove all such content from […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s New Happy Holidays Logo: Dancing Christmas Lights & Jingle Bells For Christmas and the holiday season, Google has a new musical logo out that plays Jingle Bells and ends by […]
There’s a multi-pronged assault on the internet going on now. It comes from over-zealous legislators, the US executive branch and individual judges. There’s an effort on multiple fronts to grant over-broad powers to copyright owners to instigate domain seizures, cut-off funds and de-index “rogue” websites if found guilty of “infringement,” where that concept is very expansively defined […]
The US government sent Google 5,950 content removal requests in the first half of 2011, more than triple the number of requests that 2nd-place India sent in during the same period. The numbers come from Google’s latest semi-annual update to the Government Requests section of its Transparency Report. The Government Requests data represents government inquiries […]
An Argentine court has ordered Google to stop “suggesting” searches that lead to sites deemed anti-Semitic and remove the sites from the search engine’s index. The company has reportedly said it won’t take action until getting the official order from the Buenos Aires court. The injunction, which represents censorship of search results, stems from a […]
As it promised in early December, Google has begun to remove terms associated with piracy from producing search results in Google Instant Search, and from appearing in Google Suggest. That includes searches involving the word “torrent” as well as “BitTorrent,” which is both the name of a company in San Francisco that produces torrent software, […]
The Spanish Data Protection Authority is treating Google not as an “intermediary” but as a “publisher” under Spanish law. That brings with it numerous burdens and obligations that potentially create a massive legal and privacy headache for Google. A similar thing happened recently in Italy where YouTube is now being classified and treated as a […]
YouTube, and parent Google, are now to be considered TV broadcasters in Italy according to new rules handed down by the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM). The rules apply equally to other sites providing video content over the internet provided they’re also running advertising. According to a translated version of an article appearing in the Italian […]
Last weekend, rather than read stories about the US diplomatic cables that Wikileaks has released, I decided to read them directly myself. In doing so, I better understood why no one — certainly not the US State Department — is going to shove those cables back into the darkness. Finding Wikileaks My first step was […]
Looking for the Wikileaks website? Having lost one domain, and having its second site going down temporarily, it’s a challenge, even for the search engines.
Want to explore the “Cablegate” material that Wikileaks released last week for yourself, but have no idea where to start? There’s a new search engine for the material. Cablesearch: A Google For Cablegate Called Cablesearch, it’s a project from the Eccar: The European Center of Computer Assisted Reporting. Gary Price from ResourceShelf tipped us to […]
In my “how to choose a URL shortener” article last year, I warned that the country domain that a shortener used might be an issue to consider. A year later, that’s even more so, as a Libyan .ly domain used for an adult content shortener has been closed. Libyan Registrar Takes Back Domain Earlier this […]
Pamela Anderson is a well-known actress. The New Pornographers are an indie rock band. Women rapping are … well, presumably just females making music. All three are also part of a growing list of known “naughty” phrases that trip up Google Instant. Danny Sullivan has already written about this topic here on Search Engine Land […]
Earlier this year Google launched an innovative “Government Requests map,” which showed how regularly governments around the world were asking Google to remove information or content from its index and services. Google won plaudits for the initiative, as well as criticism from some governments that the map allegedly made look like censoring regimes. Yesterday Google […]
As you know, Google won’t show certain search results in Google Instant for search results that seem pornographic, violent or hateful. The includes the word “lesbian,” even though few would consider it to be pornographic on its own. I reported this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google said they will try to fix […]
Like it or not, lots of people search for nude celebrities on Google. But with Google’s new Google Instant Search, those inclined to seek celebs in the buff have to figure out their queries without any help from Google. The same is true for those interested in nude beaches, famous nude artwork or “innocent” topics […]
See this screenshot above? The Brazilian government doesn’t like it. Actually, they don’t like where it came from: Google’s Government Requests tool, which was just launched last week. The AP reports that Brazil’s government has contacted Google’s representatives in that country for clarification about the numbers shown above — numbers that Brazil says give the […]
Google has announced a new tool that makes public the government requests it receives for data and content removal. It’s called Government Requests, and it currently shows requests that Google received between July 1 and December 31, 2009. Google admits, in a very detailed FAQ, that the data is not comprehensive. (The tool doesn’t include […]
Saying the host site was serving malware to users, Google has removed a controversial photo of First Lady Michelle Obama from Google Image Search. The site itself, however, remains listed in Google web search results without any visible malware warning. Welcome to the murky world of free speech, politics, and Google. It began last week, […]
Oh, the irony: The People’s Daily, the main newspaper of China’s Communist Party, says Google censored its web site by adding a malware warning to search result listings for the newspaper’s book section. The paper says the malware warning appeared after it ran an article about a Chinese group that has suggested Google’s book search […]
A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would limit what Google Maps and other online mapping sites are allowed to show, on the basis that these online tools help terrorists plan attacks. We’ve been here before: Late last year, the Indian government suggested that Google Earth should be censored after terrorists involved in the […]
On the heels of the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month, legal advocates in India are asking the country’s High Court to demand that Google blur sensitive locations on Google Earth. The Times reports that the Indian petition says Google Earth “aids terrorists in plotting attacks” and offers “absolutely no control to prevent misuse […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have agreed on a common set of principles governing how they intend to do business in countries that restrict free speech and human rights. All three companies have been criticized by rights groups and the US Congress in the past for putting profit over principles […]
TechCrunch reports that Google has aided in the arrest of an Indian man who wrote in an Orkut community, “I hate Sonia Gandhi.” Sonia Gandhi is a politician in India. Google reportedly handed over IP information to the Indian government, to help the government track down and arrest this individual. The man was charged under […]
Google founders: $1 salaries, $13B in stock from CNN Money reports Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt, renewed their contracts again at a $1 per year salary, in 2007. You would think that with the falling stock price, the founders might want some extra cash? But the $8.5 billion […]
Google’s Matt Cutts has lent his personal blog to the Google Images search team so they could debunk a rumor that Google censored an image of an Egyptian football player, Mohammad Aboutrika, stripping off his team jersey during the African Cup Of Nations to show a "Sympathize With Gaza" T-shirt underneath. No censoring, says Google […]
Flickr has recently introduced content filters, allowing users more control over what images they view, and to ensure that they don’t get nasty surprises by accidently viewing some of the more adult images that are hosted. However, while this is a useful option, the option of turning it off has been removed in Germany, which […]
As part of today’s Google International Press Day, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is doing Q&A with journalists. Here’s a live blogging highlight of what was said, which covered a range of issues from privacy, censorship, whether Google is too big and scary and more.
Google Shareholders Vote Against Anti-Censorship Proposal from PC World reports that Google’s shareholders sided with Google and voted down the anti-censorship proposal spearheaded by the New York City pension funds and the Office of the Comptroller of New York City. In short, a majority of shareholders sided with Google, which will continue to allow Google […]
Thailand Drops Plan to Sue Google from the Associated Press reports that Thailand has changed their mind on suing Google over the insulting videos of their king that were posted at YouTube. Vissanu Meeyoo, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology spokesman said, “We decided not to sue Google because it has agreed to cooperate […]
Remember that case where YouTube was hosting a video many Thais felt was insulting to their king? Thought it was all resolved? Think again. The Thai government plans to go after Google in court. Most stories I’ve seen so far talk about Google getting sued, but the AP reports this move might be a criminal […]
Google axes death-threat blog at The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Google finally shut down CYFSWATCH New Zealand blog after numerous complaints from governmental officials in New Zealand. The blog, hosted on Google’s Blogger service, reportedly wrote a death threat against a New Zealand politician. When you access the blog at this time, it says […]
The NY Sun reports that William Thompson Jr., the current comptroller of New York City, has been pressuring Google and Yahoo over operating ethically and legally overseas. Thompson “filed shareholder resolutions calling on the two search engines to create practices for dealing with censorship issues in communist countries like China, North Korea, and Cuba, as […]