Ars Technica reports Google has given a $1 million grant to a team at Georgia Tech in order to build tools to help users around the world monitor the internet for free. The goal is to build web-based tools any user can use that enables them to detect Internet throttling, government censorship, and other transparency […]
Should the US demand that Google, Bing and other search engines give preference to “authorized” sites offering television shows and movies? At least some members of the US House of Representatives pondered the idea yesterday, during a hearing on online piracy issues. The US House Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet Subcommittee hearings yesterday on […]
In yet another difficult European regulatory decision for Google the Spanish data protection authority has demanded that Google remove links to articles online (e.g., newspaper articles) that contain defamatory content. According to the UK-based Guardian: The technology giant has been ordered to remove almost 100 online articles from its search listings by Spain’s data protection […]
At a technology conference in Bejing Google representatives restated that the company has a long-term commitment to the Chinese market and would continue to operate there. According to an AFPs report, Google vice president John Liu said China was a “very important market for Google.” Google has displayed tremendous ambivalence about China over the past […]
The launch of Google Instant last month drew new attention to what Google suggests that people search for — and what it purposely omits to keep things family friendly. But over on Google Images, some of the suggestions that appear as you type are more of the soft-porn variety. Girls Gone Wild On Google Here’s […]
Ross LaJeunesse, Google’s Asia government affairs chief told an audience in Hong Kong that Google remains “committed to China and to our Chinese users” but added that its future in Mainland China is “uncertain.” At the same time, Google has reportedly been hiring people to protect its shrinking share in the world’s largest internet market. […]
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 […]
There’s a funny and satirical 1989 British film called “How to Get Ahead in Advertising.” The movie focuses on an ad executive, played by actor Richard E. Grant, who experiences an ethical and mid-life crisis. He develops a boil on his neck, which grows into a literal head (a kind of evil twin) and eventually […]
Google announced they are no longer allowed under Chinese law to redirect Google.cn to Google.com.hk. The Chinese government told Google that they won’t renew their license to operate in China if they continue to do the redirect. Google’s solution? Create a landing page on Google.cn, which appears to be a search box, but when clicked […]
For the second time in the past few months Google has been punished by a court outside the US for content posted by users on one of its owned and operated sites. In February an Italian court imposed a criminal privacy conviction on Google executives for the appearance of a video, showing the bullying of […]
Apparently, Google’s Sergey Brin now believes that the US government should make fighting Chinese censorship a high priority, is disappointed with Microsoft for continuing to censor and is surprised that some question Google’s sudden U-turn in China. I’d say Google needs to get a little time under its belt being outside of China and setting […]
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 Stops Censoring In China, Hopes Using New Domain Meets Legal Requirements Beginning today, Google is no longer censoring results on its Chinese search engine, the company has announced. But rather […]
Ever since Google’s bold statement early this year that it would be withdrawing from the Chinese search market if it couldn’t find a way to operate without censorship, Mountain View has found itself in a bit of a no-win situation. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has expressed several times that the company would like to remain […]
Looking for the official Google blog post about Google deciding to to leave China over censorship? Don’t try finding it on China’s leading search engine, Baidu. It doesn’t appear to exist. Google’s post was titled “A new approach to China.” A good search engine, at least the American-based ones that I’m familiar with, will generally […]
Right now there’s a court case in Italy that involves Google executives, who are being tried for violating Italian privacy laws. The case illustrates international conflicts of law issues and challenges for companies doing business (via the internet) in multiple nations with differing cultures and corresponding legal rules. In a less serious way Google has […]
This morning Yahoo announced that it was acquiring Maktoob.com, “the leading online community in the Arab world.” According to Yahoo the site has an audience of 16.5 million people. The purchase price has been estimated at between $75 and $100 million and was apparently in the works before the search deal with Microsoft was announced last month. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Ask.com Expands AnswerFarm Q&A Database Continuing its move from being a traditional search engine to an “answer engine,” Ask today has announced that its “AnswerFarm” database has tripled in size, from […]
In the wake of the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Government’s crackdown on democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, the issue of Google’s (self) censorship of search results in China has come around again. CNET has a lengthy and critical article on the subject: Google was going to help democratize data in China. Instead, about three […]
(No, this is not a holdover from our April 1 coverage, but I will be ‘optimizing’ the article with my own personal comments in parentheses.) A UK government agency charged with fighting terrorism has a new tool in its arsenal: SEO. (Take that, Calacanis!) According to The Register, the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OCST) […]
Citing the Mumbai terrorists’ statement that they used Google Maps as a planning tool, a California legislator (from El Cajon) has introduced a bill which would “not allow online mapping tools from companies like Google Inc. to provide aerial or satellite images of schools, places of worship, government buildings and medical facilities unless they have […]
Today is judgment day for the four Google executives charged by Italian prosecutors in June 2008. The New York Times blog reports a trial against them involving criminal charges of defamation and privacy violation begins this week in Milan. Like we reported in the past, the case is about a video uploaded to YouTube where […]
SearchBiz today rounds up some items from the last 24 hours. Most of them concern personnel moves or speculation about who might get the top spot at Yahoo. Then there’s the ongoing MicroHoo saga and whether a new CEO will restart talks with Redmond. There’s also the matter of MSN being branded a “lewd” site […]
The Associated Press reports that China has begun a process to “purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors.” This has resulted in the Chinese government finding that both Google and Baidu have failed to take “efficient” actions to remove content from their results after being notified of issues. The AP […]
There’s lots of news today and from over the US holiday weekend. Much of it concerns Yahoo and Google, as it often does in this column. The big buzz generated over the weekend was from the UK’s Times Online report that there was a tentative deal reached between Yahoo and Microsoft to buy the former’s […]
My day started reading about how Google was reportedly censoring anti-Barack Obama blogs by shutting them down on Google-owned Blogger. I quickly did some debunking in a comment on our Sphinn site — but still, Google probably needs to do more to ensure its Blogger spam reporting tools aren’t being abused — especially given how […]
You may recall that the failure of Google and Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central among other properties, to negotiate an agreement to work together (read: revenue sharing) resulted in a very public Viacom-Google “pissing match” over copyright infringement and whether Google had made good faith efforts to protect against it. (Danny has an […]
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 […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Yesterday, I kept noticing Twitters of YouTube problems. Soon after, the BBC reported YouTube outage blamed on Pakistan. It appears that the recent Pakistan ban of YouTube not only caused Pakistan ISPs to block YouTube, but also spread worldwide and stopped users from even the United States from accessing YouTube. How so? The two-hour YouTube […]
Arcor to block Google from heise online reports Huch Medien, the operator of a erotic site Amateurstar.de, has filed in a German court to have Arcor, Germany’s second-biggest telecom company, to block Google because Google Images is showing pornographic content without an age verification test.
Google Under Fire Over a Controversial Site from the Wall Street Journal has an outstanding summary of all the controversy, politics, legalities and moral issues Google has run into due to their Brazilian favored social networking site, Orkut. The article covers how Google had to pull the ads on Orkut back in August due to […]
With Thailand and Turkey both yet again seeking to block YouTube, we thought it would be useful to recap the growing list of countries that have objected to content on the service. We’re focusing on national governments that have taken action to block content on YouTube from being accessible countrywide.
Philipp Lenssen reports that Iran blocked Google and Google’s various services for a short time span. Iran blocks and then unblocks Google from News.com reports that Iran had an error with their filter list, which blocked Google.com and other Google services such as Gmail.
Web search for bomb recipes should be blocked: EU from Reuters reports Franco Frattini, the European Union’s Justice & Security Commissioner, would like to somehow block searches that might help terrorists from finding sites about making bombs. Frattini is expected to deliver his proposal for EU states to consider adopting in early November.
YouTube wins “supermodel sex on the beach” case from Ars Technica reports that Brazilian model Daniella Cicarelli and her boyfriend have lost their case against Google’s YouTube.
I reported this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable that UK Google AdWords advertisers are being notified by Google that they can no longer accept ads for any kind of gambling site. That includes gambling sites that are just for fun, have tutorials on gambling and content related to gambling. In an email, Google said, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
First Brazil blocked YouTube over a celebrity sex video. Then Turkey blocked YouTube over a video said to be insulting to country founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Now it’s Thailand’s turn. YouTube is now blocked in Thailand after the service apparently failed to remove a video clip deemed insulting to the country’s king.
Via Marketing Shift, Don’t Be Evil (Or A Dyke, Or Trans) at SFGate.com from Violet Blue shows how AdSense ads can totally go against the message of the sex content you may have published and covers concerns that Google may be banning some sexual orientation terms as offensive, even though those using them may think […]
Turkish Court Orders YouTube Blocked at Forbes.com reports a court order has been submitted to block YouTube in Turkey. The reason was because a video was found insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. The head of Turk Telekom said they have begun enforcing the ban immediately. Philipp Lenssen has a screen capture […]