Why Google Instant Blocks “Lesbian”

[Shana A]

 Posted on Advocate.com  October 05, 2010
Why Google Instant Blocks "Lesbian"
By Advocate.com Editors

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/05/Why_Google_Instant_Blocks_Lesbian/

A Google employee claims to have an explanation for why words like "lesbian" and "Latina" are blocked from Google Instant — according to a post on a help forum, the words are chosen by computer algorithm rather than human editors.

According to the post, found and reprinted by  The Daily Beast,"The algorithms we use to remove a prediction from autocomplete consider a variety of factors. Among other things, we exclude predictions for queries when the query itself appears to be pornographic, violent or hateful. ... Importantly, we also consider the search results themselves for given queries. So, if the results for a particular query seem pornographic, our algorithms may remove that query from autocomplete even if the query itself wouldn't otherwise violate our policies."

[geniebot]

A Google employee claims to have an explanation for why words like "lesbian" and "Latina" are blocked from Google Instant

So is `sappho' and `lesbos' missing any suggestions. The word `homo' .. bring up: `homosexuality in the bible', `homosexuality in islam' and `homosexuality in animals', not much of a choice then

[Cruelladeville]

Can't stand Google....

I used another well known SE....then it was sold/folded...

So I now use Metacrawler - far better! Minimal censorship....

[Astarielle]

Can't stand Google....

I used another well known SE....then it was sold/folded...

So I now use Metacrawler - far better! Minimal censorship....

Google is actually pretty cool about censorship. Earlier this year, China was cracking down on searches, and Google said if China didn't at least let them tell the Chinese when their search was censored, they were pulling out of China.

[Fencesitter]

And it's not even really censorship. You can still find all the results when you type in the keywords, it's just that Google does not make suggestions on its own.

One thing which is more annoying are E-mail spam filters, when they filter out anything that has "transsexual" in it until you find this out.

By the way, if you want to experience the WWW as if you were surfing from China, Firefox has a "China Channel Add-on" which simulates the Chinese firewall. It's amazing how many pages are blocked then.

http://chinachannel.hk/

The Firefox add-on China Channel offers internet user outside China to surf the web as if they were in China. Take an unforgetable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (supported by western companies)