Is there any rhyme or reason to Google supps?

[Linkster]

A lot of good "theories" in here and in those articles - however none are correct - there is at least one word that Google does censor in the english language results (in the url when the &hl=en) and that word is sex. They have openly admitted to doing this starting back in 2004 (I know I had a top 10 listing and went ballistic when they did it)
When Google first started out they made that one word a "test case" - and decided they would only return PG rated results for it - they then went away from that in 2002 - and then chose to go back to it in 2004 and ever since.

There are some other words that Google will censor in their adwords programs (like liquor and smoking result keywords) - but as far as the actual search engine organic results we only know of that one word.(for sure anyway)

Do they apply a damper for some words and phrases - I doubt it based on the spam Ive seen make it into mainstream phrases - however I believe that if the McCain child protection bill makes it through congress and becomes law they will have to start - just like the hosting co.s, registrars and everyone else