Would Google and Yahoo Geo-Filter Adult Searches?

Maj. Stress · 2006-02-16, 01:33 AM

Alex,
I am aware that google, yahoo and the rest can do as they please within the limits of the law. They do give warnings in some cases that you are entering an area that will have adult content. I do NOT see it in their business interest to filter out search results, and totally omit them in a country where it is perfectly legal to display the results.

In China it is illegal therefore the results are filtered out. In a market like the US, it is legal and a search engine can profit from it. It would be very hard to convince them to do otherwise when profit motivation is involved.

ecchi · 2006-02-16, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maj. Stress

I do NOT see it in their business interest to filter out search results, and totally omit them in a country where it is perfectly legal to display the results.

It would be very much in their interest. Blockbuster became the worlds biggest video rental company by "filtering out" adult videos, and one of the two reasons AOL became the worlds biggest ISP was its "child safe" adult site filtering option. If Google banned adult searches it would leave Yahoo and Microsoft Search behind.

Maj. Stress · 2006-02-16, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecchi

If Google banned adult searches it would leave Yahoo and Microsoft Search behind.

I think that is where Alta Vista came up with the saying "No Tits, No Hits"

ecchi · 2006-02-16, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maj. Stress

I think that is where Alta Vista came up with the saying "No Tits, No Hits"

Never heard that before, but it kind of proves my point. Alta Vista are a long way behind the others.

Linkster · 2006-02-16, 06:01 AM

First off - the Altavista doesnt matter anymore as they got bought by Yahoo and are using Yahoos index

As far as censoring results - Google already does do it as Alex mentioned above with terms like "sex" for English speaking searchers where they have censored the results for the last 2 years - they didnt used to and it was an amazing source of traffic (although pretty shitty)

A good comparison instead of using the hl=en term in the search results URL for google would be to look at the results in russian (hl=ru) - those are partially geo-filtered and uncensored for the term "sex"

Google has always also filtered results for some other things - especially when it came to their AdWords advertising with things like cigarettes (they dont allow ad campaigns for smoke resellers) and guns, casinos etc.
As far as search engines saying that they censor publicly - probably not going to happen in the US - not Google anyway and especially not for something like adult terms. The word sex is just one that they started censoring when Google first came about and they turned off the censoring for a few years then reinstituted it at the request of their owners.

2006-02-16, 06:01 AM	#5
Linkster NO! Im not a female - but being a dragon, I do eat them. Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sex Delta Posts: 5,084	First off - the Altavista doesnt matter anymore as they got bought by Yahoo and are using Yahoos index As far as censoring results - Google already does do it as Alex mentioned above with terms like "sex" for English speaking searchers where they have censored the results for the last 2 years - they didnt used to and it was an amazing source of traffic (although pretty shitty) A good comparison instead of using the hl=en term in the search results URL for google would be to look at the results in russian (hl=ru) - those are partially geo-filtered and uncensored for the term "sex" Google has always also filtered results for some other things - especially when it came to their AdWords advertising with things like cigarettes (they dont allow ad campaigns for smoke resellers) and guns, casinos etc. As far as search engines saying that they censor publicly - probably not going to happen in the US - not Google anyway and especially not for something like adult terms. The word sex is just one that they started censoring when Google first came about and they turned off the censoring for a few years then reinstituted it at the request of their owners. __________________ Pussy Chompers Porn Links NSCash

2006-02-16, 01:33 AM	#1
Maj. Stress Progress rarely comes in buckets, it normally comes in teaspoons Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Dark Side Of Naboo Posts: 1,289	Alex, I am aware that google, yahoo and the rest can do as they please within the limits of the law. They do give warnings in some cases that you are entering an area that will have adult content. I do NOT see it in their business interest to filter out search results, and totally omit them in a country where it is perfectly legal to display the results. In China it is illegal therefore the results are filtered out. In a market like the US, it is legal and a search engine can profit from it. It would be very hard to convince them to do otherwise when profit motivation is involved.