Google Censors

So why all the sudden has Google discovered moralistic censorship? Recently google has begun censoring image search results to provide more family friendly links, and coincidentally Google has also started censoring music search results to lead people to the cleaner, or radio edited versions of songs. Frankly, this seems both counterproductive and self defeating.

This is actually a massive shift in Google’s corporate policy, especially for people under 40, and it might be the beginning of the end for Google. No, I don’t think I’m being overly dramatic.

Let me preface the next part of this by listing some facts. One, I am a huge Google fan. When I got my first gmail account in 2005 I made the conscious decision that Google was offering superior products and services to any other search provider, and that I knew that I was going to be wedded to that service for some time. Slowly Google introduced other products that filled all of my needs. Products like Voice, Reader, News, Picasa, etcetera. Two, I am an Android user and an Android loyalist. I have chosen Android as what I think is superior to any other smartphone platform. Three, I have friends that have worked at Google, interned at Google, and might still work for Google now. So while I am going to criticize this decision strongly, please understand that I want Google to remain the best provider for my search and services. 

Since many studies have found that almost all men consume adult content online, and since those same men search for porn matching their own sexual proclivities and discard things otherwise found to be distasteful or uninteresting. Since music is commonly thought of as profane by older generations, and especially it seems that way for newer music. These two issues seem to generate a train wreck of epic proportions.

Unless something is done immediately to end this counterproductive, puritanical, and easily circumvented censorship Google will quickly become a second-tier and also-ran search provider. It may well be that in ten years when we discuss why Google went bankrupt this will be the cornerstone.

Search is simple, search is honest, and sometimes search isn’t pretty. Google has provided honest, unfiltered search results for fourteen years. They have in that time become one of the world’s most influential companies because of their uncompromising quest for simply what is there. In the past Google has also caught flack for censoring results in other countries, especially when those results are politically unpopular. This is a problem too, and activists in many countries are struggling to end this. What is most shocking about this censorship is that it is taking place here, in America. The supposed land of the free, and the home of Google.

 We need impartial, honest, and fair results for any search. Without it, we should all just move to Bing.