Posted Saturday, April 24, 2004 Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech Alphabetical index (text)
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[Saturday, April 24, 2004 ] How deep can a search engine grovel?   [www.jewwatch.com no longer appears at the the top of Google results. Here is Google's apology"] http://www.google.com/explanation.html AN explanation of our search results. If you recently used Google to search for the word "Jew," you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google. We'd like to explain why you're seeing these results when you conduct this search. A site's ranking in Google's search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted. A search for "Jew" brings up one such unexpected result. If you use Google to search for "Judaism," "Jewish" or "Jewish people," the results are informative and relevant. So why is a search for "Jew" different? One reason is that the word "Jew" is often used in an anti-Semitic context. Jewish organizations are more likely to use the word "Jewish" when talking about members of their faith. The word has become somewhat charged linguistically, as noted on websites devoted to Jewish topics such as these: http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/vol01/vol01.174 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah081500.asp Someone searching for information on Jewish people would be more likely to enter terms like "Judaism," "Jewish people," or "Jews" than the single word "Jew." In fact, prior to this incident, the word "Jew" only appeared about once in every 10 million search queries. Now it's likely that the great majority of searches on Google for "Jew" are by people who have heard about this issue and want to see the results for themselves. Our search results are generated completely objectively and are independent of the beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google. Some people concerned about this issue have created online petitions to encourage us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Because of our objective and automated ranking system, Google cannot be influenced by these petitions. The only sites we omit are those we are legally compelled to remove or those maliciously attempting to manipulate our results. We apologize for the upsetting nature of the experience you had using Google and appreciate your taking the time to inform us about it. Sincerely, The Google Team p.s. You may be interested in some additional information the Anti-Defamation League has posted about this issue at http://www.adl.org/rumors/google_search_rumors.asp. In addition, we call your attention to both the Jewish Internet Association, an organization that addresses online anti-semitism, at http://www.jewishinternetassociation.org/, and Google's search results on this topic.   Jews claim victory over Google in fight with Jewwatch website Google Says It Doesn't Plan to Change Search Results Three cheers Organised attempts by furious Jews around the world to bomb "enemy" website off Google's top ranking: Google refuses to come to their aid | More on this story Charleston Post and Courier article Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles story CNET News article Controversy over Google search-engine grows: Harvard experts on Web censorship detect that Google engine, bowing to German and French pressure, suppresses sites (including ours)  | Who hijacked it? | Who writes the offensive "category" notes? | See too Google Watch | Jamie McCarthy's role | Who hijacked ... (continued) |  "C" discovers another odd thing about it | The Memory Hole: Google engine has sanitised the David Shayler website [more on Google's Web-fixing] | More on The Google Gods  | Google.de schließt illegale Seiten aus So much for First Amendment: As the traditional enemies slowly throttle free speech, report shows Internet filtering now in 43% of US public libraries (thank God for the home computer) Websites become dependent on Google search engine White House Alters Website To Block Google Archives The two brains behind Google Lynda Mortl has been investigating library censorship of websites Robert Fisk identifies US missile that killed 62 Arabs, by using Google Censorship of revisionism - at €1,100,000 (over $1million) the largest budget item in Euro Internet  Europe to criminalize Internet "hate speech" including hyperlinks to offensive pages Google.de schließt illegale Seiten aus Canadian Jewish newspapers warned that revisionists have seized the Internet high ground, called for more police censorship

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