Heh, heh…I just “Googled” Google. It turns out that they are pretty well optimized.
Then, I did a Google news search using the keyword “Google” and I found an interesting piece from yesterday’s N.Y. Times.
Did Google use its network of online services to silence critics of Barack Obama? That was the question buzzing on a corner of the blogosphere over the last few days, after several anti-Obama bloggers were unable to update their sites, which are hosted on Google’s Blogger service.
The bloggers in question, most of them supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and all of them opposed to Senator Obama, received a notice from Google last week saying that their sites had been identified as potential “spam” blogs. “You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog,” the Google e-mail read.
Some are saying that the Blogger “flag” feature has been manipulated by Obama supporters. Here’s what Google says about the “flag” feature on the Blogger site.
The Flag button isn’t censorship and it can’t be manipulated by angry mobs. Political dissent? Incendiary opinions? Just plain crazy? Bring it on.
Google blames anti-spam filters.
“It appears that our anti-spam filters caused some Blogger accounts to be blocked from creating new posts,” Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said in a statement. “While we are still investigating, we believe this may have been caused by mass spam e-mails mentioning the ‘Just Say No Deal’ network of blogs, which in turn caused our system to classify the blog addresses mentioned in the e-mails as spam.
It’s all curious. Either the system is being manipulated by a group of people or, the software designed to stop groups of people from manipulating the system is targeting a group of people.
Either way, it points to a sort of inadvertent censorship. Does that make any sense?
It might but, doesn’t it seem more likely that the Obama supporters gamed the system? If the anti-spam filter was that good at locating blogs that are mentioned in spam emails, it seems like a lot of the crap over at Blogger would be shut down, not just anti-Obama blogs.
Another possibility, that isn’t mentioned in the Times piece would be, somebody or group of people at Google has targeted blogs that they don’t like. Why couldn’t this be agenda driven?
Google is becoming all things to all people. Google controls the flow of content. And, that includes news and opinion. The web, the blogs in particular, have become a sort of disorganized, sometimes very effective watchdog group that scrutinizes all mainstream media. But, how does this watchdog keep an eye on the big dog that controls the flow of traffic?
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Tags: Barack Obama, blogs, censorship, Google
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
You see, Timmy, it’s what you have been saying all along. It’s the big picture that destroys it for the little guys.
The pencil necks of the first order of Birkenstock and socks grand marshals determined about two years ago that the next US Prez has to be a Dem. So the high order candidate dog and pony show we just witnessed is one that simply says the next one is a Dem… underwritten by the Bamberger Three. [Hillary was at the last meeting... btw]
McCain knows it, Hillary knows it, and Obama knows it. Between you and me and, well, google — I suspect that Hilly and Billy were trying to take on the supreme master bankers’ decision, but it was too much money to wager in the final sudden death all in pot. The Clinton’s logic had to have been, “Hey it doesn’t have to be a suede man; It could just as easily be a faux-blond Female…!”
We have enough actuaries and empirical time lines in USA history to see the pattern necessary to keep the bread baking;
Dem — 8 years [Bill]
Repub — 8 years [Dubya]
If war then 4 years of Dem [BO] [If no war 8 yrs possibly for Dem's]
Repub — 4 [?]
This is the musical 8 — 8 — 4 — 4 — progression, no?
I know, me too. I get a royal nausea in the pit of my stomach as this evilness comes out, and the truth is found to be onerous. When I stood up in kindergarten and learned to say the pledge of allegiance, this is not what I was thinking about.
Why do you think elected officials turn into such faded salt pillars by the end of their term? Jaded, without a soul, used up…
Old man Ted Kennedy tried to tell us all when he ran out and stood next to Obama in the primaries. He must have had one last shred of honor left as his face told me: “Will someone please teach me how to turn on my laptop?” his last appeal.
Pat Darnell and Friends’s last blog post..Jesus for President: should get the Evangelical Base Vote… eh?
Link | July 1st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Pribek wrote,
“first order of Birkenstock and socks grand marshals”
What is that? What are you saying here? Some kind of organization of power brokers tied in with the Federal reserve, a sub group of New World Order wearing hippie sandals?
Link | July 1st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
Yes; basically the flea on the big dog controlling flow of traffic, is controlling the blood flow to the guard dogs. Those big brainy blood gurgling fleas are getting older and have opted for the comfort lines of footwear, namely Cuban Birkenstock’s.
…if you know what I mean.
[This Commentator, PDandF, will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this site, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages.]
Link | July 1st, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Pat Darnell And Friends wrote,
100 useful niche search engines
Laura Milligan has put up a useful list of niche search engines over at College at Home
She points out that though the general Google site is often touted as the number one search engine online, college students sometimes need more specific tools to help them uncover quality information on the Web that they can use for class projects, research papers, and even job and apartment searches.
This list features a huge variety of search engines that can be useful to many of us, including tools that find photos, sound effects, summer internships, health and medical information, reference guides, and a lot more.
Pat Darnell And Friends’s last blog post..SEED Magazine Writing Contest
Link | July 1st, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Stephen wrote,
Google needs to take responsibility for censoring these blogs by publicly apologizing and pledge to never censor content again…force them to change or else we will blog on non-Google platforms: https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/stop-google-censorship
Link | July 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm