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No. 1 Google result for ‘Jew’ is fanatical hate site — for now
Jewish News Weekly of Northern California ^ | 3/15/04 | Joe Eskenazi

Posted on 03/24/2004 6:10:00 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Online searchers punching the word “Jew” into the Google search engine may be surprised at the results they get.

In fact, the No. 1 result for the search entry “Jew” turns out to be www.jewwatch.com.

The fanatically anti-Semitic hate site is ranked first in relevance of more than 1.72 million Web pages at press time on Wednesday.

Google, like other online search engines, is utilized by Web users to locate information on the Internet. Typing “Barry Bonds” into the engine, for example, returns 332,000 Web pages to choose from, and “George W. Bush” yields more than 4 million.

The No. 1 ranking of Jew Watch came as a surprise to David Krane, the director of corporate communications for the San Mateo-based Web giant.

Such a page might not pop up for Google searchers in European countries, where Holocaust denial is illegal. But Krane adamantly stated that Google has no plans to manually alter the results of their ranking system to knock Jew Watch from its top spot.

“No, we don’t do that. Google merely reflects what is on the Web and does its best to algorithmically rank pages. Unless [a Web page] violates a country or local law, we don’t make any tweaks,” he said.

So how did a hate site grab Google’s top spot? Krane explained that Google’s search engine discerns a site’s “relevance” by the number of pages with a forwarding link to it in addition to the prominence of those sites.

So, for example, a link from the Wall Street Journal will weigh more heavily than one from a backwoods hate site, but hundreds or thousands of links from small sites do add up.

Krane was unsure if the Jew Watch site was a “Google Bomb” — an organized effort by a large group to establish links to a site with the goal of grabbing a top spot on Google (for example, a huge group of Web-loggers cooperated to ensure the No. 1 result of a Google search for “Talentless Hack” is Andy Pressman, following an effort launched by Pressman’s friend as a joke).

“I’m not able to tell if this is a Google Bomb or not. It does appear to be a somewhat unlikely Web page to appear in the first position on this query,” Krane said.

While Google will not alter the results of its own search engine, Krane promised to alert the firm’s engineers to further refine the search algorithm, which might alter the findings for the term “Jew.”

He invited users concerned about search results to contact help@google.com. User feedback is sent directly to engineers, he said.

Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, noted that one can stumble across plenty of Holocaust denial Web sites by simply typing “Holocaust” into Google.

“Some responsibility for this needs to rest on our own shoulders and not just a company like Google. We have to prepare our kids for things they come across” on the Internet, he said.

“This is part of the nature of an Internet world. The disadvantage is we see more of it and our kids see more of it. The advantage is, we see more of it, so we’re able to respond to it. … I’m not sure what people would want to see happen. You couldn’t really ask Google not to list it.”

As of Wednesday, the No. 2 Google search for “Jew” was www.cjf.org, a San Antonio “messianic Jewish” ministry and the No. 3 site was www.jewfaq.org, an online Jewish encyclopedia.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Israel; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; google; hatesites
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1 posted on 03/24/2004 6:10:02 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
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To: Alouette; SJackson
Ping.
2 posted on 03/24/2004 6:10:31 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle (I feel more and more like a revolted Charlton Heston, witnessing ape society for the very first time)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Who the heck is gonna google "Jew?"
3 posted on 03/24/2004 6:13:59 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: billorites
Who the heck is gonna google "Jew?"

Not me, not Yew.

4 posted on 03/24/2004 6:15:01 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
But Krane adamantly stated that Google has no plans to manually alter the results of their ranking system to knock Jew Watch from its top spot.

Funny, cause I just googled for "Jew" and www.jewwatch.com was nowhere to be found.

(Not that I particularly object...)

5 posted on 03/24/2004 6:20:26 PM PST by explodingspleen (When life gets complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.)
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To: billorites
"Who the heck is gonna google "Jew?""

I dunno.....but the number one page for a Google search for "Jew Bastard" has Hillary Clinton's name on it. No lie.

6 posted on 03/24/2004 6:21:44 PM PST by Godebert
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
This is true! So, I tried a different approach. I typed in Jewish and the number one site returned this:


Matzoh, Matzoh Man...I wanna be a Matzoh Man. This Matzoh Plate gives new meaning to the phrase "sing for your unleavened bread."


7 posted on 03/24/2004 6:22:42 PM PST by NYer (Prayer is the Strength of the Weak)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Google has that site classified under Google Groups Directory as :

Society > Issues > Race-Ethnic-Religious Relations > Hate > Anti-Semitism

Google's Page Rank Order lists the above-referenced site in 7th place, with two equally despicable sites ranked in the 1st and 2nd positions.

8 posted on 03/24/2004 6:29:34 PM PST by bd476 (Walking in faith is easier on my soul than walking in fear.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
I would not blame Google because search engines index sites by keyword if possible. Notice the keyword metatags for Jewwatch:

meta NAME="keywords" CONTENT="jew,jews,jewwatch,jew watch,jews and communism,jews in,what jews,which jews,jews and bank,jews in government,history,diversity,Red Revolution,USSR,U.S.S.R.,CIS,C.I.S.,jews in government, zionist occupied government,holocaust,atrocities,defamation,diversity,civil rights,pluralism,ZOG,Zionism,Israel,terror,ADL,JDL,NAACP,NOW,Christ,bible,Bible,talmud,Marx,Freud,middle east,murder,crime,Trotsky,christians,genocide,NKVD,Russia,New York,mafia,spy,spies,Rosenberg">

This is going to weigh heavily when indexed among other sites.

For comparison, this is the second entry, Judaism 101, and its keywords are as follows:

meta name="keywords" content="who is jewish conversion born jewish birth judaism judaica jewfaq">

9 posted on 03/24/2004 6:30:45 PM PST by Liberal Classic (Will admin systems for food.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
So what and stop it!

Spend more time helping your neighbors than typing on your keyboard in search of how to be a victim . Shame on you.

While you google away, you're missing the whole point. (Heavy sigh)
10 posted on 03/24/2004 6:31:54 PM PST by lizma
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
...a “Google Bomb” — an organized effort by a large group to establish links to a site with the goal of grabbing a top spot on Google...

Son of a gun. I've always wondered about this.

If you go to Google and type in "Miserable Failure", the biography of George W. Bush comes up first (or as the default if you hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button). I always just kind of assumed that the senior people at Google hated Dubya, but I guess it's just a bunch of Bush haters doing their thing.

11 posted on 03/24/2004 6:35:19 PM PST by Starve The Beast (I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused)
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To: Godebert
The fact that Google can be manipulated is probably one of it's strengths.

It's my favorite search engine after almost 7 years on the web.

I filter the B.S. out pretty quick.

12 posted on 03/24/2004 6:35:46 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: billorites
Google my name and what do you see?


13 posted on 03/24/2004 6:36:41 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Let's be offended, let's sue somebody, that's the American way!


14 posted on 03/24/2004 6:36:43 PM PST by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything!")
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To: explodingspleen
Odd. I tried it, and yeah, jewwatch.com did come up as the first entry. That's awful :(

And the bit about "Jew Bastard" -does- return Hillary... that's too funny. I never heard that she was accused of saying that, though it wouldn't surprise me if she did.

Qwinn
15 posted on 03/24/2004 6:37:51 PM PST by Qwinn
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To: lizma
Please don't shoot the messenger. Kent reported and linked a news story, he didn't author it. Anti-Semitism is on the rise all over, and that's not just one group's opinion, sadly it is fact.
16 posted on 03/24/2004 6:40:06 PM PST by bd476 (Walking in faith is easier on my soul than walking in fear.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
I'm in the top 10 for "political clipart"
17 posted on 03/24/2004 6:55:53 PM PST by Alouette (A nasty end, and I wish I needn't have seen it; but it's a good riddance.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
You're right. That site is full of whacky anti-semetic rhetoric. More disturbingly this thread is filled with a bit of overtly apathetic responses to outright hostile ones?

Some of the people saying that this thread is someho unrelated to the topics discussed on this site, need to take a hard look around. Because social issues like this are far more relevent than some of the silliness I see on here lots of times.
18 posted on 03/24/2004 7:08:45 PM PST by Tempest (Don't blame me, I'm voting for Bush.)
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To: Liberal Classic
wait... google ranks pages by links to a site??

what If I created a page that has ten thousand links to the same site on a single page??

19 posted on 03/24/2004 7:10:27 PM PST by GeronL (http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
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To: Alouette
Modesty thy name is Alouette.

Canada's first launched satellite shares your name.

..."For Canada, the space age began on September 29, 1962, with the launch of the satellite Allouette 1."

Manitoba Museum Astronomy Resources

20 posted on 03/24/2004 7:15:09 PM PST by bd476 (Walking in faith is easier on my soul than walking in fear.)
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