Is Google Blocking FreeRepublic.com?

Poe.com ^ | February 22, 2009 | Richard Lawrence Poe

[Richard Poe]

CONSERVATIVE COMANCHE blogger David Yeagley is enjoying a record surge in Web traffic, following the redesign of his BadEagle.com Web site. But you'd never know it from reading our Google Analytics report.

While most traffic counters show Yeagley's readership skyrocketing since the January 14 relaunch, Google Analytics shows Yeagley in a nose-dive. Part of the problem appears to be that Google is ignoring any traffic we get from the popular, conservative discussion board FreeRepublic.com.

As the designer of Yeagley's new site, I was pleased to see a big traffic spike on January 31, two weeks after our relaunch. The spike came largely from FreeRepublic.

The charts above -- both from WordPress Stats -- indicate that David Yeagley's BadEagle.com blog got a spike of 1,078 page views on January 31, at least 413 of which came from FreeRepublic.com. The chart below -- from Google Analytics -- shows no spike on January 31, and no sign of any traffic from FreeRepublic.com.



On January 30, a Freeper calling herself Sioux-san had posted Dr. Yeagley's article "Michael Medved and `White Women'" at FreeRepublic.com. She graciously provided a link back to BadEagle.com, where the original article appeared.

Over the next 24 hours, some 413 Freepers followed that link back to BadEagle, according to our internal traffic counter WordPress Stats. In its list of referring Web sites, WordPress clearly indicated that those 413 page views came from FreeRepublic, and at least 326 of them specifically from the article posted at FreeRepublic by Sioux-san.

Strangely, our Google Analytics account showed no sign of any visits from FreeRepublic during the same 24-hour period. Not a single visit. Not a single Freeper. Not one.

Indeed, while Site Meter and WordPress Stats showed a big spike in our traffic on January 31, Google Analytics showed a drop.

With its massive traffic, FreeRepublic ought to be a kingmaker on the Internet. It ought to be able to make or break other Web sites by choosing which sites to grace with its traffic and which sites to ignore.

Our experience with the mysterious, vanishing traffic spike of January 31 may indicate that liberal Internet gatekeepers have found a way to curtail FreeRepublic's influence -- and the influence of conservative Web sites generally.

[familyop]

Nope. FR still gets a couple of hits from content keywords alone, just like the other sites. And if you want hits only from FR, do like the following.

keywords here site:freerepublic.com

[rabscuttle385]

On January 30, a Freeper calling herself Sioux-san had posted Dr. Yeagley's article...

*Ping!*

[Cindy]

http://www.google.com

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=freerepublic.com&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=freerepublic&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

[2ndDivisionVet]

And this surprises someone?

[sionnsar]

Google is my search engine of last resort. I much prefer Dogpile, using Google only if Dogpile fails.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I don’t know if Google is censoring FR, but I strongly suspect that some colleges in the Twin Cities metro are filtering FR from their machines. You can type in the URL and get there by link, but the browsers do not retain FR’s addy and error screens are common.

[George Smiley]

I’ve quit using Google and use ixquick instead.

You can even substitute it for Google on the IE7 toolbar.

[max americana]

is it me or you CANT add DOGPILE to FF toolbar?

[eleni121]

So what’s ixquick? Is it like firefox?

[familyop]

Dogpile is a liberal/left outfit, too, IMO. So I use and donate to a conservative proxy.

http://www.scroogle.org/

[GnL]

How about Clusty?

http://www.clusty.com

I use that one all the time instead of Google.

[TASMANIANRED]

Needs to sue them.

[3D-JOY]

I would be interested in any available follow up information on this “blocking”.

I just checked out the site and saw the story of the confiscated bumper sticker. I have had 3 removed in parking lots.

I am looking for a Tea Party one now.

THEY ARE COMING FOR US ALL!

[Aliska]

I used the advance search for an old post I didn't remember much about as to keywords. It came right up, but then it wasn't the right page. I tinkered for a bit then found it.

Google I use almost exclusively. Habit. Often recent regular google searches, FR comes up near the top, don't see any reason to worry about it yet.

[Richard Poe]

familyop writes: FR still gets a couple of hits from content keywords alone, just like the other sites.

Of course FreeRepublic gets plenty of incoming traffic from Google and everywhere else. There can be no question about that.

I am talking here about outgoing traffic. When FreeRepublic links to other Web sites, does Google keep proper track of the traffic those Web sites are receiving from FreeRepublic?

Our experience suggests that it does not -- at least not in all cases.

[familyop]

Clusty is a metasearch engine that makes requests to other search engines. That’s alright for using several other search engines in one search. I used metasearches sometimes during the ‘90s.

[sionnsar]

Dogpile is a liberal/left outfit, too, IMO./i>

Really? Do you have sources? The only thing I can say with a certainty is that they seem to observe "American" holidays in rather more American fashion than Google (though Dogpile did miss Washington's Birthday).

[tlb]

>>>I don’t know if Google is censoring FR, but I strongly suspect that some colleges in the Twin Cities metro are filtering FR from their machines.

On any given day you will find a series of totally repetitive anti-Darwin blog articles posted as NEWS, while any discussion of actual science is relegated to general CHAT. How seriously should schools take such a site?

[neefer]

Last night I was on an FR gun control thread. Went to Google in an attempt to find more info about the Hungarian Revolution and guns. To my surprise, Google listed that very thread at the top of the results page. Thread was only about an hour old.