Posted on 10/06/2010 9:02:43 AM PDT by george76
Ever since Google unveiled its new search function, hackers have been compiling a list of banned words, including Latina and “meats.” Brian Ries talks to some of the blacklisted.
Somewhere hidden deep within Google’s massive cache of servers, there is a blacklist unlike any other. For starters, it contains enough sexually suggestive terms to make any 15-year-old boy’s head explode. But there are also some unexpected words, like, say, Latina. And hidden from public view, the official version will never see the light of day.
But over the past few weeks, a group of hackers in New York City has been trying to crack the code.
The list started with Google’s new search function, Google Instant. Introduced in early September, it shows results as you type—as opposed to waiting for you to press enter. It works like a telepathic Internet concierge, hoping to send you along to the most relevant results on the Web.
And since its debut, the hackers at The Hacker Quarterly have been reverse-engineering search terms and making a list of words that the company’s algorithms have blacklisted, in an attempt to sanitize its real-time results. In other words, as you enter these words or phrases into your search bar, letter-by-letter, you’ll eventually be faced with a blank page.
One of the first search terms they realized Google had blacklisted was “teen.” That led to other words, like “adult,” and then certain ethnic and religious groups, but, then, not others. “Like, lesbian, why is that in there?" wondered Emmanuel Goldstein, the editor.
The group continued its experiment by compiling a list of 30 words that every kid in America wants to know to improve their “repertoire,” he explained, and then testing to see if Google Instant would return any results.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
1984-esque censorship with ‘Emmanuel Goldstein’ mentioned as working against the system. Perfect!
That was actually a mildly fascinating read.
This isn’t as outrageous as it sounds from the headline. Google has an auto-search function now that searches while you type, and they strike certain terms from the autosearch ... so you don’t accidentally land on porn when searching for something innocuous that has a porn-like name. For instance, a search for “breast cancer” would likely give you a lot of naked ladies before you got to typing the word “cancer”.
If you really want to search for the porn, you just need to hit “enter” — the search will still come up. As I understand it, the terms are just struck from the “pre-enter” autosearch.
SnakeDoc
Uh, perhaps Google is excluding these words because it doesn’t want the instant results to send you to anything that might be untoward. Perhaps they want you to take the extra step to put in an inappropriate search phrase, rather than showing you instant results. This would mean that you can only get to graphic materials by typing in the phrase and hitting submit, rather than having the instant results automatically pop up.
I do not understand. I Googled “Latina” (which incidentally is not an accepted word as yet, it appears to be slang for a female Latino) and got “About 141,000,000 results (0.16 seconds)”. For the word “adult” I got “About 411,000,000 results (0.22 seconds)”. The latter gave many web sites which could be loosely categorized as “adult entertainment”. That does not jibe with what the article states. Please explain for a non-techy like me.
Bingo. You nailed it.
There's some others in there in between but although they include "latina" womenfolk, they are not dancing.
Simply Amazing!
I was kidding.
Why search “ass, lesbian, and Latina”?
You’d just end up with a Supreme Court Justice.
Q: What did the breast cancer say to the Polish monkey?
A: Got milk?
I dunno, sounds like a lot of work...
Among the list of censored words is the phrase: Authentic Obama Birth Certificate.
Huge LOL on that one Ben!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.