Posted on 07/05/2012 8:19:29 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Google has banned gun sales from its new shopping platform, a move drawing fire from hunters and weapons enthusiasts but praised by gun control activists.
Google made the change May 31 when it transformed its "product search," which had consisted of free listings, into "Google Shopping," which has paid listings and is governed by the tech giant's advertising policies.
In its shopping service, Google "doesn't allow the promotion of weapons or devices designed to cause serious harm or injury," the website said, describing its advertising policies.
The ban includes "guns, gun parts or hardware, ammunition, bombs, knives, throwing stars, and brass knuckles," it said.
Even though the policy was announced more than a month ago, it drew notice only in recent days after it was pointed out by a blog called Outdoor Hub, dedicated to "outdoor enthusiasts."
Blog contributor Edward Pierz said Google "censors" firearm searches, and linked to a petition to "Tell Google not to interfere with our 2nd amendment rights," a reference to the constitutional right to bear arms.
"If you wish to purchase a gun, you are required to do a background check and utilize an FFL (federal firearms license) holder to make the purchase regardless of whether you buy it online or through a gun shop," the petition says.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdc.com ...
Google has shown themselves to be chameleons when it comes to commerce and freedom-(China); no surprise here.
The path of least resistance, particularly in the name of undescribed “values”, is a path of capitulation and weakness and is not the path of freedom.
By their fruits ye shall know them.
But they don’t mind selling socialism which killed over 100 million human beings in the last century.
Google mines your keystrokes and radios them back to the mothership.
If I can believe some of the articles I’ve read, mother google sells your keystrokes, with your implicit, and even explicit, permission. Read the fine print on your google apps.
Android is a suspected mining operation.
If you want an Android appliance, be sure to get one that can be loaded with a different OS, like a tablet-flavor of Ubuntu or something.
And yet a quick search of their products/shopping for the word "whips" returns bondage whips within the first page of matching results (meaning they are intended for use on human flesh, not just the horse whips that were also returned).
Communists lie. Always.
The only difference between google and the average third world dictator is the uniforms.
Amen to that. You took the words right out of my mouth.
Of course!! Guns are eeeeevil; but bizarre sex is perfectly OK! (do I really need a sarcasm tag here?;)
The only site i visit using my phone is FR. Well, and facebook. I don’t check my bank statements or anything else while on the phone because it is Google based. Someone, somewhere is getting the info that FR is getting visited a google times a day :)
Communism, Socialsim....Googlism....whats in a name?
At one time in the past I would have said it is their decision and supported them, but when you have become a focal point for information, censorship of any kind is no longer tolerable. Quite frankly, Bing even works as well as google now. It's just too bad my little one-man protest makes absolutely no difference in the scope of things.
Well, if it could be proven that guns prevent more injuries and deaths than they cause, would their policy then REQUIRE them to carry guns?
On the contrary, after reading your post I switched my homepage to Bing, then went and removed Google Analytics from a website I run.
I often used Google Shopping to find and compare parts for guns I was building. Now I won't use Google for anything whatsoever and will encourage others to do the same.
I'l probably still keep my gmail account but my search I've changed to StartPage.com. They're marketing tag states that they don't track user ip's in searches and that's for me.
Google search is history for me.
i'm sick of the hypocracy of google pretending to be concerned with their mission of having to present the most accurate information to users of their search engine but neglecting to say that the information has been sanitized beforehand.
Google is history as far as I'm concerned.
If this trend continues, Google will retain 90% of its clientele - but that would consist entirely of teenagers and mental zombies. (In other words, it would be useless.) That's how MySpace met its doom - it had plenty of users but those users were all children. No way to monetize that. Facebook was catering to adults from day one, but eventually it will meet the same end: people who are willing to be tracked are not worth tracking.
Googles all in. Avoid like the plague
"Google-Sucks.org is a website dedicated to discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly about Google, and everything that Google does."
http://google-sucks.org/
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