Google Instant Search has been a huge hit so far for Google. Even nay-sayers like myself, who have disabled the instant searching capability, can agree that it’s a good idea in theory. However, not all searches work in Google Instant Search. The hacker publication 2600 has compiled a complete (and completely NSFW) list of words that Google Instant Search won’t list, and CNN has been doing the digging to find out why Google blocks those words from instant searching.
The blocking appears to be in place for safety reasons, despite the fact that Google’s SafeSearch web filter works with Instant Search capability. Apparently, Google wants to block otherwise innocent searches from revealing a huge, dirty string of pornographic websites as a result of a mistyped or incomplete search query. Seems innocent enough to me, as I’d hate to see that kind of thing happen at work to someone searching for the Greek island of Lesbos or something.
According to a Google spokesman, “There are a number of reasons you may not be seeing search queries for a particular topic. Among other things, we apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech. It’s important to note that removing queries from Autocomplete is a hard problem, and not as simple as blacklisting particular terms and phrases. In search, we get more than one billion searches each day. Because of this, we take an algorithmic approach to removals, and just like our search algorithms, these are imperfect. We will continue to work to improve our approach to removals in Autocomplete, and are listening carefully to feedback from our users.” The spokesman added, “This system is neither perfect nor instantaneous, and we will continue to work to make it better.”
Tags: Google, Instant Search, words blocked by Google Instant Search, 2600, hackers uncover blocked instant search words, google instant search, blocked instant searches, censorship, unusual news, computer safety, technology news