News - Google censors BitTorrent and more from its instant search service

[HEXUS]

Search giant capitulates to entertainment industry.

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[aidanjt]

Still doing no evil there, eh Google?

[miniyazz]

This is a fail from Google. Preventing porn etc references from appearing in autocomplete and instant search? Fine. A welcome and necessary step. Filtering words such as torrent, which have many legitimate uses (even if most uses may be illegitimate), is not good.

Google, you are losing points

[TooNice]

^ It's impossible to please everyone. I see nothing wrong with legal porn, and I can't see how preventing auto-complete for those terms more 'welcome and necessary' than something you have acknowledged as being often used for illegitimately. Some people have issues with porn, others with violence, yet others with digital piracy. They may support one thing, yet be against something else. But anyway, it's not like Google is blocking search results (yet).

[miniyazz]

Because your child could be using a public computer at the library, at school, round a friend's house, be typing in a perfectly legitimate phrase, and all of a sudden it pops up with half a dozen porn sites while you're still typing. That's why blocking autocomplete and instant search on porn-related things is appropriate, I doubt you'll find many people disagreeing with that.
OTOH, torrents are not inherently objectionable for certain (vulnerable) demographics, which is why they should not be subject to anything of the kind.

What I would object to regarding porn, is Google blocking sites when actually doing a search for them, as I see no problem with legal porn either.

[Andeh13]

What a hollow move, Google looses credibility & what exactly have they accomplished? Those into this sort of thing will probably know that if they just type it all out (ie those extra few letters)...they will still get what they want!!

[TooNice]

^ It might be silly because it won't stop people of finding sources of piracy/porn/shock sites. Or perhaps it is genius because of it if this actually satisfies the MPAA etc., then I'd call it a win for Google.

Because your child could be using a public computer at the library, at school, round a friend's house, be typing in a perfectly legitimate phrase, and all of a sudden it pops up with half a dozen porn sites while you're still typing. That's why blocking autocomplete and instant search on porn-related things is appropriate, I doubt you'll find many people disagreeing with that.

If they are old enough to use a computer unsupervised, they are probably already looking at porn without the help of auto-complete/instant search. And if they are so young that it is objectionable, supervise them or at least install/setup some filters. There is nothing stopping anyone from creating a website titled "Snow White and the seven <insert something inappropriate here>", and for such sites from becoming a top hit for those looking for the more innocent cartoon.

[miniyazz]

^ It might be silly because it won't stop people of finding sources of piracy/porn/shock sites. Or perhaps it is genius because of it if this actually satisfies the MPAA etc., then I'd call it a win for Google.

It won't satisfy the media companies.

If they are old enough to use a computer unsupervised, they are probably already looking at porn without the help of auto-complete/instant search. And if they are so young that it is objectionable, supervise them or at least install/setup some filters. There is nothing stopping anyone from creating a website titled "Snow White and the seven <insert something inappropriate here>", and for such sites from becoming a top hit for those looking for the more innocent cartoon.

Alternatively, I'm googling something perfectly innocent on my computer, showing my mum how to do something, and bam - up pops porn sites on the instant search thing. Just what I always wanted - to look at porn with my mum.
Torrents on the other hand - no problem. One is to benefit users, the other to 'benefit' (given the ease of circumvention, ie press enter) large corporations who should have absolutely no say in it.

[BlackDwarf]

Oh no!
Now I've got to type the whole search string AND press enter!?

What an outrage!

[Spud1]

Well done Google, I wholeheartedly approve.

Instant search is an excellent feature, but it is very easy to be searching for something innocuous at work- maybe on your lunch you want to search for a film to read a review or synopsis. You type that in and half the results or more are to torrent sites or other similar places.

Not good if your boss or ITS manager walks past and assumes you are actually searching for torrents...It's not like they are filtering results completely, you just have to consciously search to find them. Not a bad thing imo

[dangel]

It's a slippery slope IMHO - filtering ought to be a user setting rather than a global one.

[Tattysnuc]

Isn't this an acknowledgement by Google that their tool can and is used to locate pirated material, such as torrents, therefore adding weight to the Pirate Bay's defence council which argued that The Pirate Bay is simply a search engine for the file, and doesn't physically index it...

Confused why google would do such a half measure and respond to pressure from the RIAA etc when their members are equally guilty of copyright infringement. (http://torrentfreak.com/record-label...-music-110110/)

[Spud1]

Isn't this an acknowledgement by Google that their tool can and is used to locate pirated material, such as torrents, therefore adding weight to the Pirate Bay's defence council which argued that The Pirate Bay is simply a search engine for the file, and doesn't physically index it...

Confused why google would do such a half measure and respond to pressure from the RIAA etc when their members are equally guilty of copyright infringement. (http://torrentfreak.com/record-label...-music-110110/)

No - as Google wouldn't be able to find torrents etc without sites like piratebay etc, so it's not the same.