By
Ron Strom
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Though Google, the popular Internet search site, claims to
uphold its corporate motto, "Don't be evil," it allows
advertising for what many would consider blatant evil:
Homosexual videos featuring anal sex.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Google recently banned an
advertisement from a Christian organization,
Stand to Reason, because the
group's website contains articles opposing homosexuality that
were determined by Google to be "hate speech."
Said an e-mail addressed to Stand to Reason: "Google AdWords
policy never permits ads or keywords promoting hate, violence,
or crimes toward any organization, person or group protected by
law," including those distinguished by their "sexual
orientation/gender identity."
AdWord is a program on Google in which ads are listed in the
right-hand margin of search results when key words an advertiser
submits match those put in by a Net user. The company says it
does not restrict actual search results that come up, only the
advertisements that accompany them.
After reading the WND story about Google's policy regarding
the Christian site, a reader forwarded the newssite a letter he
wrote to the search-engine firm:
"You will not allow ads that lead to websites advocating
against homosexuality, but typing 'a-- f---ing sex' in Google
leads to sidebar ads for 'awesome anal videos,' et al. The
incredible double standard displayed by you and the left in
general is at the root of the rot in this country. Of course,
the right to free speech protects [anal sex], but not the belief
that homosexuality is a sin. That is truly amazing, don't you
agree?"
Indeed, ads that pop up using the readers' criteria yield
several ads for videos and pornographic websites. When the word
"gay" is added, the theme of the ads switches to homosexual
porn.
Images offered by Google are no less obscene, another reader
claimed: "I often go to Google images, looking for pictures to
use. Almost without fail you will find porn mixed in with
innocent requests. Using the word 'Clinton,' by page 2 I had a
nude woman. ... Google is not a safe search engine for children
to use."
More Google bans
Other readers also pointed out problems they have had or
observed with Google.
For example, Ted Dickinson says Google banned an AdWord
advertisement he had submitted for his site
FlushHanoiJohn.com
because it was said to be too inflammatory.
Michael Herman, who works for
Christianity Today,
says his employer had a similar experience to Stand to Reason's.
"I went back and forth with Google for a few months," he told
WND. "They'll allow some ads, but not anything to do with
same-sex articles or homosexuality. They called it hate as well,
in our case. …
"They just kept rewording their letters to me, hoping I'd
give up," Herman said.
Bias in search results?
Another reader pointed out that when the word "Jew" is put
into Google, the second site listed is JewWatch, "a venomous
anti-Semitic website," the reader stated.
"Google, despite it's professed concern about promoting hate,
which led them to oh-so-nobly turn down advertising from a
Christian group, does a fantastic job of promoting hate itself.
I don't buy their line that their policies on advertising does
not apply to listings – if you are against hate, you should be
against hate. After all, who is forcing them to put JewWatch
virtually at the top of their list, for free, without even the
excuse of advertising revenue to justify this choice?"
While some are critical of the site's placement on Google,
defenders of the search engine say it is simply the result of
the creators of JewWatch putting in the effort to better
optimize their site for search-engine success and that Google
management has nothing to do with search rankings.
Yet another reader noted when one enters "WMD" in the search
engine, the first result is a page ridiculing President Bush
about the lack of weapons the U.S. has found in Iraq.
The page is
disguised as a "Page Cannot be Displayed" error message but
instead is titled "These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be
displayed."
The WMD joke is not the first time a perceived anti-Bush bias
has been discovered on Google.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the first entry to come up when
the words "miserable failure" is put into Google is the White
House biography of the president.
Computer users utilize a technique called "Google bombing" to
rig results by posting the phrase "miserable failure" on
webpages and linking it to the Bush biography.
The same technique has wedded the term "waffles" with John
Kerry. When "waffles" is put into Google, the first result to
pop up is Kerry's campaign site.
Related stories:
Google bans Christian ad
Google Sux
Ron Strom is a
news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.