[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by dac

The feature she was highlighting is called "Google Suggest". This is the dropdown box with suggestions of the most popular search strings that start with your typing and completely separate from the search algorithm.

Yes. I am aware that she's talking about Google Suggest. Hence, my reference to "the primary allegation of the blog entry." My broader focus is her accusation that Google is motivated by cowardice and engaged in acts of censorship.

I offered my search results to show that if she could just summon the energy to type a few more words and did some reading, she could find for what she was looking.

Then again, were she to type a few more words and do some reading, she'd be doing actual research and then she'd be deviating from her primary objective as a blogger.

What might she have found had she done some research? Maybe the article quoted above. Maybe she'd have found the following from Google's support page, available here.

We try to filter out suggestions that include pornographic terms, dirty words, and hate and violence terms. If you encounter a term that should not be suggested, please let us know by posting in the Google Web Search Help Forum.

The above link would have taken her here. Use of the search function might have produced the results available here. And what a surprise! The results display a lot of end users doing what end users do--bitching endlessly about (i) software not working the way we think it should and making accusations of (ii) censorship, (iii)conspiracy, and/or (iii) incompetence.

Me? I'm guilty as charged for (i) and (iii). There's no other way to explain the fact that Google Suggest does not produce "Carla Gugino loves Sigaba" or "Robert B. Parker wishes he wrote as well as Sigaba."

Originally Posted by dac

Google has some pretty smart people working there, I find it a little hard to believe that the phrase "Islam is" would have ZERO matching popular searches while every other religion would have a full list. Well written software would not work that way on accident.

I'm not putting on the tinfoil hat just yet, but it is ready in case I need it.

Based upon my experiences working in the software industry with some frighteningly intelligent people who made a really wide array of products, I can say that at times the accident was well written software.

And from my experiences, I can tell you that when push comes to shove, software engineers, developers, and coders are going to accede to the wishes of the business development team who are going to listen to the requests/complaints/desires of their clients, customers, and other important stakeholders.

This is to say that, contrary to rumor, the digital age is a lot like the machine age. Then, like now, the most important language is money.