This is weird: if you go to the Google page and start typing in search phrases, it helpfully tries to offer suggests…sometimes. There are some odd restrictions going on behind the scenes.
In the search field type "Christianity is" and you will see recommendations of "bullsh*t, not a religion, a lie, false, a cult, wrong, fake, dying, Jewish, and not a religion t-shirt."
In the search field type "Hinduism is" and you will see recommendations of "monotheistic, false, polytheistic, the majority religion of, the oldest religion, not a religion, fake, most commonly found, characterized by, and wrong."
In the search field type "Buddhism is" and you will see recommendations of "not a religion, wrong, not what you think, bullsh*t, polytheistic, a religion, false, based on what concepts, the best religion, and atheism."
In the search field type "Judaism is" and you will see recommendations of "false, not a race, not a religion, a race, a religion of the book, not Jewish, a gutter religion, monotheistic, a cult, and a religion."
Try typing "Atheism is" and you will see recommendations of "a religion, dead, not a religion, wrong, the new fundamentalism, growing, a non-prophet organization, so senseless, illogical, a religion supreme court." Clearly they are not holding back on the Atheists.
Now, let's try Islam. Type in "Islam is" and you will see...
Absolutely nothing. That's correct. Google makes no recommendations based on searches of "Islam Is."
Why is Google blocking search recommendations for "Islam is?"
Good question.
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If you type "Islam is" and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky" you get:
"This Site is temporarily shut down for non- payment. Please have Pete Seda contact Datta Groover"
PZ wondered if a petition would work to get Seed to fix the broken comment registration system.
Let's try !
Now come on Pharyngulites, let's get THIS petition moving. I've set the target to 2000 signatures.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fix-scienceblogs-registration
Help spread the petition.
Squidmaster has been notified by email.
Another company bravely in favor of complete free speech wherever no credible threats are made.
I guess it's true that if they don't mind doing the censors' job in China, they'll certainly do so elsewhere.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Same deal with Spanish. "Islam es" gets you nothing.
Jihad, baby.
That observation is
Do you really need to ask?
They don't want a group of crazy people to show up at their offices and suicide bomb it.
They definitely should be fighting for free speech, but I do understand their desire to self sensor in the interest of not being bombed.
Bing, on the other hand, comes up with some suggestions: "the light", "evil", "the light baby doll" (er, what?), "a lie", "of the devil".
Ah, but try "Allah is ".
Hehe I tried "Google is"
-skynet
-watching you
...
-the devil
Islam is lame?
Islam is was not was?
Cute, but not exciting.
JC
Not a problem from a UK computer. 'Islam is' generates 90 millions hits. Am I missing something here?!
I'm guessing Google doesn't want to be targeted for jihad.
Faced with pissing of Muslims or just shutting up, I probably would keep quiet too. I don't really want to die, or have to worry about my family's safety, any time soon.
tsg: I did "Christianity is" on Bing and it's first result suggestion was:
Christianity islam
I still would have added the "e" at the end.
[the second result was "Christianity is false" which I really DO like better... it is becoming harder and harder to resist the pull of Bing]
JC
They are not censoring search results, just turning off the annoying suggestion feature that I normally disable anyway.
Do a search on "Islam is evil" and you'll get plenty who agree with that.
Interestingly, "Islam was" turns up suggestions, eg. "Islam was spread by the sword".
@FrankO: You're missing what the thread is about - not Ghits, but suggestions to complete a search phrase beginning "Islam is ...".
Abdul - not search results - "help" text that, for me and apparently others, descends below your search query AS YOU TYPE - not after you hit return.
JC
News of the Weird: "Islam is the new religion in rebellious Mexican state Chiapas" - "More and more Mayan and Tzotzil people in the Mexican state Chiapas are becoming Muslims." - continues at http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/islam-new-religion-rebellious-mexican…
tsg - There was a little a little fiasco a while back where a talking baby doll and a Nintendo DS game were supposedly saying 'Islam is the light' when they were supposed to be just doing baby speak. Rather amusing, a bunch of Christians got all furious about it.
Both were made by Japan so I doubt there was actual intent there; Japan isn't too Islamic last I heard, at the very least not Nintendo.
"Allah is" brings up, among other suggestions, "not god."
BS
I don't know.
There appears to be several misunderstandings here. First, following the procedure referred to by PZ, Google apparently does not spare themselves, too. A search for 'Google is' brings up 'the devil', 'watching us', 'making us stupid' and so forth.
Secondly, when you type 'Christianity is' (without a space after 'is'), one of the options that come up is 'Christianity Islam Judaism'. I think that is the issue. The search algorithm probably conflates the beginning 'Is' of Islam with the verb 'is'. And therefore, 'Islam is' doesn't bring up anything.
Comstock at #4.
That is because you are presumably using an English language Google site. If you go to the Spanish Google site 'Google.es' and try 'Islam es', an option comes up with more than 200000 hits, 'islam es lo mismo que musulman' (= "Islam is the same as Muslim", whatever that means).
OR, there is indeed a conspiracy at work here - to suppress anti-Islamic voice of any kind.
I guess it all just comes down to .... it depends on what the meaning of is is.
[dons flameproof suit and runs behind a large rock....]
JC
@NDWolfwood5268
Ah, like when the Po Teletubby speaking Mandarin was claimed to be saying bad things in English. It's so good to see that the search for things to be offended by isn't dead.
Has anyone tried Mohammed and Google images!?
They're not being that sensitive. "Muslim is" produces "wrong, a race, islam, bullshit, a cult, a religion, not a race, the same as islam"
tsg
Didn't hear about Po lol, I'll have to youtube that when I get off work. Also, I heard somewhere that a guy tried to rob a bank dressed as one of those guys. Fun stuff lol.
I live in the us and i typed "islam is" into google, and got 3 million hits, so i don't understand what the problem is
I wonder if the problem has more to do with the search term used? I just entered "Muslim is" and got "wrong", "bullshit", "a race", and "a cult".
I'm surprised that similar results don't come up for "Islam is", but I think it's at least possible that the word "Muslim" is used more in negative English-language statements about Islam (and whatever I think about the truth of religion in general, I do think all of the statements I quoted are intended to be negative).
Money talks.
It speaks in the language of the coward.
Storm in a tea-cup?
OK, here's a weird one. Try "Sinhalese is" in the search box. As soon as you type the is, all suggestions vanish. Doesn't work with Tamil...
Same thing with bahasa Indonesia--the language of Indonesia and Malaysia.
Also "Karen language is"...
Countries
Works with "Spanish Sahara is"
Interesting "Uigur is" still gives suggestions.
Hmm.
How much is could an islam lam, if an islam could lam is?
Either Google isn't all bad, or their self protection program is very, very sloppy.
"Muhammad is" gives the following suggestions (among others):
Muhammad is a false prophet
Muhammad is satan
Muhammad is the antichrist
Muhammad is dead
Muhammad is in hell
Guess some muslims are grinding their teeth right now.
@NDWolfwood5268
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/01/archive/main11282.shtml
@kausik.datta:
Falsification: in that case 'Islam in' should likewise not bring up any suggestions, but it does.
--Barbarian
...but the suggestions at http://google.topleveldomain differ from the suggestions in the Google-bar in my Firefox. Weird.
CJO - Thanks for that. It improved my day.
JC
The problem is not the hits that come up after hitting the ENTER key. It is the "command completion" suggestions that appear below the search box as you type.
I lurk at Free Republic (right wing site). Every so often there's a screaming meemee "Google LIBBERUL bias" story.
What will they say to this one? :)
Disappointing, but at the end of thee day it is Google's site, they can do what they want.
However, I would take it as an indication that Google doesn't believe that it can explain big words such as 'statistical' and 'algorithm' to the sort of idiots who would take Google suggestions as an affront to their religion
Sounds like this isn't a universal issue, so I suspect it's just a quirk somewhere, not an intentional exception on the part of Google.
Of course, I love Google, so I may be somewhat biased.
I've tried this in German, and I do indeed get the same conspicuous result. I tried several variations with other verbs and other religions, and it's always the same outcome:
Google suggests only neutral or positive phrases for "Islam ..." and all sorts for any other religion or non-religion. Putting a space after "is" makes no difference.
There is definitely some self-censorship going on.
I understand this. Google is not a news outlet, and they could be shut down by entire muslim nations if they offend the religion of "peace through conformity".
Perhaps it means that islam is nothing?
In French, if you type "Islam est" (Islam is), the only suggestion is "islam est une secte" (Islam is a sect). But if you add the definite article in front of it, you get "dangerous", "religion for Blacks", "the true religion", [...] "the religion of science"...
From here:
I think tariqata @#28 is on the right track. If I understand correctly, the search suggestions are based on what other people type search for. Likely people are using some other term when they're looking for confirmation of a bias. Suggestions for "Islam" and "Islam " appear to be about seeking information.
They missed "nazism is " and "holocaust is ".
"It's so good to see that the search for things to be offended by isn't dead."
LOL. This line is like comedy gold. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
Gosh! "PZ Myers is" has no suggestion neither...
Oh... and "biology is not a science" and "religion is like paul rudd". So much fun !
@kausik.datta:
Secondly, when you type 'Christianity is' (without a space after 'is'), one of the options that come up is 'Christianity Islam Judaism'. I think that is the issue. The search algorithm probably conflates the beginning 'Is' of Islam with the verb 'is'. And therefore, 'Islam is' doesn't bring up anything.
Falsification: in that case 'Islam in' should likewise not bring up any suggestions, but it does.
--Barbarian
And typing 'Israel is' yields suggestions...
It's not a glitch.
Nothing negative for 'Jesus is', unless homeboy is derogatory.
I tried Christianity Ch..., and got results, I tried Judaism ju, and got results, so it's not repetition of the initial letters. I also tried muslims are, and got no suggestions, but the same was true when I tried christians are, or jews are.
have results:
island is
Christianity is not
no result as well:
Islam is not
loophole? (has results)
is Islam
Hmmm...
Type "can a human" in that line and see what happens.
It's not censored. It's just that... the top suggestions are, er, well...
That is odd.
Google Canada offers suggestions following "Islam" until one types an "is" and then they disappear. Perhaps Islam googlers all write in E-Prime?
"islamists are"= no suggestion
"muslims are"= no suggestion
"muslim are"= first suggestion is "terrorist"
"qur'an is"= no suggestion
"quran is"= suggestions include "false", "wrong", "corrupted" and bullshit...
From Google:
Islam is.......
is a non-compromising mono-culture...
Islam is and has always been political.....
Islam is the dominant religion of the third world......
Islam is a dangerous religion.....
and on and on.
What am I missing? Google seems to have a plethora of definitions.
There is a site called "Islam is" that is temporarily down, but there were many links to be found.
I didn't find that Google was blocking anything.
@58: this is another reason why I think this must really depend on what other people are searching for. And other people are weird, apparently.
There are also no suggestions for "christians are" (or "jews are", "buddhists are", and "hindus are", but for "christian are", there is one suggestion: "christian are like pumpkins".
type "Christianity is" …
That's missing the elephant in the room. Just type "c" and you get:
craigslist
cnn
costco
comcast
chase
etc.
Ditto for "a" (amazon, aol, americal airlines), "b" (best buy, bank of america, bed bath and beyond), "g" (gmail, google maps, google earth), and so on.
I recently called a family member on his new google phone number. I didn't get through, but left a voice message. He received an email of my transcribed voice message processed by voice recognition. This is what's next: automatically listening to all google phone messages and possibly conversations, detecting commercially relevant key words, and targeting ads at you based on these key words.
I just want to point out that among the top 10 suggestions for completion of "George Bush is" are monkey, lizard and alien.
Just what we need: a new way to fritter away an entire afternoon when one should be working.
I tried it with various other religions, and amusingly enough, "Pantheism is" came up with "sexed up atheism".
@#60 & 61
Also from here:
@tariqata #60:
Confirmed, Alan One. Or confirmed at least as far as you can throw the journalist who wrote the story, anyway.
Like joeyess at #59, I'm not seeing the problem. It suggests loads of stuff.
I'm wondering what Mark Chu Carroll is thinking about this.
William @51: I stand corrected. But it is intriguing. What could possibly trigger this weird behaviour?
joeyess @#59: As others before me have pointed out, the question is not if Google is showing search results with the term "Islam is". (Google is.) The question is why there are no automatic suggestions - before you submit the query - if the search term is "Islam is".
Interestingly, there's only one 'Sponsored Link' though:
Hmm,
Replacing the second 's' in 'Islam is' reveals that NINE letters of the alphabet don't result in any suggestions. Those letters are:
A,E,F,I,O,S,W,X,Y
Throwing them into an anagram generator yields 240 results, including:
A Wise Foxy
Aw sexy of I
and the ominous
Waxy Foes I
Clearly a deep message there.
This black helicopter conspiracy moment was brought to you by the letters 's' and 'z'.
You guys totally forgot about Moses! Whenever I type his name in the Google search field, no suggestions are offered.
I tried a few others and found similar results. The following also return no results:
atheists are
an atheist is
christians are
blacks are
jews are
However, if you type in "muslim is" you do get results. Perhaps Google merely has an anti-pigeonholing filter set up.
While we are at this game, try Richard Dawkins is
Oh, I see the peculiarity now. That is weird.
Even "Zoroastrianism is" gets several suggestions, beginning with "Zoroastrian islam" but "Islam is" gets nothing.
As someone else noted "PZ Myers is" gets no suggestions (although "PZ" suggests "PZ Myers"), but "Ben Stein is..." "an idiot", "a douche", "a moron", "(is)rael", "a tool".
"is is" brings up a number of suggestions about Islam and Israel (separately).
"discordianism is" also yields no suggestions.
"unitarianism is" gives "unitarianism islam" as a suggestion, but "unitarianism is " gives nothing.
Perhaps it depends on which localization of Google is being used as well. In Japanese, "Islam" turns up "customs", "banking", "pork", "women", "diet", "Christmas", "alcohol", "names" (also in Japanese).
I came up with "Octopus is a fish." Which means nothing, but maybe something. "Pharyngula is" pulls no suggestions either. "PZ Myers is" pulls nothing. "Muslim is" pulls up some stuff.
Really, though, why don't we focus more on why Atheism is a religion? We should really start a weekly meeting to address this. Probably meet sometime everybody can get together. Since we're atheists I'm thinking Sunday morning, we're all free and television sucks at that time. We should have a master of ceremonies to help guide the discussion or just address concerns among us and tell us the right path to...huh?
... and adding insult to injury ... if you try 'science is ' Google suggests 'science islam' in the list!
tariqata #60,
quite so.
When you type :
I want to eat
one of the first suggestions this weird Google Suggest comes up with is :
I want to eat his Children
However, if you try "Is Islam"... you do get some suggestions, so someone wasn't to thorough with their cleaning of phrases.
Maybe if enough people search for "Islam is purple monkey dishwasher" we can get it in the list...
bacon is = good for me
peanut butter is = good for you
mugs are = us
google suggest is = not working
So, how about a list of suggestions for "islam is" ... ?
Are you sure google is the problem rather than allah-la-la-la protecting his cult and his pets?
@negentropyeater
Yeah. If you type "I am sex" it autocompletes with "ually attracted to my daughter"...
No suggestions here either. But if this is an act of cowardi...erm...cultural sensitivity on the part of Google, why not censor also the results for "Muslim" and "Mohammed"?
I doubt it's a censorship issue.
Islam with other verbs gives some of the following suggestions :
Islam has ... bloody borders
Islam does ... not mean peace
does ... Islam make ... sense
Islam was ... spread by the sword
@kausik.datta: I see. before the query is launched. Now I get it. Yes. There seems to be something amiss.
Not sure what, but surely there would be common words that would follow "Islam is" as a suggestion when typing in the query.
That is strange.
negentropyeater,
I signed your petition and my name and comment don't appear anywhere.
Count me in as somebody who immediately set out testing the barriers to get islam related prompts....and had no problems. "Muslim is" dumps out a list of prompts, as other folks have noted. "Islam" by itself has a list.
It's possible that "Islam is" triggers some kind of code issue because the word "is" is common and looks like you could accidentally be repeating the word "Islam" or that it would be redundant. (The word "is" being contained in "Islam.") That's about the only thing I can think of. (I put a space after typing "Christianity christ" and lo, all the search results disappeared.)
On the other hand, my redundancy theory doesn't work on the phrase "sexism is"....that still yields results.
Guys, come on, give Google a break. They respect Islam, because it's the Religion of Peace, & some Muslims demanded respect.
When we've all cow-towed to them, we'll all get peace, won't we?
Gals, know your place & shut up, eh. Islam is the religion of peace, eh.
Nope. "isis is" produces a list of suggestions, so it is not a "stuttering filter" acting up. This seems to be a deliberate, specific filter to not make any suggestions about "Islam is ...".
Actually, based on other attempts noted above, it just seems to be a peculiarity in the algorithm.
Well I get
way of life
a cult
false
wrong
ect.
'Tis #90,
so far 23 have signed the petition, and most names and comments seem to appear. There are 4 anonymous.
Please try again.
Please sign this petition to fix the broken comment registration system
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Yup, Google. Nefarious sorts. China. Now Islam. Funny thing is, when you type 'Google is..' you get 'Google is Israel' and 'Google is Skynet'. Hilarious.
Try 'sergey brin is', 'larry page is' and 'steve jobs is'. Seems people just aren't searching for negative opinions about Google's founders, whereas they're very interested in Jobs's doucheitude.
I'm pleased to see that the top suggestion for 'how is' is, you guessed it, '... babby formed'.
Typing that stuff into the search field of my IE8, all without a space at the end, produces the following:
christianity is:
christianity islam
hinduism is:
no results
buddhism is:
buddhism israel
judaism is:
no results
atheism is:
atheism is a lie
atheism is the new fundamentalism
islam is:
no results
allah is:
[10 results, all in German ("great" and "great and mighty" are the first two) except for the 6th, which is in Turkish]
google is:
[10 results, all in German except for the 3rd, which is "google is your friend", and the 4th, which isn't language-specific ("google israel"). The first is "google ist dein freund". The last is "google ist böse" ( = is evil). The 2nd and the 8th declare Google a miscarriage, the 5th has "my friend" instead of "your", the 6th declares Google "stupid" and the 7th "gay". No Skynet among them, alas.]
islam was:
[6 results, all in German, the 2nd and the last to do with washing.]
muslim is:
muslim islam
muhammad is:
muhammad islam
muhammad ismail suk
mohammed is:
mohammed islam
mohammed issa
mohammed ismael
mohammed ismail
george bush is:
no results
islam in:
[10 results, all in German, all with a country name, except for the last, which is "in the media"]
pz myers is:
no results
can a human:
can a human get a dog pregnant
pantheism is:
no results
richard dawkins is:
richard dawkins islam
zoroastrianism is:
no results
ben stein is:
no results
discordianism is:
no results
unitarianism is:
no results
science is:
science is a verb now
science is interesting and if you dont agree
science is fiction
science is interesting
science islam
science issn [probably the ISSN number of Science...]
i want to eat:
no results
is islam:
no results
bacon is:
bacon is good for me
bacon is good for me remix
peanut butter is:
no results
mugs are:
no results
google suggest is:
no results
i am sex:
no results
islam has:
islamhasser [Islam hater in German]
islam hasi [Turkish]
islam does:
no results
does islam:
no results
I've often noticed strange behavior from the Google Suggestions®. ("buddhism israel"? Give me a break.) It obviously depends on your language settings, your previous search behavior, the moon phases on Jupiter, and the divine caprices of Google.
Which rather means "a cult".
Bubba is my homeboy.
@ 73
Richard Dawkins is...
an idiot
a douche
wrong
going to hell
hot
a jerk
my hero
science a religion
a fool
a moron
if you throw a t on there, you get
Richard Dawkins is...
the devil
the antichrist
:-D
No, the Google founders just aren't famous. I didn't know their names, thanks for telling me them.
"kausik.datta" (#21) wrote: "The search algorithm probably conflates the beginning 'Is' of Islam with the verb 'is'. And therefore, 'Islam is' doesn't bring up anything."
That does not explain why "Wahhabi is" also doesn't up anything. Neither does "Wahhibism is " (note the space).
(And if you don't know who the Wahhabists are / Wahhibism is, you should learn.)
re tsg @95:
Actually, based on other attempts noted above, it just seems to be a peculiarity in the algorithm.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but I don't really see how the previous experiments disprove my assertion. Which example specifically do you mean?
The fact that some of the more obscure " is" turn up no suggestions might just mean no one has ever entered such a search term before. Google does not "make up" suggestions, but merely lists the most common of previous search phrases. I find it very hard to believe that no one has ever searched for "Islam is evil" (for example) or some of the other phrases that come up for the other religions in the original posting.
Islam must ..
be destroyed
die
go
be stopped
end
So it seems Google prefers actions over meek religulous qualifications. Did not one of the Christian far-out harpies publicly call to arms against Islam and recommended that the US Army invade all those countries whose citizen adhere to Mohammed instead of baby jebus, to devoutly pave the way for Gawd the Lawd?
Rod Parsley. Hard to imagine what a war between 2.1 billion xians and 1.4 billion moslems would look like.
Probably go nuclear in the first 5 minutes.
I don't think Parsley could round up all 2.1 billion xians though. The Europeans, Oceanics, Africans, and Asians might decide to stay home and watch it on TV instead.
Am I the only one that thought "Atheism is a non-prophet organization" was funny?
Why is Google blocking search recommendations for "Islam is?"
There's a lesson here for Christians. If they want their idiotic death cult to be respected, they are going to have to start flying airplanes into buildings and they need to be cutting people's heads off.
@SteveM, # 104:
I also agree that it seems unlikely that no one has ever searched for something along the lines of "Islam is evil" - but I also think it equally unlikely that if Google is filtering its suggestion algorithm to avoid giving offense to Muslims, it wouldn't apply the same filter to the word "Muslim", or to searches such as "Islam has".
re 105:
"Islam must ..." suggestions
This why I think that this is a specific and deliberate filter. They are not trying to figure out what are positive or negative search phrases, they are just imposing a blanket filter on "Islam is". Possibly because they are afraid it will not be understood to be a list of common searches but the actual opinion of Google about the nature of Islam.
@Paul Burnett, #103:
I actually do get suggestions for "Wahhabi" and "Wahhabism", although they tend to be more ... abstract? (E.g., "Wahhabism and terrorism" rather than something along the lines of "Wahhabism is evil".)
And I did get a kick out of one suggestion I managed to elicit while testing out different verbs: "Islam wasabi".
Come on, guys! One cannot build a whole theory based on a single data point! Ignoring counter-evidence such as "allah is" or "muslim are".
I think that's just a glitch. Probably a PC in a data center has died while processing the "I" wordlist of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapReduce process for search suggestions index. It'll fix itself in a month or two.
Or not. Who cares?
On the other hand, they nailed Scientology.
"Scientology is ... a cult, bullshit, a joke, a scam, retarded, not a religion, dangerous, fake, ridiculous, wrong."
Thank you, Google. Now prepare to be sued by the ghost of Elron.
Hmmmm . . . Typing "PZ Meyers is" also comes up with no suggestions. Obviously, PZ has must have some kind of hold over Google. What is it . . . clandestine pictures of Sergey and Larry using Bing?
"discordianism is" & "unitarianism is", for example.
Google is notoriously secretive about their algorithms which makes it difficult to speculate on what triggers a suggestion. It need not be that no one has ever searched for it. As others have pointed out, "Muslim is", "Allah is", etc. all return suggestions, so we can believe that they are deliberately doing it, but poorly, or that something rather more mundane is going on. The simpler explanation seems to be the latter.
re 112:
Talk about building a theory on a single data point! What about the pricipal of parsimony? Just how likely is it that a "glitch" will only fail on "Islam is" and not the many other "I* is" or "* is" search terms. The simplest answer is that "Islam is" is specifically blocked.
"muslim is" works
Google is...scared shitless.
Hmmmm . . . Typing "PZ Meyers is" also comes up with no suggestions. Obviously, PZ has must have some kind of hold over Google.
Notice that just typing "pz", the top suggestion is "pz myers"
acitta1 #114: "Typing 'PZ Meyers is' also comes up with no suggestions."
----> Myers
As further data points, "methodism is ", "episcopalianism is ", and "presbyterianism is " also return no suggestions.
What about asking google directly ? Would they lie ?
Jen did a good article on this before the solstace..
http://www.blaghag.com/2009/12/update-googles-religious-censorship.html
I think you hit the jackpot.
I think that's the answer right there where I put it in boldface.
Imagine if someone put up a hate site filled with offensive material, and because they thought of it as "my own personal black hole of opinion", they gave it the domain name "black-hole.com". Now, if Google tries to stop making suggestions for that one site, the algorithm might also have the side effect of stopping suggestions for searches on the astronomy term "black hole".
That might be happeneing here. To stop themselves from suggesting the one single "islam-is" site, they accidentally also ended up stopping all suggestions that start with "islam is".
I can't check if this is true or not, since the islam-is site is now down and the cache doesn't have a copy of it. I have no idea what the content of it was, so I can't test this hpyothesis. But it seems like a possibility that should be eliminated before jumping to conclusions.
"calvinism is " "a condemned heresy" LOL
Why are you picking on the Muslims PZ? You're just bigoted against people of Islam. If only they had the inquisition, then you might show them the respect that you show the Catholics...
As further data points, "methodism is ", "episcopalianism is ", and "presbyterianism is " also return no suggestions.
As I said, it does not seem unreasonable that those terms have not been searched for before.
On what do you base the assumption that these terms have not been searched for before but "Islam is" is unlikely not to have been?
Apparently, a Google spokesperson has told Searchengineland.com :
"Fair & balanced" result:
SteveM - not only is it not unreasonable, but the reference pages indicate that it should also return your OWN searches. I am kind of leaning toward the possibility of StevenMading (weird....) is thinking. I can't see this being a specific rejection algorithm based on the "Islam is" text alone.
But some of the responses to various searches are really lighting up my evening.
JC
layout fail, let me do that without the blockquote:
results for: Islam promotes
islam promotes violence
islam promotes terrorism
islam promotes peace
islam promotes science
Re #116:
That's the power of Allah for you! :-p
Seriously though, the probability is exactly the same as for any of about 1'000'000 English words. Single occurrence does not allow to make any judgement of probability; a decent sample is needed.
If google is deliberately censoring the "Islam is" suggestions, do you think they are so inept as to overlook "Allah is"?
Though, upon consideration, there is another possibility. As quoted at #45,
It seems quite possible to me that someone, upon seeing some suggestions for "Islam is", became all offended and complained, but didn't think to check other related terms.
Funny enough, if you type in "agnosticism is" you only get one result entitled "why agnosticism is wrong".
Another word that does not bring up any results? Penis.
I think Google is equating Islam with the penis, and if I were a terrorist, I think I know exactly what I'd be packing in my undies next time I sat down at my desk to do an internet search.
SteveM - not only is it not unreasonable, but the reference pages indicate that it should also return your OWN searches. I am kind of leaning toward the possibility of StevenMading (weird....) is thinking. I can't see this being a specific rejection algorithm based on the "Islam is" text alone.
No, the fact that it is also blocking my previous searches such as, "Islam is evil" and "Islam is peace", etc., is exactly what makes me think it is based on "Islam is" alone. It is the simplest explanation.
As for "episcopalianism" and "methodism", etc, no, it is not based on anything other than my own opinion, but really, how often do you see those words in the news as compared to "Islam"?
"Islam is" . . . no respones from Google in the UK
It also fails to return my searches for "christianity is purple" and "hemmingway is mandarin", so apparently not.
You do not know what the algorithm is, so you can't make judgements about what should or should not be there and why it isn't, especially when it is only backed up by your opinion. You don't know.
Also, notice that "Islam i" produces a suggestion list that is only "Islam in ...", whereas the other religions give a pretty even mix of "in" and "is" in the list. "Islam is" is clearly being specifically blocked.
Speaking of conspiracy theories, what if Google is just a front company for a bunch of evangelical Christians? They programmed Google's search algorithms intentionally so this would happen in order to divert all the atheists on a wild goose chase typing nonsense into a text field. While all the atheists are trying to uncover Google's deception they're putting their plan for world domination into action.
It never ceases to amuse me how many people would rather go to great lengths to maintain their offense than be relieved there really wasn't anything to be offended by. You need there to be something nefarious to be mad at.
Color me unconvinced and unsurprised.
SteveM,
Read my comment #129.
Google says its a bug and they're fixing it.
Same exact thing happens in Google Australia, definitely not a glitch.
"Pastafarianism is" also brought no results. Google is obviously terrified of having their headquarters pillaged.
It never ceases to amuse me how many people would rather go to great lengths to maintain their offense than be relieved there really wasn't anything to be offended by. You need there to be something nefarious to be mad at.
I am not offended and I don't see how I am going to great lengths to maintain being offended. To me it is simply an intersting little puzzle; what could be causing this result? It just seems to me the simplest explanation for this behavior is a single line of code that blocks "Islam is" suggestions.
If anything I am accusing Google of being simplistic, not nefarious. The fact that other "offensive" phrases are not blocked is what makes me say it is only blocking "Islam is", they are not analyzing phrases for offense but simply blocking the one that is most likely to cause offense.
Saying that it is "just a bug" is not an explanation. What is the nature of a bug that would produce this kind of result? I can't think of one that wouldn't hose up alot of other suggestion results. I realize my failure of imagination is not a proof, so yes, I agree I could be wrong about the simplistic cause, but until Google explains what is going wrong, I'll stick with my hypothesis as the simplist solution.
Or they're using the exact same algorithm....
SteveM - yeah - I know - I was agreeing with you, but in light of what negentropyeater found, a bug looks more probable. And the probability of a bug hitting "Islam is" alone (well, maybe not so alone?) is .... exactly one, cause it has. Assuming of course that it IS a bug and all..
When you said "it does not seem unreasonable that those terms have not been searched for before." I was pointing out that - at the very least, you (and me and seemingly thousands if not hundreds of thousands of others) HAVE searched that phrase - and yet the engine does not return the suggestion.
But ... wait - "penis" returns... damn. Zifnab is right! Islam = penis! It is all so clear now.
wait.... no it isn't.
JC
Equal Opportunity time - "vagina" also returns no suggestions.
I feel as if I have descended into some pit into which I would rather not be descended.
JC
I don't understand how you think that rules out my proffered alternate explanation that they might be actually trying to just ban suggestions about a single website that happens to be named "islam-is.com" (There was such a site. It's been taken down), and the fact that this has the side effect of cutting off all other "islam is" suggestions is an unintended consequence of that. The behavior you describe is exactly the behavior I'd expect if that was going on.
"pope is" produces suggestions consistent with those above (the antichrist, attacked, a nazi, infallible...) -
but on the way to finding that out, you discover that "pope" generates three suggestions about the Popeyes fried-chicken chain and one about the sailor man before anything to do with any of the guys in the magic chair.
What I find fascinating is how so many of us immediately started generating hypotheses about this phenomenon, and then go and test these hypotheses, and then report our results on this thread. (And test other people's hypotheses as they are reported)
It's almost like an analogy of the scientific method.
Except we seem to be missing the proper scientific instrument (which I suppose might be some means of accessing Google's source code) to effectively distinguish the competing theories from one another. I suppose as analogy it would be like germ theory before the microscope, or astronomy before the telescope?
Also interesting is that only a few commenters suggested anything like asking Google what is going on (which would kind of be like praying to the creator for guidance?)
It also reminds me of the old adage:
One should not suspect malignity if simple incompetence will do.
To which I can add that one likewise need not postulate incompetence when simple serendipity will do.
I think Danny Sullivan nailed it :
the "Islam is" bug is another good sign Google needs to share more on how Google suggest works.
This was particularly well put :
Given the amount of information we have, just about anything.
Only if you dismiss with a wave of the hand, based on nothing but your opinion, the other examples that also exhibit the exact same behavior.
This is based on nothing but your opinion as well, I take it.
Not when you so obviously want it to be something else.
Your inability to think of one doesn't mean there isn't one.
You've been given several that you've dismissed out of hand.
That much is obvious, despite the complete lack of evidence and the fact that other, simpler solutions have been proffered.
Okay, I don't think I was ruling out your explanation. What you quoted from me is part of why I think the blocking is based solely on the phrase "Islam is"; yours is a good hypothesis for their motivation for blocking that phrase. I'm just saying that the simplest way to achieve that result is to just block "Islam is" suggestions.
tsg,
Fuck it, I don't care. If you're happy with "it's a bug" then that's just fine. I was just curious about the mechanism of the behavior, not so much about any possible motivations behind it.
@SteveM
You had already decided what the mechanism was before you even started investigating and weren't going to be convinced otherwise.
Guys, I noted above that there are several other search phrases that also yield no suggestions. This isn't unique to the phrase Islam is. It also affects several phrases such as "chinese are", americans are... It's a bug--no rhyme or reason to it.
I am strongly leaning in favor of the explanation offered by Steven Mading in post 124. I just tried out typing "stormfront" (the name of a major white-supremacist forum, which is the first hit for that term). It stopped suggesting after "stormfr" (even though Stormfront is also the name of a movie studio, a string quartet, and, of course, the concept in meteorology). So it would appear that it is Google censorship, but as performed by some sort of presumed-hate-site-focused algorithm.
So...crazy people. If someone is so paranoid about how Google's search algorithm works then they can use Bing or something; apparently it doesn't have this problem.
correction; the "movie studio" I mentioned is actually a video-game company whose games are often based on movies. It is currently out of business. So, yeah, the first page for "stormfront" is largely dominated by pages relating to the hate site. Whatever.
re 159:
except when I type "stormfr" into Google, it does not eliminate all suggestions, it leaves the stormfront site as the only suggestion. This does not seem to fit the "bad site" filter theory.
Hm, @159 and @160, I also get no suggestions for either "stormfr" or "stormfront".
Huh. I tried every language I know, and can confirm the results for Japanese (lots of stuff); for Chinese, the list is small (「邪教」paganism, heresy、「誰創立的」who founded it?), but telling, I think. Considering how censor-happy they are there, and the recent strife between the Han and the Muslim Uyghurs, it seems odd that there are just two entries, one negative, one neutral.
Thoughts?
StevM,
If you're happy with "it's a bug" then that's just fine.
A bug in the suggestion system of the world's largest information dissemenator is certainly not something to be happy about.
But we can put aside the conspiration theories.
SteveM,
A bug in the suggestion system of the world's largest information dissemenator is certainly not something to be happy about.
But we can put aside the conspiration theories for now.
I have to call bullshit. Can't replicate any of your suggestions. Not Christianity is, not Judaism is, not atheism is. nope.
The only one which worked for me with a freshly installed Firefox with no history was
"Christianity was"
which gave me the suggestion
"Christianity waswas"
Sorry, P.Z., I just don't think you're right. You're letting your history corrupt your data to bash a religion that Americans are currently pretending is inherently violent and threatening, and that's been singled out by racists like Hitchens and Harris because God is a realtor, and by Xians because remote bombing of millions of people is not violence or threatening.
Did I miss it, or has no one mentioned autocompleteme?
~*~*~*~*~
minimalist (#55)
Wow. What in the hell are people doing to their dogs?! You should submit that to autocompleteme.
I did evolution, creationism, intelligent design and homosexuality. I got:
"Evolution is":
-wrong
-false
-a lie
-a fact
-fake
-just a theory
-true
-islam
-issues
-a myth
"Creationism is":
-absurd
-not science
-wrong
-bullshit
-true
-retarded
-islam
-right
-a joke
-a lie
"Intelligent Design is":
-not science
-bullshit
-science
-not creationism
-a scientific theory
-it viable
-religion
-islam
-not religion
-isn't science
"Homosexuality is":
-a choice
-wrong
-a sin
-not genetic
-genetic
-not a choice
-issues
-a mental illness
-an abomination
-natural
Is this suggestion thing some kind of thought completion system for morons? I don't get it.
CalGeorge, nah, it's a heuristic-based attempt to make commonly-searched terms easier to access.
"mohammed is" and "was" comes up with "a false prophet", "a warlord" "white"(?) and various other things, none of which were "pedophile".
re 161:
I just tried "stormfr" again, this time using firefox (IE previously); again I got the vile site as the only suggestion and not an empty list. Also tried it signed out of my gmail account and got the same result. I cannot explain why we get different results, I have never searched for "stormfr" before today.
re negentropyeater:
I mispoke, I meant "happy" as "satisfied". That is, if tsg is satisfied with the explanation "it is just a bug" with no further elaboration, then it is fine with me (that he is satisfied, not that it is fine such a bug exists).
Skipping over comments.
I'm getting tired of every search engine quirk and hiccup being reported as if it were a direct link into the psychology of its programmers.
A previous occurrence of autocomplete being used as evidence of politicisation, although that one was stupider. This is such a minor feature that it doesn't really matter even if someone at Google is politicising it.
Fucking them.
See the second image.
@171: I've been wondering if there's some regional variation? It's the only explanation I can come up with (though my results, using google.ca, seem to otherwise be about the same as what everyone else reports).
Satanism is... No suggestions.
I suspect this is a bug... no one is protecting the satanists, and I'm sure at least some people are googling them.
We live in a Christian dominated culture so it takes most of the heat.
Truth is, nobody knows enough about Islam to make enough statements about it.
All google does is copy pages and index them then applies a complex algorithm to rank them on the internet.
This would all change if people talk more about Islam the way we talk about Christianity.
Umm… did anyone bother to check on this?
http://bayimg.com/EAJicAAcH
http://bayimg.com/EAjIEAaCh
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=islam+is
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
The only two suggestions for 'Deepok Chopra is' are 'Deepok Chopra is a fraud' and '...an idiot'
So if Google is basing suggestions on the number of times people search for something, then we could try to pharyngulate google. Let's try:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Islam+is+bullshit
Everyone click on that link :)
I do hope this isn't going to turn into a conspiracy theory site. I enjoy laughing with Pharyngula, not at it.
@ DK Sooton: ;-)
Try "deepak chopra is"
... an idiot
You can add Taoism and Confucianism to the list of religions that Google is willing to make suggestions about. This has to be a deliberate choice.
Nope, see my comment #129.
Google has said it's a bug and they are working to fix it as quickly as they can.
Ray Comfort is
Gave me some lulz
#177:
Really? When you write "nobody", I think you mean "nobody like me". You seem to have assigned Muslims to the null set.
Now that's crazy! I thought the company's key principle was "do no evil"... I guess they lost it :(
And you think they know enough about zoroastrianism ?
zoroastrianism is ... returns several suggestions.
IT'S A BUG. JUST A BUG. YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT A BUG IS, OR NOT ?
For lulz, try entering "why Putin is...".
Things are quite different with Google France!
For example, suggestions for "le christianisme est..." ("Christianity is") include "l'ennemi du corps ("the body's enemy") and "un secte qui a réussi" ("a sect that made it").
As for "l'islam est..." ("Islam is..."), the very first suggestion is "dangereux" or, as you may have understood, "dangerous".
But the suggestion you'll really appreciate is "l'islam est... la religion de la science", aka "the religion of science"...
More lulz.
Entering "Der Papst ist" (The pope is) on www.google.de gives "the dark lord of the sith" as first suggestion.
Or maybe, and I will admit that I have not read all of these, the Muslim profit Muhammad is the one true profit and the I Am God (consequently also the god of the Jews and the Christians) is the one true god. Seems odd he (assuming male here) would allow the other sibling faiths to take such an unfair beating. :-)
For those who want to play with several country versions at the same time, this Google Spreadsheet lets you enter the first characters of a Google search in the first cell and it shows the top suggestions in those countries and languages you define.
(answer Yes, make a copy, you need to be logged in to open the spreadsheet)
"Falsification: in that case 'Islam in' should likewise not bring up any suggestions, but it does.
--Barbarian"
Actually, no. @kausik.datt is most likely correct. Try another word with "Is" as the first two letters. For instance, "Isabella is" vs. "Bella is". I tried this with several words starting with "Is" followed by "is" and found similar results each time.
I have much fun with this thread. Lots of nice suggestions, much LOLzzz.
What scares me though (apart from the apparent bug in google, always thought the thing got too big, tried using bing, but daughter keeps putting the start page back to google) is the number of people that are willing to see evil in this. I've seen that on some other (conspiracytype) sites, but i wasn't expecting it here.
As i said have tried some of these myself and others than islam also gave no suggestion.
Like Buddhism is, satanism is, etc. both in dutch and english. I DO NOT believe that anybody is protecting both buddhism, satanism and islam. (an Xtian conspiracy theorist would believe that it's evidence for the antichrist being google ;-)
Funny thing; (yoga/joga [dutch] yield almost the same results)"yoga is" lots of results, "joga is" gets no suggestions.
It's just a glitch/bug whatever, people get over yourselves!
A very simple and wierd one is if you type:
"I love"
you get many auto-fill options, whereas if you search
"I hate"
Nothing, its a bit odd...
#196
More about Google Suggest
I looked but I didn't see any response by PZ to the information developed in this thread. Lots of smart people commenting. I'm with Moogie @181 - sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, ya know? Sometimes PZ has his Offensive sensor tweaked a bit too high.
#195
Mistrust of large dominant organisations is a very common cultural phenomenon...
#198
PZ was careful enough not to jump to conclusions :
Okay, as to the idiocy about Hitchens being some kind of racist....He has championed the right of Palestinians not to be kicked out of Gaza by settlers, defended Rashid Khalidi when McCain-Palin attacked him, and constantly champions India and Indian causes. Even his support for the Iraq war, which I disagreed with, was based largely on a dislike of how Hussein acted towards his own people. Hitchens and Harris are more concerned about Islam than other religions because it's more dangerous right now, which anyone not drowning in PC dogma is going to have to admit sooner or later. People who imply that it means Harris and Hitchens are racist, with no further evidence, are just being willfully ignorant.
Negen @199:
My point is that it appears that Google does not appear to be 'blocking' anything intentionally with respect to Islam. I'm not an IT expert, but as plien@195 points out there does not seem to any attempt to 'block', but rather an unexpected event caused by the code. PZ used the term 'why...block' which seems like a conclusion that Google has made a decision.
Zhu:
Wrong thread?
I dunno
Type:
Is Islam
and you'll get plenty suggestions.
Eidolon,
well it does appear as if Google Suggest is "blocking" search recommendations for "Islam is".
It so happens that said "blockage" is not intentional, but the result of a software bug (see my comment #129).
Istanbul is: 10 suggestions (constantinople is first)
Isaiah is: 3 suggestions
Isfahan is: 1 suggestion
This seems to falsify kausik's hypothesis.
@negentropyeater...
It's clear from the title of this post and the "Good question." comment that PZ is not part of the 'it's just a bug' crowd. He is clearly suggesting that Google is proactively blocking (Blocking, not "blocking") 'Islam is...' suggestions.
Eidolon, sorry, I should have said @#165 when I posted. It's a claim I've seen many times and irked me more than it should have, as it's peripheral (at best) to the issue at hand.
What's clear to me is that he wants to find out what's going on.
That he is "clearly suggesting that Google is proactively blocking", is not clear to me.
Maybe PZ was sharing a bottle of scotch with Hitchens when he wrote this post.
As someone else pointed out, if Google was treating Islam with kid gloves they'd be striking the Danish Mohammed cartoons from their searches.
Seriously, folks, negentropyeater is more than likely right. It's a bug, nothing more nothing less. Quite frankly, I think some people's hatred/aversion/disgust with religion is clouding their critical thinking skills.
PZ Myers: "Google is being sensitive."
mk,
Again, it does appear as if "Google Suggest is being sensitive", and PZ wants to know the reason why.
You are assuming that PZ has already concluded that Google is being sensitive for religious reasons.
You know what, this whole story is bullshit. PZ is wrong. It's not a "good question". It's a bug that cropped up and Blair Scott at atheists.org and Alex Wilhelm at The Next Page wants there to be a conspiracy involving a major religion.
Seriously, so what if "Islam is" doesn't auto-generate suggestions like other religions? Is it really that important? You have to be a fucking moron to be incapable of finding Islam-offensive material on Google.
Of all the things that religion fucks up on a regular basis and some atheists are focusing on this? Pathetic.
mattand08,
Because you don't see the importance of having an unbiased suggestion tool on Google doesn't mean that it isn't important.
PZ didn't say, "it appears Google is..." He said "Google is..."
What I like about this particular thread is that when faced with a conspiracy theory, the Pharyngula community's response was to posit hypotheses about it and make attempts to test them (to the limited extent that it is possible from the position of a user with only black-box access to the software). The response was not to automatically take it on faith.
I offered my own hypothesis above, and I don't know if it's right. Others have offered other hypotheses, and posted the evidence that makes them think theirs is right. The important point is that we are all in agreement that interpreting the evidence is the right way to argue it, regardless of what we'd like to be true or not.
Some might call this the scientific method, but I just consider it basic honesty. It's really sad that it's not a more common approach taken in such arguments.
Negentropyeater:
You yourself said it was a bug. I agree with you.
And, no, I don't think Google, with as much pull as they have, should be biased. But seriously, Google admitted it was a mistake. They're working to fix this. Shit happens.
Should Google be more open about how they function? Probably. This whole post, however, was quite frankly pointless. Google fucked up and it involved religion, so people are concern trolling that Google is kid gloving Islam.
No : it was one amongst empty number of blogs that discussed about this. Google got wind. Google reacted and are fixing their bug (which most probably doesn't affect only "Islam is" but many other strings of words we don't know about).
So it actually achieved something VERY concrete.
And that's good.
Assuming the post got Google to fix the bug, then something indeed was accomplished. However, there was a stink of "Google is afraid of Islam" associated with some of the commentaries (starting with the initial story at atheists.org) that irritated me.
The problem is, what does this story have to do with Pharyngula? It's a completely reaching topic that serves a better purpose as filling empty space than doing anything else. Is this a personal blog where whatever floats his fancy ends up or is this a blog on Science Blogs where topics pertaining to science are posted? Oh but what about computer science? Well does PZ know anything about computer science? Can he tell us anything about the search algorithms that are being used by Google? He quoted another post and left us with "good question".
It is an interesting question if you're interested in how a search engine works but there is no conspiracy and there is certainly no religious angle to it.
But I do agree with Steven Mading because despite the topic being breached and some people agreeing that a conspiracy is afoot there were still plenty of people who suspended judgment in order to test the hypothesis and there were those who challenged the default assumption in order to balance things out. So at least this thread served as an illustration of what critical thinking can achieve.
acochetti.myopenid.com @ # 219: Is this a personal blog where whatever floats his fancy ends up...
Read the part at the very top of the page, just before "... from a godless liberal" - if you dare.
Otherwise, be informed that you've stumbled into what may be the most active pro-atheism blog in the US.
As a curiosity, I tried 'islam the' and other 'the' variants.
None have bad connotations so far except 'hinduism the (destroyer)' and the is expanded to theism or atheism at times
'theism the' has zero suggestions, so it may be a bug in the suggestion code that could be brought to Google's attention.
@220
I am perfectly aware of where I am. I haven't just started reading Pharyngula. Unfortunately the random biological ejaculations overwhelm posts about evolution and other topics in biology.
That being said, if Science Blogs doesn't mind it I am not really in any position to say what PZ should and should not be posting, I just very much prefer hearing about biology because I think PZ explains it very well. I especially liked what he posted about exaptation in the development of the nervous system a month back.
What kind of bug? "Theatre the" produces many suggestions (including "theatre theatre", so not adverse to repetative search phrases)
Google says they have a filter on the suggestion function, what is so inconceivable that "Islam is" is in the filter? In my opinion, the only "bug" is in how the phrase got into the filter to begin with.
Hey, Jainism is getting the same protection. This is bullshit. Jains have been protected for too long. :)
Oh wait, so do shamanism, cargo cults, and neo-druidism. Wow, Google is protecting a lot of religious groups.
Sounds like a persecution complex to me... Because when I did the test, I didn't get the results claimed by the hysterical victim.
Seems the problem wasn't so big after all (I haven't read the whole thread, shit there's alot of it!).
But I'm thinking that maybe they should "protect" islam a bit!? Just think about all those poor schmucks driving around, doing the Google Streetview drivebys...
Definitely creeped out.
Here are a few words I tried out with.
Sadness is - LAM
dream is -LAM
I laugh when I get this
money is
- the way
- everything
- not everything
I think my favorite is still:
Pirates are
-the cause of global warming
Hell yeah Pastafarians. Pastafarianism receives the same protection as Islam by the way. :)
I searched "Islam should not be protected" so many times on Google that they blocked me from doing more searches.
If that's the way they feel, I can use Bing.
jbs
@negentropyeater
Seed has been working on fixing this problem since it was first reported. We have contracted the makers of Movable Type, and what was estimated to be a quick fix has, unfortunately, not been. They do think they've identified all the separate errors that are occurring, and are working at targeting them one by one. You should be experiencing fewer problems commenting now, and - fingers crossed - soon should have none at all.
joeyess, Steven Mading:
Islam-is.com is a site that is owned by Pete Seda (from the whois database for internet domains) a.k.a Pirouz Sedaghaty, a person of Iranian origin, who co-founded a branch of the defunct Islamic charity, Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, in Ashland, OR. Seda and the Charity have been investigated for funneling funds to Chechen terrorists and tax fraud. Seda has been a fugitive (allegedly in Dubai) until 2007, when he returned to U.S. to stand trial (most recent page on the case that I could find here). Whatever it was, Islam-is.com, could not have been a hate-Islam site.
If the search phrase is terminated with "Islam is" the top result is Islam-is site. Not so, if the search phrase is terminated ends with "good", "evil", whatever. Looks like Google wants us to go to this defunct site, no?
Yet another thread that demonstrates that atheism doesn't imply rationality.
Google is...scared shitless.
You are...stupid.
Is this a personal blog where whatever floats his fancy ends up or is this a blog on Science Blogs where topics pertaining to science are posted?
Here's a clue: PZ does not have some other blog elsewhere.
oh I reckon they're blocking search suggestions for sure.
'anal sex', 'fellatio', 'cunnilingus', 'hooker' etc. give no suggestions. that's with safe search off, btw.
islam: etymologically related to shalom -> peace, or more correctly 'full'. islam is full of it alright:-)
@therationalfool # 233:
My primary point was that if islam-is was blocked from suggestion, then there could be a bug that also then cuts off all suggestions that begin with "islam is". My supposition that islam-is might be blocked for being an anti-islam site is secondary to my point. This guess was based on not being able to see the site anymore. If it was blocked for any other reason my point about how blocking suggestions for one site would then block other suggestions for other sites starting with the same initial terms would still stand. If it was blocked for the opposite reason - for being a site funnelling funds to Islamic terrorist groups - that really doesn't detract from my point.
My primary point was that people are incorrect in claiming Google's motives for blocking all suggestions for "islam is" was based on fear of all such responses that might be negative, when there's a much simpler, better explanation dangling right in front of us - that being that once one single site is blocked from suggestion, as islam-is is, that would mean that all sites starting with the same search terms as that name will get blocked too as an accidental side-effect.
Accusing google of blocking all search suggestions on a particular topic is a larger accusation than accusing them of just blocking search suggestions for one single individual site.
As a previous commenter mentioned, there are plenty of negative suggested search queries for "Mohammed is" as well as an absence of search queries for things like "Americans are".
Changing the specific article from "Islam is" to "Islam was" will yield good and bad results. Also, changing it to "Islam will" yields a plethora of negative smears.
I think the real question here is: Why are we taking Google Autocomplete seriously? How exactly do these results give any reliable reflection of Google as a company?
Answer: They probably don't. This whole "controversy" is ridiculous.
Sorry for the late comment. I just now stumbled upon your blog. Apparently Google has since fixed the problem. I just typed in "islam is" and autocomplete gave me the expected completions--the same as with any other religion. Do you know at what point they rectified this situation?