Seems more like a rant

Story: Google-- We Don't Care, We Don't Have ToTotal Replies: 6
Author Content
LizQuilty

Jan 17, 2013
12:38 AM EDT
Not really FOSS related, or of interest here. Looks more like somebody was having a rant because their site got flagged. Over all the Flagging process is brilliantly done, and they are usually fairly quick to get them listed or delisted, and usually for excellent reasons rather than some sort of wishy washy reason (eg exploited)
gary_newell

Jan 17, 2013
9:26 AM EDT
I think it is a good article.

A few years back Google was championed by a lot of people because they could see that Google were finally providing a ying to the yang of Microsoft's dominance and finally there was a bit of balance.

The search results are great, nobody can argue with that. The tools are also of great quality.

The trouble is that now perhaps the balance has tipped too far into Google's favour and with so much power comes great responsibility.

The difficulty for any web master is that they have to keep Google on side. It isn't like you can take your business elsewhere. If you don't appear on Google's search results you don't exist. Bing is still way behind Google when it comes to search results.

Now not only is the problem with the search engine but the browser as well. If Google control the browsers the majority of people use then the majority of users who use that browser will trust in Google's tools. So if a Google tool says a site contains malware people will err on the side of caution.

It is a big issue and well worth pointing out.
CFWhitman

Jan 17, 2013
9:56 AM EDT
The information Google makes it possible for you to gather about the blacklisting is very good and detailed. However, you really have to do things their way in order to actually see that information. That's not such a great thing.

I'm a bit uncertain that it is really Google's place to police the Internet, which is essentially what policing their search results ends up doing to a large extent. It is a bit reminiscent of Bell ("The Phone Company") back in the day when they didn't really concern themselves with service to individuals (everything becomes about overall or average performance/service when you get big enough).

One of my more well liked alternatives to searching with Google at the moment is DuckDuckGo, though their name seems to make people not familiar with them not take them seriously.

While we're on the subject of Google, let's talk about the "enter key" bug that is going on with them right now. That is, the bug where hitting the enter key gives you a page with no results, and you have to hit the search button to actually see what comes up. Is everybody else as annoyed with it as I am? I can't believe this issue has gone on for as long as it has, since it drives more people to use alternative search engines all the time it goes on.
BernardSwiss

Jan 17, 2013
10:03 PM EDT
"One ring-y dingy, two ring-y dingy..."

/Ernestine
CFWhitman

Jan 18, 2013
9:33 AM EDT
BernardSwiss wrote:"One ring-y dingy, two ring-y dingy..."

/Ernestine


I admit that I was thinking of her while writing my previous comment. :)
number6x

Jan 18, 2013
11:11 AM EDT
@CFWhitman,

Enter key from google's home page works for me in chrome, chromium and firefox.

I am running adblock and ghostery. Are you running noscript?

CFWhitman

Jan 18, 2013
6:18 PM EDT
Never mind. I tried circumventing our firewall where I work and that makes it work fine (that also helps explain why I haven't really noticed the problem at home, but I don't need to hit "Enter" as much at home because the terms I enter are more likely to come up in the auto-completion results).

The strange thing is that it was working fine a couple of weeks ago behind the same firewall, and suddenly one day it stopped. It didn't occur to me that it would be a problem related to the firewall. I wonder if Google changed something that created a slight glitch/incompatibility between the firewall settings and Google, or if something inexplicably changed or glitched on the firewall.

I don't administer the firewall, so I will have to wait to have it looked into next week.

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