Immediate Call to Action: Google Caves
March 21st, 2002 by Don Marti in
Immediate Call to Action -- March 21, 2002 -- Immediate Call to Action
On March 20th, Google caved in to a baseless legal threat from Scientology's "Religious Technology Center" and removed the web site xenu.net from all search results. (Not just the cached pages, the links, too. Try it.)
The number one site for independent information about the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard and, most important of all, the tyrant warlord XENU has vanished from the number one search engine!
Since Google's web site is no longer an accurate reflection of the state of Xenu (and Scientology) knowledge on the Internet, the Mountain View, California Xenu Independent Study Group will be visiting Google's headquarters in person to search for Xenu information--with cameras rolling.
Who: The Mountain View, California Xenu Study Group (This means you)
What: First meeting: "Finding Facts about Xenu on the Net with Google"
Where: Meet at Dana St. Roasting Company, 744 Dana Street, Mountain View. Then, travel to Google HQ.
When: 3:45 PM, Thursday, March 21, 2002
Why: To make sure that accurate information about Xenu is available through internet search engines.
What to bring: 1. Another video camera (we already have one but could use some more shots) 2. Your pen and paper for taking notes about how to find good Xenu (and Scientology) sites.
Don Marti is Technical Editor of Linux Journal.
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Re: Immediate Call to Action: Google Caves
On March 30th, 2002 Anonymous says:
I knew Google was too good to last---the deficiencies cited in this thread are proof of its decay---altho I'm glad that they, apparently under pressure, restored Xenu.net.
Now we'll need a group called GoogleWatch to monitor it for lapses.
Speaking of mediaWatch, kudos to Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine, Michael J. Miller for refusing to bow to the anti-free speech provisions of the End User License Agreements of Microsoft, Network Associates and Oracle, etc., that "try to prevent people from reviewing or publishing info about their products."
Miller says those three companies backed down when PCMag said it would proceed w/ testing and publishing as it saw fit regardless of unconstitutional licensing agreements. [www.pcmag.com/opinions], March 26, 2002 issue, p. 8.
The glossy commercial press gets bashed a lot for being the handmaiden of its advertisers--- it's nice to see a little pricipled backbone for a change.
Unfortunately a columnist for Network World had diametrically opposite view from Miller's. [ www.nwfusion.com ] PS: New York State is suing Network Associates for violating 1st Amendment laws.
"Inflict what the 'traffic' will bear." Phew...
Re: Immediate Call to Action: Google Caves
On April 2nd, 2002 Anonymous says:
I've been reading lots of hate mail about Google these days, ban here! ban that! ban! ban! ban! They love handing out site death sentences and when asked why? Then they pretend like they didn't hear you!
Google really tells the story of how they view "People" There new front page section depicts us "Computer Users" a bunch of pigeons dropping poop.
No search engine should have, as much power as Google does and I hope more folks will throw some support the way of the Teoma the Google Killer
Re: Immediate Call to Action: Google Caves
On April 3rd, 2002 Anonymous says:
You say "Google depicts people as pigeons," and "we should support the [new] Teoma search engine as a Google killer."
I checked all or most of Google's own links and I didn't see any people depicted as pigeons. But in the process, I discovered Google's News Links---I think this section is great---typical Google: clean, simple, quick interface that's also very comprehensive.
As for "killing" Google---no way! It's search engine that has succeeded far beyond my expectations. If you mean Google should have competition, sure, but it already does---lots of it, but I'd guess in a poll 80% would pick Google as their fave.
The organization behind most search engines including Google is DMOZ [Directory Mozilla], aka, The Open Directory Project. [www.dmoz.org]. Note that it's org and not com. That's because it's run as a non-commericial entity. It's hosted and administered by Netscape. ODP says it was "founded in the spirit of Open Source and will never charge for a site to be submitted, nor will we ever charge to use the data...We are maintained by volunteer editors. ODP powers the core directory of the Web's largest search engines and portals...We are not search engine, but a data provider. We list and categorize Web sites."
Therefore, I don't think anyone would want Google killed. I tried Teoma---I thought it was rather good, but so far I prefer Google.
I didn't know Google was committed to the open source philosophy. This is a relief to me. Hopefully this means it won't be hyped then sold to AOL or MS, etc., and that it won't switch to charging fees.
search for Scientology now
On March 21st, 2002 dmarti (not verified) says:
Google put xenu.net back in their database
As of 4:00 this afternoon, xenu.net was the number 4 result in a search for Scientology on Google.
Beaujolais to Google for listening to their users and keeping their results accurate.
Re: Immediate Call to Action: Google Caves
On March 21st, 2002 brianlane (not verified) says:
And this isn't Google's first goofy response to an obviously clear issue. According to this World Net Daily Article Google is also refusing advertising from companies that sell firearms, knives or are even linked to the sales of these items. The ads they refused to run weren't even directly selling weapons, they were for night vision goggles, food, etc.
But they continue to accept ads for porn and online gambling sites. Go figure.
Yes, they are a private company and entitled to take whatever action they wish. But I'm a private consumer and I can do my searching elsewhere.
Brian Lane
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