Google Conspiracy Theories

I`m sure Google Conspiracy Theories have been brought up here many times, but here I' d like to summarize them in one thread and also get some answers to questions most of us do not have answers to yet. These are important as nowdays millions of people RELY on Google for Information. These are:


1. What is the extent of Googles involvement with the Government?

2. Are things ever deleted or is the trail of every human being that ever used google saved for a lifetime (in other words, how high is the Big Brother potential)?

3. To what extent is Google involved in censorship? (Can we really find ALL information on Google)?

4. To what extent have advertising and marketing interests corrupted information search on Google?

5. Is Google Earth in any way censored for reasons of "national security"?

6. What are the dangers of a lot of information-power (google, youtube, wikipedia) lying in the hands of only a few?


Dont get me wrong, Google or search engines have done a LOT of good for the world. And I know that technically its "only a search engine". But when millions and millions of people start relying on something, it may be wise to do some background research. What are your ideas and comments on this?

i personaly thing google is the most popular search site,everyone is using it,hell i use it,to find pics sites.....
and i think we all know the answer of ur question.
yes google is censored by some...."people"^^
cmon u really think u can get the nuke launch codes on google?i knwo only a jokes but explains what i mean.
im certain that some importants things are hidden away,but i suppose some things are left,like new informaton leaked into internet?and then its up to the "people" skills to let this information be visible or hide it as fast as possible.
but in these modenr times i think they censor and hide everything before it can be posted

1) Check here

2) The big brother potential is through the roof (!)

3) Google does censorship for China, Germany and France, I don't see why the US should be exempt from this policy of working with the government.

4) I'm a web master and I can assure you that everyday _thousands_ (millions?) of new totally useless pages go up for no other purpose than making money and exploiting known weakness in Google. I kinda stopped using google cause so many searches are totally useless (ie: only turn up spam sites)

5) There are several examples on google maps/earth of sites that are blurred out or blacked out for unknown reasons.

6) The issue is obvious, google/wikipedia have become like TV news; if it's not in wikipedia or in the front page of a google result it must not be true ! I've seen many examples of wikipedia censorship.


Here is an easy way to check for google censorship.

(It should be noted that google runs MANY datacenters - so a google search at 5pm may not yield the same results as a google search at 7pm since your request and results were delivered from a different datacenter.)

1. Load google.com and google.ca (canadas google)
2. Perform a search in both pages for the exact same term
3. Notice the number of results returned (Results 1 - 10 of about 1,870,000)

The number of results should be fairly close. The results on the front page should also be fairly similar. The count being off by a few thousand (or a few hundred thousand) may not be that big of a deal. But if the numbers are off by millions then you may have an issue. But it should be noted that censorship doesn't mean `millions` of pages have to be removed. Google may simple remove a dozen or so pages, that alone could achieve an adequate level of censorship.

I think Google News is censored. Pro-Israli news is always shows up at the top of the page and pro-Palestinian news is shows up at the bottom - or that's been my experience anyhow.

I noticed this trend so much I stopped using Google "news".

[edit on 2-8-2007 by discomfit]

Excellent links and post discomfit. Very eye-opening. Google has left competitors so far behind that I dont even recall which alternative search engine I could use. Maybe lycos or yahoo or something. I hope they do get some competition soon so that they get better.

as for google not posting nuke-codes: I guess there is an official employee or team who's only job it is to look for and quickly remove anything like that before it spreads.

still, google is not the entire internet, and the internet as a whole cannot be controlled.

Anybody else have a take on this?

yea well what search engine should we use then?thats clean and not censored?

I donno but things seem like they are censoring some things...

Take example Studyof911.com

Type studyof911 into google, then see what comes up.. 4 links.

Then type studyof911 into MSN and yahoo they have 7 and 17 pages of links for that phrase.

I do believe they are censoring things here as well as were working with the Chinese to censor their things..

But I am not sure how deep it goes.

Originally posted by Unisol
yea well what search engine should we use then?thats clean and not censored?

I dont know. But if we start finding out that they censor more than just the nuke codes I think that either a public campaign should be started or a competiting search engine could advertise with "uncensored search!".

The stuff discomfit points out is enough to warrant a public campaign to change it.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
I donno but things seem like they are censoring some things...

Take example Studyof911.com

Type studyof911 into google, then see what comes up.. 4 links.

Then type studyof911 into MSN and yahoo they have 7 and 17 pages of links for that phrase.

I do believe they are censoring things here as well as were working with the Chinese to censor their things..

But I am not sure how deep it goes.

Well, yeah. But thats because google filters out double-info (I hope).

Is there anybody here at ATS that has actually witnessed how certain websites pertaining to certain topics dissappear from Google?

Anyone here who actually worked or works for Google that can give some inside information on their censorship policies?

Anyone who knows if Google search-tracking has been used to convict people of crimes?

Actually I noticed google wiping So911 off the searches about 4 months ago..

1 day there were 9 pages of links and a few days later there were 4 links..

And this double info you speak of... what is that??

here is the searches in case you are wondering..

Pay attention to the sites on most links. They are not double info.... as in same thing different site.

google search 4 links

MSN 6 pages

Yahoo 17 pages

Alot of these links have nothing to do with double info.

I would at least see video link and such from So911.. Hell even the forum.. The old clan site i ran had a forum link and other stupid crap I had on there in google.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
here is the searches in case you are wondering..

Pay attention to the sites on most links. They are not double info.... as in same thing different site.

google search 4 links

MSN 6 pages

Yahoo 17 pages

Alot of these links have nothing to do with double info.

I would at least see video link and such from So911.. Hell even the forum.. The old clan site i ran had a forum link and other stupid crap I had on there in google.

OK. You might have a case there. Im going to do some google experimenting myself now.

edit : It's important to know that google, yahoo and msn manage their search engines in very different ways. Google sucks up new data much better than yahoo and msn.

Just the other day I was searching for something on google (I forget what exactly) and google only returned FOUR results ! The subject wasn't that obscure , I was like WTF , FOUR results you've got to be kidding me !

Originally posted by Skyfloating
(1) Is there anybody here at ATS that has actually witnessed how certain websites pertaining to certain topics dissappear from Google?

(2) Anyone here who actually worked or works for Google that can give some inside information on their censorship policies?

(3) Anyone who knows if Google search-tracking has been used to convict people of crimes?

1) It's important to note that Google doesn't have to make the page disappear, they merely have to move it off the front page. Most people only use the results from the first page, few people ever bother to visit page 2 of the search results, even less bother to see what's on page 3. So all google would have to do is move something from page 1 to say, page 37. At that point it might as well not be in their search results at all.

2) I highly doubt such a person would come forward. There is a chance that google runs a compartmentalized company where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

3) There is a chance that google would seek anonymity when providing information so not to taint their "good name" as happened to yahoo when they assisted the chinese government in jailing a few people.

Yahoo has also been accused of censoring searches at the behest of Chinese officials, and of turning over information on users that resulted in the arrest and conviction of at least two dissidents—blogger Li Zhi, who was jailed for eight years in 2003 for criticizing corruption among local officials, and Shi Tao, a journalist with the Contemporary Trade News in Hunan, who was sentenced in 2004 to 10 years in jail for e-mailing "state secrets" to foreigners.

link

Thanks Yahoo !!


[edit on 3-8-2007 by discomfit]

Google Agrees To Help Red China Censor Internet

Google is in the same boat as yahoo.. I have said that before..

I would say Google and any other search engine monitors and saves select searches by their users, not just for their own libraries but for the powers that be.

Would they deny doing it, sure they would otherwise you would be off quicker than a fast thing running faster than a faster thing to an alternative search engine.

Pay for anything on a credit card, log onto a website, search Google and every electronic signal, magnetic strip will say when and where you shopped, searched and at what time.

Are we been watched, definately yes, maybe not by ET's but certainly by our own governments, off course it is all for statistical and marketing data you understand so there is nothing here to see, now move along like a good chimp.........I mean citizen.

Wolfie

My thinking was actually this:

Lets say someday you get rich, powerful and famous as...lets say as a book author that writes about controversial topics. And lets say the government wanted to shut you up or make you look really bad in public. All they would have to do is search your electronic trail for stuff and make it public. Maybe back in 96 you were bored and posted something really hateful in some forum. Or back in 2002 you were bored and glossed over some porn. Or back in 2004 your curiosity took you to a website on how to become rich by writing books that con people out of their money.
Now today these things may not have anything to do with your research and publications, but your enemies have this information on you and can use it to your disadvantage.

So, I wonder if anyone has ever attempted to obtain Information from Google in order to discredit someone. Maybe this hasnt happened yet, but it could. And because it could, it probably will.

Every time you use the Internet it is logged
Every web page you visit is logged
Everything you download is logged
Whatever you do on the Internet is known
DO NOT USE IT

Ok, well who's to say what Google can and can't retreive? Could it be the owners selectively allow stuff like AOL? It's 'someone's' engine, not mine so I can't say what they should allow right?

Originally posted by meurig
Every time you use the Internet it is logged
Every web page you visit is logged
Everything you download is logged
Whatever you do on the Internet is known
DO NOT USE IT

Well, since Ive been using it since 1993 I guess it doesnt really matter anymore.

Nope. If you don't have anything to hide, no point in hiding. My look on it.

I'm on a list for buying an explosives book in the early 90's but I knew that buying it and don't really care.