"Te*nager", "Husb*nd" and "B*chelor" Wrong

It's Google again, I am afraid. A guy had the unmodified forms of the above words on his site so Google pulled their advertising from him. Apparently those words in conjunction sounded "pornographic" to Google's all-wise alogrithms. And you can't use a certain word meaning "to cause someone to die", either -- which rather limits a lot of news stories! And an article that mentions "sk*nheads" is automatically "racist". See here.

Advertising is big business of course and some people get significant revenue from ads that Google places on their web pages via its "AdSense" program. So when Google pulls its ads from a page it really hits some people -- generally those who can least afford it.

If Google does not like a page, they don't cancel all advertising. That would be too obvious. Instead they put up "public service" ads -- ads that make no money. I think you will see a few such ads here -- which is why the Google advertising revenue from "Tongue Tied" is small.

I have never received a cent from advertising and I never will. I don't need the money. The revenue from the Google ads on "Tongue Tied" goes to Scott, who uses it to pay the costs of the site. With over 100,000 comments up alone, the site does need a fair bit of webspace.

So Google censorship is doing what official censorship cannot: It is bowdlerizing the internet. Any web publisher who needs a buck has to be super careful of what he/she puts up. The lesson is of course an age-old one: Always diversify your sources of information as much as you can.

Fortunately, there are many websites -- particularly blogs -- that don't rely on advertising revenue so you can still find the good stuff if you look around.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

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