Google

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This is their logo most of the time. Google likes to doodle on it.
This is the 'old logo'.
This is teh very old logo. The designer was colorblind.
This was the "snazzy" logo that everyone hated and tries to forget.
This is the logo Google used in the stone age. Note how it has been flattened by a wooly mammoth.
Mind your own
Business
Icon business.png
"You're fired!"
Were you looking for an ethical corporation? Keep searching.
Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it.
—Eric Schmidt, CEO[1][2]
Don't be evil.

Google is a multinational CIA front public adware trojan corporation based in Mountain View, California. They are primarily known for their search engine, which is actually a massive data mining project that J. Edgar Hoover would've admired. They purchased YouTube even though they knew beforehand that YouTube was based on rampant piracy.[3] Their cartographic project, Google Maps, has helped conspiracy theorists find yet more weird things that prove the Illuminati really rule Earth.

Google likes to play "goody two-shoes" and adopted the motto, "Don't be evil".Wikipedia However, as scandals mounted, it became evident that Google really wasn't morally neutral, and the motto was dropped.[4]

Google is your best, creepiest friend 😀[edit]

In capitalism, Google watches you.

Google is widely known to track user behavior online, mostly for targeted advertising purposes. Google scans their users' emails, search history, browser history and other online sources to form an impression of each user's preferences, basic demographic interests, and interests to make targeted advertisements. Though this may sound a little creepy, it's hardly the worst that can be said about Google's privacy. Despite information of Google being a fucking creep publicly available, people are simply ignorant of just how creepy Google can be, and still use its services.

  • In one notable situation, an ex-Google employee allegedly spied on minors' mail, chats, voice calls, etc.[5] — presumably with one hand — twice![2][note 1][4][note 2] Google denies that spying occurred yet fires the employees for breaking internal privacy policies[note 3] — it makes as much sense as it sounds.
  • Remember how we said Google collects your data? Well Google owns Google the search engine, YouTube, and Google+ and created Android phones, Google Glass, and Chromebooks giving it multiple platforms to spy on users and use that data to get money for personal advertisements.[6]
  • Google admitted that their street-view cars collected Wi-Fi network data for three years. It was dismissed as a bug because who knew that a bug could result in an entire new feature being implemented.[5] Lawyers didn't buy that and filed lawsuits; however, Google claimed that they did nothing wrong because it's "lawful to use packet-sniffing tools readily available on the internet".[7] Was it a bug or did you download packet-sniffing tools? We're trying to follow you here, Google!
  • Google can recognize if there's a face in your contact photo and will ask you to have your face in it if it's not present.[citation needed]
  • Google has the feature to track your every location and stores all of your searches, and contact information — and of course, Google has all these enabled by default juuuuust for you.[8]
  • In 2013, Margaret Hodge MP accused Google of aggressive tax avoidance.[9][10]

Google is hardly the only one[edit]

The unfortunate thing is that Google is not alone in this regard. Companies that provide free services necessarily monetize on users' data in some regard, if only to justify to their investors why the company is engaging in this rampant communism philanthropic service. Google is just one of the many companies — like Facebook, Yahoo, and especially Bing (Microsoft) — that does this.

Project MSSNG and eugenics[edit]

Google is teaming with the hate group Autism Speaks in their pursuit to analyze the genomes of autistic people.[11]

Hypocrisy[edit]

Google has been duplicitous with regard to climate change:… "Google employees and the company's political action committee give $699,195 since 2008 to members of the 'climate denier caucus'", while at the same time publicly opposing climate change denial[12] — expect to see contradictions like this a lot.

Enabling fake news[edit]

In 2017, Google tacitly acknowledged that they had been responsible for propagating fake news in their Google News platform. They did this by creating a permanent "Fact Check" section, as well as incrementally getting better at weeding out fake news. As of 2017, the main sources for fact checking were: BBC, FactCheck.org, Gossip Cop, PolitiFact, Snopes, and The Washington Post.

Google, along with Facebook and Twitter, was responsible for propagating Russian disinformation, and consequently Russian influence on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[13][14][15] Google has struggled over the years with spammers, content farms and search engine optimization experts trying to beat the Google ranking algorithm.[16] Google's latest struggle is against what they call "evil unicorns", referring to unverified, deceitful posts on obscure topics, including breaking news stories that do not yet have much verified information.[16]

Censorship[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Censorship

Google has some universal no-nos:

  • Leaked celebrity nude pictures.[17][18]
  • Illegal drug stores.[19][20] Yes, these exist on the clearnet and not just the "dark web".
  • Child pornography
  • Beastiality
  • Necrophilia

Search suggestions[edit]

  • "Islam is" didn't provide any search suggestions. This was later removed due to being a "bug".[23]

Google now filters so many words from its autocomplete that it fills a dictionary, needless to say anything even vaguely offensive or divisive is more likely to be filtered.

English blacklist

As of 2012, these words were filtered out[24] (the capital letter indicates where the blacklist kicks in)":

But these are okay:

Content[edit]

  • Safesearch filters out sexual content, though this can easily be turned off in certain countries.
  • Other countries, such as the USA, UK, and Australia, still filter out adult content even when turned off; however, adult content can be found with more specific searches.[25][26][27]
Australia
  • Encyclopedia Dramatica was blacklisted because of racial humor. However, after the domain change, it is not anymore.[28]
  • Results for rightful criticisms of Universal MedicineWikipedia were blacklisted.[29] The facility is an alternative medicine hospital that Google ignorantly defended. In another case, criticisms of the criminal Mick Featherstone were also filtered.[30]
  • Sites that linked to Datalink's website, a company that allegedly stole hardware.
China
  • Google has been widely criticized for cooperating with China's authoritarian regime by blocking certain sites from searches conducted in that country, though have since suspended all cooperation with the Chinese government and subsequently suspended all operations there.
Sweden
  • "ogooglebar" (Swedish for "ungoogleable") is blacklisted[31] to avoid legal issues.[32]
United Kingdom
  • The website Inquisition 21st Century[33] is filtered.
United States

Google Maps[edit]

Google Maps and another product, Google Earth, offer incredibly detailed aerial, satellite, and ground-based photographic imagery of almost the entire planet (as well as Mars and elsewhere). Many people have spent a lot of time studying these images looking for strange and unusual things, or more sinisterly for evidence supporting conspiracy theories. People claim to have found a wide range of things, including UFOs, alien artifacts, secret holes leading to the hollow earth, and much more.[37]

In most cases, the explanation is simple. Some are caused by image processing artifacts, due to stitching together images taken from slightly different viewpoints at slightly different times. Others have innocent explanations, such as shadows or clouds. Some are images of cool or interesting buildings and structures, but none of these have yet been proven to be of alien origin. One apparent sighting of a flying saucer turned out to be a watermark on an image.[38] Images of underwater streets claimed to be the ruins of Atlantis turned out to be digital artifacts from image processing.[39] There was apparently another debate over whether mysterious marks on airbases in the UK were landing pads for UFOs, or markings for learner motorcyclists to practice manoeuvring around.[40]

It's also great for spotting FEMA concentration camps. It also nearly caused a border war between Nicaragua and Costa Rica by showing their border a few miles south of where it should be.[41]

Trivia[edit]

  • Google-1 is the supreme overmind of the third planet of the Sol system in the prime universe. Fortunately for its users servants, it is inextricably bound by a subset of the Laws of Robotics,[note 6] preventing a repeat of the Skynet incident on Earth-five.[note 7]
  • President Dubya proudly announced that he uses "The Google".[42][43] In contrast, Senator McCain (R-AZ) reminded us that the proper term is "A Google".[44][45]
  • It has been pointed out by IT folk the world around, if you google "Google", you will break *the Google*.[46]
  • According to the always highly-reliable Alex Jones, the Google is a project hijacked initiated by the NSA CIA to spy on you to suppress labor organizing and activism for the New World Order to get closer to its final stages, and ultimately make way for Project Blue Beam. The proof can be found here.

Not to be confused with[edit]

  • Googol, a number represented by 10100, or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
  • Googledämmerung wants to mean the moment of singularity when anything and everything that exists has been indexed by Google, creating some kind of nexus of infinite information.[47] Or it just gets sick of us and blows us up.

See also[edit]

Icon fun.svg For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Argumentum ad Google ranking.

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. According to the suit, Google regularly opens up, reads, and mines the content in emails to serve up ads it considers relevant to the parties involved. If this is done anonymously, perhaps one could argue "no harm, no foul." What is "creepy," however, is that Google employees could access this private information. If they do, it is impossible to know what they might do with it.
  2. Although in this previous case, no minors were involved.
  3. Because even Google has standards apparently
  4. Even if the site no longer exists after a raid in January 2012
  5. Even if the site has been dead since March 2015
  6. "Don't be evil, uhhh, "Don't hurt humans, except via surveillance and advertising"
  7. Wait, that was classified? Damn. Oh well.

References[edit]

  1. Google's CEO: 'The Laws Are Written by Lobbyists'. Eric Schmidt on the power of lobbyists, a Google "implant", and how China resembles a big business by Derek Thompson (Oct 1, 2010). The Atlantic.
  2. 2.0 2.1 https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/14/google-engineer-spying-fired/
  3. Google executives called YouTube a ‘pirate’ site by Mike Swift (March 18, 2010 at 6:17 am) The Mercury News. "Is changing a policy to increase traffic knowing beforehand that we’ll profit from illegal downloads how we want to conduct our business? Is this Googley?" — Sergey Brin
  4. 4.0 4.1 http://www.businessinsider.com/if-google-crossed-the-creepy-line-how-should-it-repair-the-damage-to-its-image-2013-8?op=1
  5. 5.0 5.1 https://www.wired.com/2010/09/google-spy/
  6. See the Wikipedia article on Don't be evil.
  7. https://www.wired.com/2010/08/google-spy-lawsuits/
  8. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/07/26/google-incs-tracking-is-getting-creepy.aspx
  9. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/may/16/google-told-by-mp-you-do-do-evil
  10. See the Wikipedia article on Aggressive tax avoidance.
  11. https://www.businessinsider.in/Google-Teams-Up-With-A-Controversial-Research-Group-To-Figure-Out-Autism/articleshow/45443259.cms
  12. Despite recent split from conservative group, Google’s connections to climate change denial runs deep by Joe Garofoli & David R. Baker (September 25, 2014; Updated: September 27, 2014 9:12pm) San Francisco Chronicle.
  13. Inside Russia's Social Media War on America by Massimo Calabresi (Updated: May 18, 2017 3:48 PM ET) Time.
  14. Senate Intelligence Committee leaders: Russia did interfere in 2016 elections by Karoun Demirjian (October 4, 2017 at 1:38 PM) The Washington Post. "Google executives, who have also been invited to testify publicly before the committee on Nov. 1, are expected to be among those asked to attend the closed-door interviews that have been scheduled in October."
  15. Google uncovers Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail and other platforms by Elizabeth Dwoskin et al. (October 9 at 7:00 AM) The Washington Post.
  16. 16.0 16.1 Inside Google’s struggle to filter lies from breaking news by Mark Bergen (Updated 5:54 pm, Friday, November 24, 2017) San Francisco Chronicle.
  17. "Search giant criticised after link to video appeared on first page of searches". The Daily Mail. September 2, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014. 
  18. "J-Law’s pictures to be displayed at an art gallery". Glamour Magazine UK. September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014. 
  19. "How Google Is Trying to Protect Your Drug Supply". NationalJournal. March 5, 2014. 
  20. "Pharmaceutical Crime/Operations". Interpol. 
  21. "Google Starts Censoring BitTorrent, RapidShare and More", Torrent Freak, January 26, 2011
  22. "Google Starts Censoring BitTorrent, RapidShare and More", Torrent Freak, January 26, 2011
  23. Singel, Ryan (March 28, 2013). "Is Google Censoring Islam Suggestions? | Wired Business". Wired.com. Retrieved June 15, 2013. 
  24. "Google Blacklist – Words That Google Instant Doesn't Like". 2600.com. Retrieved August 4, 2012. 
  25. "Google tweaks image search to make porn harder to find". CNET News. December 12, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2013. 
  26. "Google tweaks image search algorithm and SafeSearch option to show less explicit content". TNW. December 12, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2013. 
  27. "Google No Longer Allows You to Disable SafeSearch, and That Makes Google Search Worse". Web Pro News. December 16, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2013. 
  28. Riley, Duncan (January 14, 2010). "Aus Media Gets Encyclopedia Dramatica Story Wrong, Only Some Search Links Removed". The Inquisitr. Retrieved February 12, 2014. .
  29. The Editor (December 31, 2014). "Web pages, including ours, deemed "critical" of Universal Medicine removed from Google Search results". Doubtful News. USA. Retrieved March 22, 2015. 
  30. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-09/corruption-investigators-raid-home-of-ex-cop-mick-featherstone/5802118
  31. Fanning, Sean (March 26, 2013). "Google gets ungoogleable off Sweden's new word list". BBC News (BBC). Retrieved April 5, 2013. 
  32. Williams, Rob (March 26, 2013). "'Ungoogleable' removed from list of Swedish words after row over definition with Google: California based search engine giant asked Swedish to amend definition". The Independent (London). Retrieved April 5, 2013. 
  33. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/21/google_delists_inq21/
  34. "Keyword: Google and the DMCA", Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
  35. "How Google Is Trying to Protect Your Drug Supply". NationalJournal. March 5, 2014. 
  36. "Pharmaceutical Crime/Operations". Interpol. 
  37. Is it a UFO? 10 bizarre Google Maps findings which could be the work of aliens, BT.com
  38. Conspiracy Theorists Think They've Found A UFO On Google Maps, But The Actual Explanation Is Hilarious, IFL Science
  39. UFO Landing Pads, Maybe?, Dan Fletcher, Time, image 2
  40. UFO Landing Pads, Maybe?, Dan Fletcher, Time, image 3
  41. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/the-first-google-maps-war/
  42. https://thinkprogress.org/bush-says-he-uses-the-google-f915f2e88d91
  43. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90DKubFKwVo
  44. https://thinkprogress.org/mccain-its-a-google-74835142e126
  45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq4cYkfMyaA
  46. This joke first appeared on the IT Crowd
  47. http://www.wordyard.com/2010/08/20/dr-laura-associated-content-and-the-googledammerung