Significantly problematic article

GoodGopher

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Not to be confused with the genuinely useful Gopher protocolWikipedia.
Awwww it's got a cute gopher logo. Indisputably proves it's good and humble. </sarcasm>
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“”Natural News has gone from giving out pickaxes for deepening the rabbit hole to full blown open pit mining. Gopher is a good name for it.
—"Auldy"[1]

Good Gopher is an "alternate" search engine produced by Mike Adams of NaturalNews[2] that blocks out reality-based information "propaganda" that one might find on those evil search engines like Google or Yahoo.[3] This lets them provide all of the all-natural, unfiltered bullshit they could possibly dream of. Simply put, GoodGopher is to Google what Conservapedia is to Wikipedia.

Alexa data suggests Goodgopher.com gets 80k-130k visitors per month[4] while SimilarWeb puts it at 90k–130k.[5]

Video[edit]

GoodGopher's nauseating introduction video[6] has several factual issues:

  • The video argues that "GoodGopher is the world's first privacy-protecting search engine", while managing to ignore sites like DuckDuckGo and Startpage.[7][8]
  • The video argues that there are (only) two kinds of information: truth that necessarily comes from independent sources and deceit that comes from everything else (which doesn't acknowledge any gradient of "wrong"). This dichotomous view appears even more flawed when noting the many failures of non-mainstream media (such as opposition to GMFs, support of YEC, or fearmongering about the NWO).
  • The video argues that "search engines like Google gives preference to the propaganda". While Google is trying to implement the Knowledge-Based Trust,[9] they haven't yet.[10][11]
  • The video tacitly argues that every result Google returns is financed either by governments or by corporations — even given the fact that many "independent" sources are given high rankings on Google.

Content[edit]

In both its pre-public and current state the website announces:[3]

Submit your site to the world's first search engine that filters out corporate propaganda and government disinfo[sic]!

With your help, we are building the internet's largest search engine for those searching for information and news on liberty, natural healing, central banks, food freedom, advanced science and a multitude of other topics no longer allowed in NSA-controlled search engines.

[…]

No porn, gambling or pharma sites allowed.

Green ink[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Green ink

While the website isn't hideous, it has some flaws. The link for "Learn what makes Good Gopher the internet's search engine for truth seekers" used to link to a 404 page.[12] Presumably, no ways in which Good Gopher helps truth-seeking could be found. And now it has been updated to look like a movie's cheap knock-off of Google.

The site writes that Mike Adams, "[is] now using his technical expertise to create GoodGopher which will benefit all "alternative" websites publishing TRUTH rather than propaganda."[13]

Search options[edit]

Currently, the site has two search "options", further deepening the false dilemma:[14]

  • Independent Media — the catch-all category, "excluding mainstream media propaganda and government disinformation"
  • Academia — for when you want the government lies and disinformation (literally, "typified by parroting government propaganda")

Included websites[edit]

Not included[edit]

Comparison with Google[edit]

For query "vaccine" (July 20, 2015):

Top 10 GoodGopher[15]Top 10 Google[notes 1][1]
  1. vaccine fanaticism - truthwiki
  2. paul offit - truthwiki
  3. --no title--
  4. polio - a true investigative history - truthwiki
  5. vaccine impact
  6. vaccine news, articles and information:
  7. merck vaccine fraud exposed by two merck virologists; company...
  8. vaccine push following disneyland measles outbreak is mickey...
  9. "the vaccine matrix: covert birth control, female sterility"...
  10. mmr vaccine causes autism - leaked cdc research proves it
  1. Vaccine - Journal - Elsevier
  2. Vaccine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  3. Vaccines.gov: Home
  4. How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endanger Us All
  5. I Don't Want to Be Right - The New Yorker
  6. Vaccine - ScienceDirect.com
  7. WebMD Vaccines Center – Adult Vaccination Information
  8. Vaccines: HOME page for Vaccines and Immunizations site
  9. Vaccines and Immunization | Facts and Information
  10. WHO | Vaccines


Reaction[edit]

NaturalNews[edit]

Mike Adams writes of the new site:[2][22]

GoodGopher is the first and only search engine in the world that intentionally favors New Media / Independent Media / Alternative Media websites like Breitbart.com,[23] The Intercept (Glenn Greenwald),[24] Tom Woods (www.TomWoods.com)[25] and TruthStreamMedia (www.TruthStreamMedia.com).[26] GoodGopher will also selectively spider selected international news sites that have a reputation for fearless reporting on world events, such as RT (Russia Today),[27] Der Spiegel[28] and Al Jazeera.[29]

Truly, an inspiring group of reputable sources;[notes 2] none of them could possibly contain literal government propaganda.

Fake news sources like MSNBC are banned from the engine, as are all other websites pushing corporate propaganda or government disinfo [sic]. Sorry, National Geographic. Peddle your Monsanto mockingbird propaganda somewhere else...

Wait, we thought censorship and not giving people a voice was bad?

[W]e expect GoodGopher to be subjected to heavy attacks waged by the cyber warfare operations of western governments. This is why we are warning in advance that you should not expect anywhere near 100% uptime availability for the search results, especially immediately after false flag events when information suppression is very aggressive (to make sure the "official narrative" dominates the socially-shared memes in order to achieve contrived "consensus" among the gullible masses).

Absolutely.

Russian conspiracy?[edit]

Given its preference for government propaganda alternate news, GoodGopher often shows Russian conspiracy theories. One neoconservative has decided that, given this, the website must be a front set up by the Russian Government.[30] For a search on MH17, they noted:

When 8 out of 10 search results on an active term result in blatant Russian propaganda or Russian apologists, in my book this is a Russian propaganda proxy site. … If I had to venture a guess, Russia had a hand in sponsoring the stand-up of this website.

Others[edit]

Anti-vaxxers Alties Survivalists Open-minded people everywhere have rejoiced.[22][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]

Choice quote:[48]

Good Gopher supports the universal idea that we should all be free to learn, free to read and free to explore a diversity of thoughts and ideas — especially those ideas which the establishment does not want you to ever encounter. (Remember how everybody tried to censor any talk of colloidal silver during the Ebola outbreak? No clinical trials allowed!) In essence, Good Gopher is the anti-Orwellian search engine where you can find the truth about natural cures, gold price manipulations, geoengineering, the medical kidnapping of children and all the other topics the mainstream media ridiculously pretends don't exist. The People are waking up, however, which is why public trust in the mainstream media is at all all-time low in history.

Upside?[edit]

Because this will mainly show content made by cranks and their victims, it may actually help RationalWiki and other skeptics by providing an easily accessible, almost unlimited stream of pseudoscience to refute.

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ Unfortunately, Google searches can't be archived because of their robots.txt. If you don't believe us, try the search yourself.
  2. ↑ OK, The Intercept, Der Spiegel and Al Jazeera are actually reputable.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.metabunk.org/mike-adams-good-gopher-search-engine.t6304/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 [1]
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://web.archive.org/web/20150717155505/http://www.goodgopher.com/
  4. ↑ http://www.rank2traffic.com/goodgopher.com
  5. ↑ https://www.similarweb.com/website/goodgopher.com#overview
  6. ↑ Welcome to Good Gopher (May 22, 2015) YouTube.
  7. ↑ https://duckduckgo.com/
  8. ↑ https://startpage.com/
  9. ↑ http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.03519.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-truth-algo-5-facts-know/129103/
  11. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/12/why-some-people-are-so-terrified-of-a-google-truth-machine/
  12. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20150720211843/http://www.goodgopher.com/Welcom.asp
  13. ↑ http://www.goodgopher.com/About.asp
  14. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20150717155505/http://www.goodgopher.com/
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 http://web.archive.org/web/20150720223429/http://goodgopher.com/SearchResults.asp?query=vaccine&pr=GG
  16. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20150720224807/http://goodgopher.com/SearchResults.asp?query=abraham+lincoln&pr=GG
  17. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20160508212609/http://goodgopher.com/SearchResults.asp?query=jewwatch.com&pr=GG
  18. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150721232800/http://www.goodgopher.com/SearchResults.asp?query=good+gopher&pr=GG&jump=20
  19. ↑ The best 9/11 video ever: Official story dismantled in under 5 minutes by J. D. Heyes (September 16, 2014) NaturalNews (archived from September 16, 2020).
  20. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190328145304/https://www.goodgopher.com/SearchResults.asp?query=al+jazeera&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0&pr=GG
  21. ↑ Though it has no hits. Great search engine, this!
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 http://thesurvivalplaceblog.com/tag/good-gopher-search-engine/
  23. ↑ http://www.breitbart.com/
  24. ↑ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/
  25. ↑ http://tomwoods.com
  26. ↑ http://www.truthstreammedia.com/
  27. ↑ http://www.rt.com/
  28. ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/international/
  29. ↑ http://www.aljazeera.com/
  30. ↑ http://toinformistoinfluence.com/2015/07/18/bad-anti-propaganda-search-engine-an-evaluation/
  31. ↑ http://mountainrepublic.net/2015/06/13/welcome-to-good-gopher-the-search-engine-for-truth-seekers/
  32. ↑ http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/3djmkx/good_gopher_a_truthful_search_engine_that_claims/
  33. ↑ http://galacticconnection.com/now-open-for-public-test-drive-goodgopher-com-search-engine-filters-out-media-propaganda-and-government-disinfo/good-gopher-logo-640/#sthash.onPv53Us.dpbs
  34. ↑ https://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/welcome-to-good-gopher-the-search-engine-for-truth-seekers/
  35. ↑ http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2907866/pg1
  36. ↑ http://www.blogster.com/nofearofthefuture/heads-up-truth-seekers-good-gopher-is-here
  37. ↑ http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/2015/q2/natural-news-launches-search-engine-submit-your-site/
  38. ↑ http://reflectiveair.com/17/
  39. ↑ http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/media/internet/news.php?q=1437148022
  40. ↑ http://bustednuckles2.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-new-search-engine-that-protects.html
  41. ↑ http://itsafluffy.blogspot.com/2015/05/by-golly-i-just-might-get-more-hits-for.html
  42. ↑ http://theolivebranch.forumieren.com/t20149-now-open-for-public-test-drive-goodgopher-com-search-engine-filters-out-media-propaganda-and-government-disinfo
  43. ↑ http://www.whatsyourcloud.com/now-open-for-public-test-drive-goodgopher-com-search-engine-filters-out-media-propaganda-and-government-disinfo-naturalnews-com/
  44. ↑ http://thematrixauditor.com/2015/07/15/log-your-website-onto-good-gopher-the-anti-google-search-engine-launching-very-soon/
  45. ↑ http://www.eeng.net/index.php/3-goodgopher-com-beta-launched-2
  46. ↑ http://vman103-productions.blogspot.com/2015/07/new-search-engine-i-found.html
  47. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/3eeykg/holy_shit_this_is_awesome_goodgophercom_the/
  48. ↑ http://popularliberty.com/5366/goodgophercom-search-engine-filters-out-media-propaganda-and-government-disinfo
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