Google To Block Piracy-Related Terms From Autocomplete

An anonymous reader writes "Google is making changes in the way it presents web search results to try to exclude links that may be tied to pirated content. In a move enthusiastically praised by the RIAA, Google says it will not include terms closely associated with piracy from appearing via autocomplete. The company acknowledged that it can be hard to know what terms are being used to find infringing content, but 'we'll do our best to prevent Autocomplete from displaying the terms most frequently used for that purpose.'"

Re:Torrents

[houstonbofh]

Of course, but they are just pulling it from auto-complete, not search. Now surprise considering that typing "Despicable Me" would magically have torrent behind it. This is just moving the hookers from the street to the alley.

Well damn...

[Irick]

Now they will have to actually type out their coppywrite infringing query. Well thanks alot google for making illicit deeds slightly less convenient.

Lapdog

[cosm]

This move makes them look like a lapdog shill. The bigger they get, the more they are learning they have to play ball with the politicians and mafiaa in order to please the other plutocratic overlords. Moves like this help them stay out of the legal crosshairs and keep friends in high-places (back scratching deal making kind of places).

Seriously, since when is linking to data crime! It seems like we are seeing more and more stories with asshats lawyers and lobbyist and congressfucks who think this way. God forbid hosting it, but linking to it? Get real. Idiots.

Re:Ooook,

[nomadic]

lets see what will win. pagerank (tm) or freedom of information and knowledge.

Ooh, ooh, I can answer this one. Pagerank(tm). Easily.

Pornography

[Sonny Yatsen]

This will be a successful plan because Google's previous blocking of pornography-related terms from autocomplete was a spectacular success at preventing people from finding pornography.

Still popular

[MonChrMe]

It won't even affect it - It's only autocomplete, not the search itself.

Basically all this means is that the freeloaders (I prefer not to use the term pirate) will need to type 'torrent' manually instead of having it pop up magically. Big deal... given the lengths some of them go to already an extra eight keystrokes (including the space) isn't going to dissuade them one bit.

Google can't magically stop people using the terms outright as it would affect a lot of other searches as well. For instance, someone searching for a water torrent stock photo... Google isn't doing anything to affect that.

AltaVista didn't even have autocomplete, IIRC, and they've not said anything about it changing search results at all.

Re:google can...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please post your SSN, all your credit card numbers (including security codes from the back), bank account numbers, birthday, mother's maiden name, first pet's name, name of your best friend, all of your medical records, etc...

After all, if information wants to be free, why are you trying to thwart that?

Re:Torrents

[Rockoon]

I don't see it as exactly moving the "pirate" stuff.

I see it as Google had probably already planned on tuning the auto-complete to remove a lot of pirate search terms because, quite frankly, its not helpful for anybody that those be there.

There is probably a lot of other things that will be down-favored in this same move, but Google gets to turn to the RIAA and say "See what we did for you!" by focusing its forward face on the coincidental removal of things the RIAA wants removed.

Re:Like what?

[Hotawa Hawk-eye]

I like the way you think, but I see it a little differently.

Google: Okay, we've done as you asked and removed piracy-related terms from autocompletion.

RIAA + MPAA: Excellent!

RIAA + MPAA: What the ...? I typed "iron ma" and the only thing that came up was "iron magnets"? Where's "Iron Man" or "Iron Maiden"?

Google: Oh, those terms often came up in searches performed by pirates, so as you requested we removed them from autocompletion. In fact, we went even further and removed them from the search results entirely! Aren't you happy?

RIAA + MPAA: *fuming*
 

Re:google can...

[Stiletto]

Filter out keywords. Do your search with: -buy -purchase -price -shop

It would be really nice if shopping sites could all be on .com and useful informational stuff could all be on non .com domains, but that's as likely to happen as unicorns flying out of my butt.