Now that the hubbub about the SEO effects of Google Instant has quieted down to almost nothing, a sudden flurry of articles has appeared, centered around a list of blacklisted keywords published by 2600.com. The “Google Blacklist,” as they call it, is a list of several hundred terms which, when searched, will turn off the Google Instant feature for that search.
Google says this is specifically to keep porn, violence and hate speech results from appearing in front of people who aren’t specifically looking for those things. However, both Matt McGee at SearchEngineLand.com and Samuel Axon at Mashable.com see some strange anomalies in Google’s word choices.
For example, McGee says, one of the terms that Google Instant blacklists is “Pamela Anderson.” This means you can’t use Google Instant to help you search for anybody named Pamela Anderson, of which there are surely thousands.
Since all variations of the word “Porn” are blacklisted, McGee reports that you can’t use Instant Search to find specific information on the popular indie band New Pornographers. And if you’re a rap fan, simply typing the phrase “rapping women” turns Google Instant off as well.
Axon admits that while most of the blacklist consists of words that many people find offensive, there are others that simply seem out of place on the list. As an example, he points out the fact that “bisexual” and “lesbian” are on the list, while “heterosexual,” “asexual” and “homosexual” or not. He guesses that the offending words are probably the ones most likely followed in searches by the word “porn,” so Google Instant simply assumes the search outcome and shuts off. (That’s not good news for people looking for “lesbian health services” or “bisexual counseling,” for example, but there it is.)
A Google Rep told Axon that they are constantly trying to improve the system. What they mean by “improve” remains to be seen.
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