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Open Letter to the People & Google
50-90% of People around the world use Google to search, for email and to get “alerts”. If Google was “censoring” your searches or failing to index certain stories you’re interested in (9one1 Truth related stories for instance)- or your Gmail was not posting your emails to certain listserves- or if your search “alerts” omitted relevant results, would you continue to use them?
Around the world, when people search online, 50-90% are using Google, as it gained a rep back in the day for returning the most relevant results, and is still the best for most search topics. It also had a cool motto “don’t be evil”. Google also now has an email service and lets people store files and use various popular applications free online and these new services are fast becoming very popular. However, Google also has a rep in certain circles for having a poor record on privacy and human rights- the China search engine censorship situation, for instance. Google maintains it’s better to provide the info they can, than not to be able to deliver any, and gladly reaps the profits from kowtowing to the Communist Chinese political establishment.
I’m posting this article today for a few reasons;
One, there’s a lot of speculation online about the reasons Google is sometimes unusually slow to index stories picked up by other engines- certain stories related to 9one1 Truth, for instance. Search “google caught censoring” on google if you haven’t heard about the speculation. Some may say that if Google censors, then they would censor these stories! Media Consumers might also reasonably ask how Google News could possibly fail to index THIS PRWeb RELEASE May 23, 2006 when its crawl picked up all the other press releases on PRWeb that morning and it was a lot higher in the rankings than others? Even after PRWeb re-released it in case there was a glitch in the first Google crawl, so it would catch it on the next crawl, which they said it does periodically through the day. The Zogby poll referenced at the link turned up in Google Web searches, but despite it having been indexed by Yahoo! News and immediately reposted all over the world by interested People and was an international online news sensation for longer than the normal news cycles, it never made it into Google NEWS. the reason this is so significant is that Google NEWS is 50-80% of Google's traffic for new media releases, including news, vs. Google WEB- so if it ain't in Google NEWS, it's less visible. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Google- I will eat humble pie in my comments thread here as soon as you post, or as long as the edit window's open.
Two, THIS PRWeb RELEASE just hit the Web April 22, 2008. It was immediately indexed by Google and Yahoo! News, and most other search engines- I went and searched for it immediately, and it’s still there. I also already had or then set up the following comprehensive search alerts using the handy little “News Alerts” link with the envelope icon on the left side of the Google NEWS home page under the “Top Stories” column. The “News Alert” function means at the end of the day Google will send you stories searched for in whatever categories you specify, by whatever keywords you specify.
Now, these were the comprehensive alerts I had and have:
(moved to Comments, to see if Search Alert results improve)
Can you believe I didn’t receive THIS PRWeb RELEASE ? Now, I know I’m an idiot, but come on- if you can point out what was missing from my key words that would’ve caused THIS PRWeb RELEASE to be missed, please clue me in- I’m kinda simple.
Or, if this was a glitch, I’m sure Google has discovered it by now and tonight I should receive it in ALL the appropriate alerts- just to be sure, I’m also going to set up some additional alerts- perhaps the correct spelling of “Wurld Traade CNtr”- in any case, no one knows just what alerts my devious mind may come up with, that I will then come blog about here tomorrow.
As a media consumer, I want to know that I’m getting what I want- otherwise I gotta go to some of the many other services on the Web. I’d like to be able to rely on People and Corporations, but it just ain’t so- we all F’up now and then- it’s good to have a variety of news sources and redundant searches. I F’upd last night; I didn’t set up alerts on Yahoo! News; now I’ll never know if it would’ve caught or missed something.
Did you have any search alerts set up yesterday that you think should’ve caught THIS PRWeb RELEASE ? Did anyone get THIS PRWeb RELEASE ? Please post your experience here- and please set up some alerts to see if it arrives in your email tonight if it didn’t, and come post here tomorrow.
(moved to the Comments, to see if Search Alert Results improve; see Godgle article that followed this one)
If Google has relationships that it believes are profitable- perhaps ones similar to those the Telcoms had/have with the Bush Administration- then it should consider the impact on it’s profits and public image if the public becomes disgusted and spooked at the way it provides information, and moves in large numbers- say the size of the 9one1 Truth Movement- and gives their eyes, fingers, time, energy and money to other services on the Web. A simultaneous Buycott & Boycott.
Also post info here about Google’s privacy and human rights record, which I’ve heard kinda suck, but have been slack about looking into, despite whatever user agreements I might’ve clicked OK on before having my attorney review- and if they say “You’re crazy if you click this and use Google” and I take their advice- then I got to go elsewhere- but what Corporation isn’t like Google? They’re better than most, getting behind Solar Energy, which could well make oil obsolete economically (read Ray Kurzweil)- as if world oil production hasn’t/isn’t peaking, even as world demand grows. I currently use them for Gmail, searches, etc. Should I kick Google to the curb before I regret it, before People start accusing me of contributing to market exploitation, human rights abuses- and censorship? And just being an idiot?
Is Mathaba.net better? I don’t know much about them, but they do cover 9one1 Truth issues, and reported on the event that THIS PRWeb RELEASE was about.
So I’ll be checking my Alerts later- please check yours.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this- I really don't like typing like I'm in China.
Including from Google- “Don’t be Evil”
I welcome comments from People & Trolls.
