We received 113 responses, where about 75% said, no, Google should not censor these results. 23% said they should and the rest said "other." Here is the break down of the few other responses:
Should show only when safe search filter is off!
Doing what the big companies want is taking away free speech
They should censor what they choose, not what anyone tells them
So there you have it, a completely unscientific poll from our readers.
Since the devastating disaster in Haiti, companies and individuals are looking for creative ways to help. Several AdSense publishers asked via WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help if there are ways to donate their AdSense income.
Last Thursday, the Google AdSense blog announced a way to do just that. Google said, "you can donate a portion or all of your entire unpaid balance as of the end of January. Whether you have a balance of $0.10 or $100 in your account, we invite you to participate within the next week."
To do so, you need to fill out a donation form. The donation form, if you are logged into your AdSense account, will pre-fill your AdSense unique IDs.
Back in December, I spotted a WebmasterWorld thread with a webmasters asking why Google is pulling in commands from 1e100.net, as opposed to Google.com. At first, I thought it was nothing and let the thread go.
But now, it appears that this is a significant domain. Back then, Tedster, the administrator at the forum said:
Some thoughts about the domain name itself. Google probably wanted to use 10e100, since that character string means 10 to the 100 power - in other words, a googol. Not sure why they settled for 1e100, because that only comes out to a measly 1.
The Register today reported that this domain, 1e100.net, "is now visited by nearly three per cent of all net users, making it the 44th most visited domain on the interwebs." The Register asked Google about this, and reported back:
Asked for comment, Google merely said the domain is used to "identify the servers on our network," and it hinted that such identification involves reverse DNS lookup - the process of determining which domain name is associated with a particular IP address. Reverse DNS is often used by anti-spam services to verify email senders, but it's also used a general means of ensuring a network is working as it should be working.
Might just be one of those geek factors, Google is so well for.
I reported this last week at Search Engine Land, that Microsoft furthered their search deal with Facebook. In short, Bing will now power global Facebook searches and include fuller search results.
Now that the search industry had some time to digest the news and here are some quotes from the WebmasterWorld thread:
Each page view with a search "powered by Bing" will be a tiny advertisement for Bing. Google will be hit hard by this. Finally, Google gets what it deserves, after having ignored important needs (like transparency and privacy) from publishers and webusers for so long. What joy!
I would have serious issues with FB if I knew Google had access to the FB data coupled with their famous virtually non-expiring, unique tracking cookie.
