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MSN Search Blocking Results For XFree86?

Posted by simoniker on Wed Mar 03, 2004 06:15 PM
from the because-they-made-a-mistake? dept.
Censorship Microsoft
Peacefire writes "Thomas Shaddack spotted this on http://www.root.cz/ (in Czech) -- if you go to http://search.msn.com/ and search for 'XFree86', it tells you that you've 'entered a search term that is likely to return adult content', and directs you to the porn search engine NightSurf.com, which lists a bunch of porn sites that ostensibly match the term 'XFree86'. If you search for 'XFree86' on Google, however, it's clear that the top matching terms returned by a normal search, are XFree86 sites, are not a bunch of porn sites. MSN is apparently blocking the specific term 'XFree86' and not just filtering on something stupid like the 'X' or the 'Free', since you can search for 'XFree85' and 'XFree87' with no problem. And search terms like 'Linux', 'AOL' and 'Macintosh' are allowed, so at least MSN hasn't simply blacklisted all competitors' keywords as 'porn', but why would they be blocking 'XFree86'?"
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MSN Search Blocking Results For XFree86? 50 Comments More /

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  • XFree69 (Score:5, Funny)

    by vondo (303621) * on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:16PM (#8457535)
    Even a search for XFree69 [msn.com] doesn't return the porn warning.

    Something has gotta be wrong with that.

  • What's weird (Score:5, Interesting)

    by prostoalex (308614) * on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:16PM (#8457541) Homepage Journal
    XFree85 seems to work [msn.com]
    And so does XFree87 [msn.com]

    Here's a search for a possible culprit - just x86 [msn.com]. Seems fine, although notice how the first 9 results are all AMD, with some impostor Intel claiming #10 spot (and it's not even Intel's site, it's Solaris on Intel document).

    But back to searches for XFree86. So it wasn't the X86 part, how about
    free86 [msn.com] - oh, look, XFree86.org is listed with Microsoft search engine after all. You just don't search it by name, search it by keyword that's reasonably close.

    • Re:What's weird (Score:5, Funny)

      by paulschroeder (757739) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:21PM (#8457607)
      The "Free" part is probably what scares them.
      "I have an alternative? And it's what?"

    • Re:What's weird (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:27PM (#8457698)
      Because lots of porn deals with 18 year olds, and the birthdate of someone 18 this year is 1986 that could be one, possible, if very far afield theory.

      • Re:What's weird (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ttldkns (737309) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:40PM (#8457855) Homepage
        and so does "xfree8", "xfree6", "xfree 86", "xfree8 6" and "x free 86"

        curiouser and curiouser said alice

        • Re:What's weird (Score:5, Informative)

          by arkanes (521690) <arkanes@nOSPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:52PM (#8457992) Homepage
          XFree86 is certainly blocked specifically. XFree86+any other term is not. It's _not_ that the porn site results are hits for XFree86, nightsearch returns the exact same first page results for _any_ search, including random garbage.

          As other people have said, I doubt theres any gain for MS from doing this, so it's probably a term that was tossed in by programmers for debugging purposes or just for the hell of it, rather than some sort of official policy decision.

      • Re:What's weird (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jelle (14827) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:48PM (#8457945) Homepage
        I used this: XFree86 "4.4"

        and that search also returned xfree86.org as the first link.

        So to me it does not look like "some porn sites plastered the term "XFree86" all over themselves", but more like a suspiciously blocked search query.

  • Because I'm so sure that MSN users are that smart (Score:5, Funny)

    by themaddone (180841) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:17PM (#8457556)
    Not to beat the dead horse, but how many people using MSN as a search engine would know a thing about XFree86?

    • Re:Because I'm so sure that MSN users are that sma (Score:5, Funny)

      by MooseByte (751829) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:22PM (#8457616)

      "how many people using MSN as a search engine would know a thing about XFree86?"

      Apparently none, given the MSN results.

      • If you have reached a level of cluefulness where you need to find information on Xfree86 then you are using Google as well.

        Not necessarily.

        If you start out as an MS user and hear about this other operating system, what is the first thing you need to do to BECOME clueful? Look it up. Right?

        So you look it up, using the tool you know. And the tool refuses, and tells you it's something pornographic.

        So you decide somebody's playing a joke on you and forget about it.

        And you never DO become cluefull enough to download it and try it out.

        And thus you never wean yourself from MSware.

        And you keep buying upgrades from MS.

        Multiply by millions.

        Multiply by hundreds of bucks each.

        Sounds like a GREAT marketing ploy.

  • I see how it is (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zorak Man (732141) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:19PM (#8457573)
    1. Linux with Xfree86
    2. ???
    3. porn

    I mean come on, can't you see that?

  • Probably just a mistake (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RalphBNumbers (655475) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:19PM (#8457581)
    search terms like 'Linux', 'AOL' and 'Macintosh' are allowed, so at least MSN hasn't simply blacklisted all competitors' keywords as 'porn', but why would they be blocking 'XFree86'?"
    Like the short man said, "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence".

    Of course the fact that such mistakes can be made, and left undiscovered for so long, speaks against closed blicklists like MSN's.

  • Maybe its the license? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ag3n7 (442539) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:20PM (#8457584)
    Maybe they don't like the new license and are blocking it for our own good?

  • nightsurf! (Score:5, Funny)

    by termos (634980) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:20PM (#8457597) Homepage
    I continued to nightsurf [nightsurf.com] and i found another side of XFree86!

    Live Now: Free cams with 'xfree86':(Click to zoom)

    Get 'xfree86' at the Websites of the Hottest & Naughtiest Webcam Starlets, Hunks, Couples & Groups in the World. Click any star to visit!

    Looking for xfree86? I deliver, and I'm live right now.
    It sure it convenient with a graphical user interface but this is TOO MUCH.

    • Re:nightsurf! (Score:5, Informative)

      by arkanes (521690) <arkanes@nOSPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:59PM (#8458097) Homepage
      Despite the implication, nightsurf is not actually a search engine. It returns exactly the same results for any search term.

      Ah ha, upon further checking this is not true. It returns the exact same search results for anything thats not porn related, so this is probably a listing of the sites that paid for "any results" postings (Nightsurf doesn't even pretend to be anything other than pay-for-placement). A search for the sexual fetish of your choice does return results related to that fetish, however.

    • Re:nightsurf! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LostCluster (625375) * on Wednesday March 03 2004, @07:01PM (#8458127) Homepage
      Gotta ask... could this have been the result of enough adult sites trying to trick MSN's spider. Afterall, Google as a company doesn't exactly have a political stand on George W. Bush, but it was webmasters who got the "Miserable Failure" association made...

  • It's just the first step (Score:5, Funny)

    by ENOENT (25325) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:21PM (#8457606) Homepage Journal
    MSFT is going to block all websites containing the letter "X", which will be all of their competition.

    I.e. Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, hot XXX grits, etc.

  • Well, or course... (Score:5, Funny)

    by switcha (551514) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:21PM (#8457615)
    Why of course it's naughty.

    Don't tell me I'm the only one who asks my wife if she wants to XFree86 tonight?

  • MSN has strange blocking restrictions (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nvrrobx (71970) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:22PM (#8457619) Homepage
    Hotmail blocks my best friend's last name, which is Raper, because it's "offensive"...

  • BTW is you search for XXX (Score:5, Interesting)

    by t-maxx cowboy (449313) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:22PM (#8457620) Journal
    MSN returns all sorts of hits, it does not say anything about likely to return adult content.

  • Sounds like? (Score:5, Funny)

    by JohnGrahamCumming (684871) * <slashdotNO@SPAMjgc.org> on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:22PM (#8457621) Homepage Journal
    Perhaps they are doing soundex/metaphone type matching on the words to see if they are sex-related. Perhaps "xfree86" sounds like something you might find on a porn site.

    Either than or it's X FREE 86 where 86 is some position that involves finding a woman with two heads.

    John.

    • Nope (Score:5, Interesting)

      by roystgnr (4015) <roystgnr@tYEATSi ... s.edu minus poet> on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:59PM (#8458094) Homepage
      Perhaps they are doing soundex/metaphone type matching on the words to see if they are sex-related. Perhaps "xfree86" sounds like something you might find on a porn site.

      Maybe it does, but "xfreee86" sounds the same, and returns real search results, and "xfree66" has more "six/sex" sounds in it and returns real search results. They're not filtering by sound.
  • perhaps a better question to ask is: Who the hell is using search.msn.com instead of google?

  • And people wonder why I worry (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dark Paladin (116525) * <jhummel&johnhummel,net> on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:27PM (#8457697) Homepage
    Not that I believe that Google is really doing their service out of the goodness from their hearts - they're doing it to make money.

    But people wonder why I don't want to see a Micorosft Internet Search built into Windows (oh, and made so you can't remove it without damaging the operating system, like you can't remove IE or Media Player or anything else Microsoft decides is essential).

    Call me crazy, but MS seems to have this weird habit of shutting down things they don't like. Is this just a stupid mistake? It could be - I mean, block things starting with X to keep kids from porn, right?

    Oops - but Xfree85 works, so that can't be it.

    MS gives away IE to shut down Netscape. That wasn't the crime that I thought was terrible - it was going to their OEM partners and threatening them with extra high cost of Windows if they put on Netscape.

    So if they should take over the search world, can we really trust it to reflect accurately? I'm all for giving something a fair shake, but if before the game really starts they're already blocking alternate product possibilities I think "trust" is something that won't apply to MSN search.

    Of course, I could be wrong. Could just be a simple misunderstanding.

    Sadly, even if it is, based on their past history, I don't think I could believe that's it.

    • Re:And people wonder why I worry (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Awptimus Prime (695459) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:51PM (#8457986)

      MS gives away IE to shut down Netscape. That wasn't the crime that I thought was terrible - it was going to their OEM partners and threatening them with extra high cost of Windows if they put on Netscape.

      It's refreshing to see another person not consider the Netscape fiasco a 'crime'. I was working for an ISP when IE came about. At the time, Netscape charged us $20-40 per copy that we shipped to our customers. You can imagine how quickly that adds up. When IE became an alternative, Netscape refused to negociate and lost out big-time. Meanwhile, MS would do advertising partnerships and offer a wide range of support services for free. A very tempting offer when your shop isn't making much money to begin with.

      Anyway, the people at Netscape didn't move quickly to improve their browsers and, for quite some time, IE was way better concerning stability in Windows. It's not like the 2 clicks and 10 minute download destroyed them.

      The anti-MS folks who always find fault in MS never really seemed to complain about Trumpet Winsock being put through the ringer by NT and 95 including their own network stacks. How about notepad.exe and calc.exe? Before that time, you could download and register shareware editors or look for freebies. I've never heard somone argue that Windows was destroying software companies by including it's own program to display image files.

      But anything to do with [potentially] commerical media, such as web pages and audio/video content, grabs everyones attention and ends up with MS back in court acting confused and innocent.

      I know, totally off topic. Back on topic, I promise:

      I think the reason for the search results problem is likely a goof-up. Likely a low-level employee who had no idea what XFree86 is, didn't care, didn't double-check, etc before adding it to the DB. It seems reasonable that many MS employees would not be familar with Unix at all.

  • Finally (Score:5, Funny)

    by NotAnotherReboot (262125) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:27PM (#8457699)
    Finally a viable competitor to Google. I have been looking for XFree86 adult content for quite some time. Google could just never bring up what I needed.

    Thanks MSN!

  • Search for "search engine" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NotQuiteReal (608241) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:28PM (#8457713) Journal
    heh, google [google.com] lists itself sixth, but doesn't list MSN search at all.

    MSN [msn.com] lists itself first, and google is fourth - higher in the rankings than it is on google itself.

  • Doubtful this was intentional (Score:5, Insightful)

    by saforrest (184929) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:32PM (#8457757) Homepage Journal
    Notice that a search for "X Free 86" [msn.com] returns xfree.org, the XFree86 website, as its first hit.

    If you think about it, it's unlikely their adult filter is catches pornographic searches by the query text alone. I can think of any number of queries which would give porn but which it would be difficult to computationally distinguish from non-pornographic queries.

    My guess is that MSN performs the search in any case, probes the first hits in their cache with some porn-detection algorithm, and redirects you if the algorithm thinks it might be porn.

    This would suggest that, for whatever reason, the first few hits for XFree86 (as opposed to "X Free 86" or XFree85") pass the porno test.

    On the other hand, the notice says "You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content" which suggests strongly that only the query is being studied. So I don't know.

    Anyway, I'd be more inclined to think it's a crappy test than to think they've explicitly coded this as some incredibly obscure means of spiting XFree86.

  • This is some dirty stuff ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by slagdogg (549983) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:37PM (#8457812)
    Let's break it down ... X, as in XXX (porn), free, as in beer, and 86, as in people who have been 86'ed. I certainly wouldn't want my children seeing that :-o

  • Overthinking this a little (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rjelks (635588) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:38PM (#8457822) Homepage
    I think we're overthinking this. This could be a subtle way for Microsoft to block information about OSS, but I think it's because their search engine kinda sucks. Isn't it more likely that we're so used to engines like 'google' and 'alltheweb' that we assume that Microsoft must be up to something. Now, I don't believe that this would be beyond their scruples, just that this seems like a screwup. Anyway, how many of us use msn.com anyway? Try hitting 'alt-home' and you'll get my point.

    -

  • The simple solution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bistronaut (267467) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:39PM (#8457839) Homepage Journal
    The simple, conspiracy-free answer to this riddle is that MSN just has a crappy search engine that DOES return porn sites when you search for XFree86.

  • Compare "SCO" on MSN v. Google (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MooseByte (751829) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:44PM (#8457906)

    And while XFree86 gets blocked on MSN, let's see how a search for "SCO" fares on the two engines. (Top 11, "Because it's one more, you see".)

    Hmmmm. Yep, no surprise there.

    MSN Search Results "SCO" (Top 11):

    1. SCO www.sco.com
    2. California State Controller Kids Site www.kids.sco.ca.gov
    3. Newsgroup: biz.sco news:biz.sco
    4. Reuters - MyDoom Worm Aimed at SCO Web Site
    5. DealTime - Sco Product www.dealtime.com/xGS-sco~NS-5320
    6. InfoWorld - SCO: IBM Cannot Enforce GPL
    7. Computer Business Consultants, SCO Unix Sales, Service & Support
    8. Calibex.com - Simple Tech SCO-QUBE3/256 256MB for Sun
    9. Bagpipe Marches & Music of Sco CD - Amazon.com
    10. Northern New Jersey Council - Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco www.nobebosco.org
    11. Northern New Jersey Council - Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco www.nnjbsa.org/camps/nobebosco

    Google Search Results "SCO" (Top 11):

    (Note: Includes the Google News "teaser" links just added.)

    News:
    1. SCO posts $2.3 million loss - InfoWorld - 2 hours ago
    2. Perth firm files complaint against SCO - The Age - 9 hours ago
    3. User group hits out at SCO - VNUNet - 11 hours ago
    4. www.caldera.com
    5. SCO | SCOsource www.caldera.com/scosource/
    6. OSI Position Paper on the SCO-vs.-IBM Complaint
    7. The SCO Group | SCO Grows Your Business sco.com/
    8. the SCO v IBM info website
    9. Analysis of SCO's Las Vegas Slide Show
    10. California State Controller's Office www.sco.ca.gov/
    11. GROKLAW www.groklaw.net/

  • Never assign.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by countach (534280) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:45PM (#8457914)
    Never assign to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity....

  • Paranoids out there (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LS (57954) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:59PM (#8458088) Homepage
    Paranoids,

    Blocking XFree86 is not an indication of concious effort by Microsoft to divert traffic. Perhaps their blocking software has the following algorithm:

    For terms that have been searched for more than 10,000 times, block the term if the first letter is X and the second letter is a consonant.

    As you can see, this search doesn't consciously target XFree86. And XFree85 and XFree87 probably wouldn't meet the 10,000 criteria.

    Wouldn't you think that anyone who knows what XFree86 is would not be detered by MSN anyway?

    This is non-news. Hey everybody, the dots on acoustical tile above my cube spell out "Microsoft rules!" oh no!!!

    LS

  • This is Microsoft bashing, plain and simple (Score:5, Informative)

    by dalabrat (575903) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @07:07PM (#8458189)
    Goto http://search.msn.com select "Advanced Search" put in XFree86 then click on search.

    You'll get a page with a box that has "Sponsored Sites" at the top and a link to NightSurf.com

    Now click on the link below that box that says "Go Back to MSN Search"

    OMG.... it's the results of the search for XFree86.. perhapse their "BETA" search engine is having problems with the basic search and sponsored links code. Overall the original article is BS since they rushed to slam Microsoft and didn't double check everything.

    • Re:It's there service (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Trillan (597339) on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:23PM (#8457645) Homepage Journal

      The point, I think, is that the only way people are going to know it is doing stuff like this (and thus, be able to make an educated decision) is if stuff like this is public.

      I mean, if Google was blocking all search results for Linux-related sites, wouldn't you want to know? Especially if you already know the Linux sites, and thus don't search for their existence (if not content) on a regular basis.

    • Re:Mirror List (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03 2004, @06:27PM (#8457700)
      Since it's about to get Slashdotted... ...I suggest we nominate them for the only site to be slashdotted without being linked from Slashdot.

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