Beware of Google; "Google ready to pursue its agenda in Washington"

Yes, this blog is hosted by Blogger, which is owned by Google. I'm not sure how long they're going to put up with me writing about their Obama love fest before they blacklist this blog... I'm hoping someone will come up with a conservative alternative that is as easy to manage. WordPress is nice enough, but it doesn't seem to have a lot of the same capabilities. On the other hand, WordPress has a lot to offer that Blogger doesn't.

Can't say I blame Google for doing whatever possible to promote their business growth, it's the capitalistic way. However, given Obama's tactics, the Fairness Doctrine, etc. and growing concerns with YouTube (owned by Google), Blogger and Google search blacklisting conservative entries, it's wise to be cautious, and to try and stay ahead of the game.

Anyway, I digress. Here's an article I just found that highlights again just how close Google and Obama are connected. Please read the entire article, it's worth the effort:

Google ready to pursue its agenda in Washington
Its employees supported Obama, and four Googlers served on his transition team. Now the Internet giant hopes to win support for network neutrality and expanding high-speed Internet access.
By Jim Puzzanghera and Jessica Guynn
January 24, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Another inauguration took place in Washington this week -- Google Inc. officially became a political power player. In October, Google was only hours from being sued by the Justice Department as a Web-search monopolist. Today, less than three years after it made its first Washington hire, the Internet giant is poised to capitalize on its backing of President Obama and pursue its agenda in the nation's capital...
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fi-google24-2009jan24,0,4126493.story

Google to "pick and choose" what appears in search results...

My readers know I've been writing about censorship at Google, the potential for problems for conservatives down the road (if not already)... here's another story that highlights where we're heading with Google:

Google cranks up the Consensus Engine
12th December 2008 19:38 GMT
Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.

Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that...

...This week Marissa Meyer explained that editorial judgments will play a key role in Google searches. It was reported by Tech Crunch proprietor Michael Arrington - who Nick Carr called the "Madam of the Web 2.0 Brothel" - but its significance wasn't noted. The irony flew safely over his head at 30,000 feet. Arrington observed:

Mayer also talked about Google’s use of user data created by actions on Wiki
search to improve search results on Google in general. For now that data is not
being used to change overall search results, she said. But in the future it’s
likely Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes. An example is
if “thousands of people” were to knock a search result off a search page, they’d
be likely to make a change.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/12/googlewashing_revisited/

Google, Blogger and Censorship

You all know that on here and on the Read My Lipstick Network blog I've written about my concerns re: Google and their very open Left-leaning tendencies. Now the tip of the censorship iceberg is hitting the web waves... again. Yes, again. I went out to do some research on the issue after seeing a Tweet on it and realized it's not a conspiracy theory, I was not nuts to believe Google was censoring conservative blogs and news sites! This has been going on for quite some time.

I immediately went and switched my default search from Google to Yahoo. I'm not sure that Yahoo will be any better than Google in the long run but it's my small form of passive aggressive protesting. I'd like to switch my blogs over to WordPress, but I haven't been happy using WP for a number of reasons.

Now I'm going to sound more like a conspiracy type... I have a concern that in the upcoming days of the "Fairness Doctrine" and other potential censoring of conservatives, that one day Google may just go all the way and block us all. One day we may wake up and find that conservative blogs are down or blocked.

I've been talking off and on with members of other conservative groups and we're looking into options. So far, I don't know that any of us are really spending a lot of time on the issue. We may get caught at some point in the future without a means to communicate if we don't tackle this issue.

Tx to @Anne76 on Twitter for listing the first two stories below, the rest are some I've found as I went out wandering (key words, "Google" "censorship" "conservatives"):

Anti-Obama Bloggers Question Why Google Froze Their Accounts
Some bloggers opposed to Barack Obama say they suspect Obama's supporters — with the assistance of Google — may have tried to censor them when the Internet giant froze their Web sites for five days last month. Seven blogs run by Democrats who oppose Obama’s nomination for the presidency were incorrectly flagged as spam sites by Blogger, the hosting service Google has owned since 2003. Google says it was an automated response from a spam filter.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,382452,00.html

Conservative Blog Atlas Shrugs Blacklisted by Google
From our friend Pamela Geller: How does Atlas grow? Google search is one critically important way. People find Atlas when they do a word search in google ie "Obama birth certificate", "Obama odinga", "honor killings",
http://www.newstin.com/rel/us/en-010-008332877

Google Censorship - How It Works
An anticensorware investigation by Seth Finkelstein
Abstract: This report describes the system by which results in the Google search engine are suppressed.
Google Exclusion, introduction
Google is arguably the world's most popular search engine. However, contrary perhaps to a naive impression, in some cases the results of a search are affected by various government-related factors. That is, search results which may otherwise be shown, are deliberately excluded. The suppression may be local to a country, or global to all Google results.
http://sethf.com/anticensorware/general/google-censorship.php

Is Google Purging Conservative News Sites?
By Noel Sheppard
May 22, 2006 - 08:37 ET
Something frighteningly ominous has been happening on the Internet lately: Google, without any prior explanation or notice, has been terminating its News relationship with conservative e-zines and web journals.
http://newsbusters.org/node/5477

GOOGLE CENSOR'S CONSERVATIVE NEWS GROUPS!
The New Media Journal May 19, 2006 JB Williams
Posted on Friday, May 19, 2006 3:10:53 PM by PlainOleAmerican
Google News & Google Search Terminates The New Media Journal Because of Complaints About Hate Speech
During routine daily maintenance to The New Media Journal website it was observed that the new opinion and news entries published for May 19, 2006 did not appear in any Google News or Google Search Engine query. What was uncovered after Frank Salvato, managing editor, contacted Google News was nothing short of censorship and a blatant violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1635115/posts

Is Google censoring conservative and anti-Obama blogs?
My blog has been flagged as spam by Google ... has yours?I first noticed my blog had been flagged as "spam" by Google around the first part of June, and it continues to be under a "spam suspision" even though I turned in a review request weeks ago. So what is the background on this story?
http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-google-censoring-conservative-and.html

Inside the world of Google censors
By Michelle Malkin • November 29, 2008 11:05 PM
Several weeks ago, I spoke with GWU law professor Jeffrey Rosen about my curious experiences with YouTube’s mystery censors. Longtime readers will remember the battle over “First, They Came.” For the past two years, my attempts to re-upload the little video about the Mohammed Cartoons and violent jihad were blocked. Other users were able to upload it, but it was blocked from my personal channel. Lo and behold, after Rosen inquired about it, the video is now available again.
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/29/inside-the-world-of-google-censors/

Google Censorship By Nathan Tabor
Last week I wrote of the possibility of government censorship on the Internet. “If you’ve never considered the possibility that the federal government might one day tell you what websites you could access...” I stated, not realizing that not the feds, but the most popular search engine on the Net has chosen to tinker with the supposed impartiality of their search algorithms and censor certain websites.
According to Noel Sheppard and Marc Sheppard, writing for the American Thinker, Google has been terminating its news relationship with conservative e-zines and blogs.
http://acuf.org/issues/issue61/060611med.asp