Filtering of Forbidden Words and Search Results - What are Forbidden Keywords?
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This is a very nice question, but its answer seems to be unclear. There is no such thing as a list of forbidden keywords that search engines match against while performing a search. If there were, then it would be simple; you would know which words are unacceptable and simply not use them in your pages or in your meta tags. But unfortunately this is not the case.
Even if you try to perform a search (not a safe search, just a search) using as keywords some vulgar expressions taken from any “Forbidden English (French, Spanish, etc.) Dictionary” you will retrieve an amazing number of search results. Of course, if you use any (parental control) filtering software that prevents you from getting “vulgar” results, you will not have the chance to visit these sites, but this is not the point.
The point is that, while there are no officially announced mechanisms that search engines use for filtering inappropriate keywords, there is enough room for censorship and manipulation of any kind. With vulgar words it is easier; just use a safe search option and the most shockin results will be omitted. Rumor states that search engines have a separate database for storing pages intended for safe searching.
But vulgar words are one side of the filtering coin. And it seems that this coin has many sides. Politically incorrect keywords, for example, are another often discriminated-against category of search keywords. Well known are the censorship/filtering issues in China, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea. The so-called “Great China Firewall” encompassed thousands of keywords that, when found on a page, prevented it from opening.
Next: Where Does Pressure For Filtering of “Inappropriate” Keywords Come From? >>
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