© the eyeranian

are they crazy? i'm sure they searched only keywords and ...
i will send an email for them,

ditto, let us know how this develops. I may just snub them as a result. humph!

I haven't got a chance to read this post in detail yet (I will and I will act in whatever way I can) but I am not surprized at all.

As far as comparing your to Pejman Yousefzadeh and Andrew Sullivan is concerned, the topics might be the same by there is no real comparison. What they write is noithing but crap in nice english words. I have stopped reading them long time ago (if I feel I want to read some propaganda, then I read Jourisalim Post or watch Fox news.

Is Pejman an Iranian? Sure his name is, but.... .

I don't believe in censorship, and this is a political page, political speech is uniquely protected. But if I were Mr. Google, and saw a picture posted on your web page showing Iraqis dancing at the scene of a dead American soldier, I'd probably make the same decision.

Its as if you enjoy the fact that one of our soldiers died. Heck, for all they know, you think 911 was a joyous event. Perhaps you believe that America _deserved_ 911. They have to make a snap decision based on thier own interest.

I also think its very telling that as soon as you get this treatment, you claim prejudice. Yet it is OK for you to slam 'The European' which is just a euphamism for skin color and your own racial bias.

There's an example of that same prejudice you are talking about. In months of reading this weblog, I am yet to see or read eyeranian say anything that someone like Howard Dean or others may also say as it refers to the Iraq invasion or terrorism. He certainly does not say anything that many Americans already feel about our history or the wrong path we are on as it relates to race relations, treatment of natives, etc.

Yet, noboby ever even suggests Dean or the other people are "enjoying death of U.S, soldiers" or "think 9/11 was a joyous event". That is only suggested and presumed because of his place or birth and his ethnic background.

As an American, I find this most disgusting that some of my countrymen can't get over the fact that what he writes about should be looked at something another equal human being is writing, not an immigrant, not a Muslim, not an eyeranian.

Google is doing the exact thing and they are very wrong on this. I will write them shortly. Hope my other American friends can also stand up against what is just wrong.

Just to clarify, despite my own political beliefs, I f google is doing this, its wrong.

SCREW Google!

i have google search on my page...
i notice it wasn't working the other day.
maybe they had problems with my site too.

Pedram, screw Google...
since i've been on the internet, '94
over 5 searchs grew big and then faded to the wayside..

google is on the way out.

once a search engine starts pushing people around,
like usual some one else will pick up
the slack and rise to the top.

that's how google rose in the first place,
it took up where yahoo feared to tread.

it's happened so many times,
don't worry, just move around it.

money talks, and once they lose their
position, they will be forced to retreat.
google is feeling high and mighty.
screw them!
you don't need them, they need you!

yahoo was high and mighty for awhile,
it took months to get listed, and now,
i got myself listed on yahoo,
with just one click, and submitted
to a whole bunch of other sites simultaneously...

this is the net,
what doesn't float, eventually sinks.

if you know some programmers...
just set up a search engine to counter google.
bill it as a search engine to sites
that have been BANNED by google.

i'm sure you're not the only site that has been
rebuffed. maybe this is a blessing in disguise?

we all use search engines...so if i won't use
google anymore, since I do not agree with
their policies...

that makes me i'm an avid internet user looking for a search engine that leads me to alternative view points...why?

that's where i was several years ago,
when yahoo waned and google came online.

I have come full circle. I find myself
in need of another search engine.

SOS

It's funny,

If Google has problem with the content of your blog, then perhaps I have to even pay them to put some add on mine. hahaha.

Crazy world! isn't it? i will write them also...it is a shame....

I am sorry A.H.
I think Kris is right.
News is not made at Eyeranian, it is reported here. Are you shooting the messanger? Freedom of thought? Freedom of speech?
Amir

I emailed you my comments, hope they help.

My previous post did not make it through...

so i'm just leaving an excerpt from a weekly
newsletter which i recieved just after reading
about Pedram problems with Google...

i hope this post makes it through

Do you remember Scroogle? Daniel Brandt, of Google-Watch.org, created Scroogle when he discovered that you could see pre-update results for search terms when you included "+ jibberish term" after your key term.

Click here to comment about Scroogle.

His "scraper" queried Google for a term, then queried it again with the jibberish terms added so that you could compare your before and after-update search terms.

Blocked by Google. On December 7th, 11 days after he put up the Scroogle site, Google IP blocked his server so that he could no longer receive results.

He changed servers right away, and the same results continued to show until the 11th of December, when Google fixed the glitch that allowed the old results to show. He still has a list on his site of many of his old "before and after" results tests.

Why did Google block Scroogle? Google's explicit about their stance on third parties scraping their results: "You may not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system without express permission in advance from Google." (From their terms of service page.)

Daniel believes this rule is related more to automated queries that hit Google millions of times for spam or other nefarious purpose. At the peak of Scroogle's popularity it only hit Google about 20,000 times.

Plus, he originally built the scraper months ago to provide ad-free results. You can still search Google ad free from his site. Google took no notice of this scraper, which regularly requests results for 5,000 searches a day.

So why else would Google block Scroogle? Daniel thinks Google blocked his scrape because it showed Google's hand, something Google, as a highly secretive company, didn't like.

Scroogle was not intended to make money - there was no motive for Scroogle other than to comment on Google's latest update. Daniel believes that what he was doing was fair use, and that Google essentially violated his right to free speech.

But what was Google was so reluctant to reveal? According to Daniel, the hardest hit terms were those that included "your city" + "search term." Among these, realtors were especially hurt.

While they're mostly back to normal now (he did point out that, as of 12-22-03, "your city" + "hotel" still delivers irrelvant results), he thinks these changes point to an increased localization, a sort of Google Yellow Pages that will be an enormous money maker once Google goes public.

So, did Google block Scroogle because of a violation of company policy or because they didn't like that Scroogle revealed details about the change in their algorithm? Why do you think the localized results were among the most skewed after the most recent update?

One more thing…

My friend recently published a book and set up a web site for it.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to locate his site on Google.

I went through dozens upon dozen of pages and came up with nothing. I kept telling him he had to re-design the page or something.

It’s not him who designed it anyway. He’s a writer not a web page builder.
He just kept saying, “It has been listed with all the search engines, I don’t what you’re talking about.” (I assume his web designer would have enough sense to submit to Google).

Well, then why couldn’t I locate the web site on their search engines?

After I read today’s post, I logged on to Alta Vista and typed in the title of the book.
I was immediately directed to his site. In fact, his website was the only one listed.

Wow! I couldn’t believe it! I’m not saying that Google censored his web site. All I know is that I could not locate his web site through their search engines, even after many days of searching.

However, I did manage to find it through Alta Vista within 3 seconds.

Truly, I never even thought to look anywhere else
but Google...UNTIL TODAY THAT IS!

Are you ready? Here is the book you will not see listed on Google

“The Bible for People Who Hate the Bible”, by Tony Malone
http://saintoxenbooks.com

If I wanted mainstream opinions,
I would watch TV or listen to the radio.

i pay 40 bucks a month for an internet account,
(besides other expensives)
for one main reason...
To hear ALTERNATIVE OPINIONS and lots of them!

Salam,

well they emailed back, witht he same vagueness etc as your first reply. Here's a snippet:

"We currently do not run paid AdWords ads on web pages that contain
potentially negative content in order to protect the interests of our
publishers as well as our advertisers."

And my reply (getting irritated):

"Hello again

This is obviously a form letter with legalese and proper vagueness. Please
elaborate as to what in his web site is "negative."

Leila
"

Consider that it may not be the content per se, rather the combined effect of certain factors such as:1) many of your entries are on the subject of politics. You have a clearly defined point of view, which is often critical of the status quo. 2) you are proudly, loudly, identifiably, in-your-face from the Middle East, a place which is pretty much synonomous with war, unrest, violence, terrorism, the closest thing the US has to an enemy right now. 3) You are an activist, by your own admission and by behviour in this very post, for example, where you demonstrate the ability to organise action to promote your agenda (see #1). It all leads to uneasiness for a public enterprise which wishes to maximize profits. Google does not want to scare anyone, champion anyone, or promote anything but its own profit. The price of freedom might be that you don't get picked for the team.
I very much appreciate your site, your thoughts, your integrity, your courage. Don't despair! Do the right thing and feel the love we are all sending to you.

I've seen a number of sites say that google didn't accept them and they've been on both sides of the aisle politically. Google's adwords page does say that they generally don't accept blogs, but obvious there are some blogs that they have accepted, including lefties like daily kos and oliver willis.

I have personally met some of the top management at Google and I can assure you that they definitely aren't conservative.

It's unfortunate that they stopped using your site for advertising, but I wouldn't make this into a conspiracy.

Googles decision mostly refelects views of the spineless advetisers and the systen they have created. They, the goods producers, have cultivated a vast group of consumers that responds to only certain audi/visual commnands. So, that is what you have to deal with and not some pencil nick geek sitting in glass boardroom trying to squash the "eyeranian". This thing is bigger than all of them!!

I can't figure out the logic behind such policy from Google! Just sent an email to them; please keep us updated.

Google people are out of their minds and I just wrote them about it too. Hope others do as well.

Pedram Jan:

I am not sure why this should surprise you. You are living in a Country where everything has a connection with advertising dollars and Google is no objection. We like to give too much credit to these companies who make a living by not rocking the boat or even getting close to it or even maybe accused of doing so indirectly. Google is a business. It has a bias.

There are other examples of google's bias:
http://www.aim.org/publications/briefings/2003/nov19.html

Google watch documents google's un-kosher activities:
http://www.google-watch.org

I think you have approached this correctly asking people to get involved and email those who may be in charge. But, don't hold your breath and encourage people to use other search engines...

Oh and I forgot:
Encourage everyone to remove all links to google form their site...

Don't take it personal. Guys at Google have much more important issues to address, rather than dealing with a personal blog, which has much lower number of hits than "proper" web sites.

If you are desparate to earn money, I really think you should rely on other sources of income :)

I am sure Pedram would agree, this is not about money at this point. It is discrimination by a large company against one of its clients based on his opinions and views. That is just wrong.

Actually it is wholesale discrimination. And small potatoes are not the only victims. I am reminded of Maher’s forced apology because Fed Ex did not like his comments after the 9/11 tragedy. Advertising dollars play a too large of a role in our society and it is going unchecked. Self censorship is as devastating as forced censorship and in fact is worst than the latter because in the former, people are under an illusion that truth is being told where in fact it is not. Alternatively in a controlled society like Iraq under Saddam, people were aware of the lies and acted accordingly. A person is always better off knowing that he does not know rather than not knowing he does not know.

Nima,

You've got it right!!!Sometimes we don't even know how entrenched our self sensership is.

What lawsuit? Let's remember our countrymen are dying in the struggle to establish a system where questioning authority is not a crime. We have the right to assemble electronically! Even if it is very, very annoying! Google has the right to respond, if their counter-argument is more convincing, then we will all be convinced, and there will be no need to bludgeon anyone with lawsuits.
I express my solidarity for this site by shopping the ads below. I am considering buying a couple of the books,partly because they are in my field of interest (which is why they're here) and also because when money talks, the bazariis listen.

Hi. The ad links do work Pedram.

Hi, I've sent the emails and written an entry on my blog about this. I believe it's not the first problem happening with google...nor the last.
Be ware of Big Brothers, by any means.

and don't forget to take a look at this....
http://www.google-watch.org

Do you like corporations such as Google? Do you think they should like you then and provide financial support for you?

Google is a corporation and the "Ad Sense" could be means of financial support for eyeranian. I think it is as simple as that.

They might revoke their decision but even that would be in the pursuit of their very corporate interest.

So what does that mean? That it is ok to discriminate in the name of corporate profit/welfare? Surely, you don't mean that...

I agree with you "Discrimination based on someone’s opinion is not acceptable."

I pretty much resent what they said about your blog. I think it's like a lot of businesses who just want to stay out of trouble by avoiding any Iranian contact. The heck with them, find some other sources and don't even bother promoting them by asking people to email them.

I disagree with Ali, we need to pressure these guys for them to understand how wrong their action and attitude is. After that, Pedram may or may not move to another method of advertising or other options if that is what he wants.