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View Full Version : Microsoft's Family Safety Filter Blocks Google



Grant A.
April 18th, 2009, 07:37 AM
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/17/147237

Doesn't şis violate anti-trust laws?

crl0901
April 18th, 2009, 07:46 AM
There's probably more going on here than people want to think. Even though I know a lot of people like to paint MS with the evil brush, I doubt MS was like "Hmmm, Google is our competitor, let's block them.".

linuxuser21
April 18th, 2009, 07:47 AM
I don't think it actually blocks Google. I've seen Vista with the filter on. Google's fine, it blocks a lot of YouTube videos that don't need to be blocked though.

Giant Speck
April 18th, 2009, 07:49 AM
I don't see any proof in that article. It's just an anecdote that's cleverly worded to make it look like Microsoft intentionally blocked Google.

Grant A.
April 18th, 2009, 07:56 AM
There's probably more going on here than people want to think. Even though I know a lot of people like to paint MS with the evil brush, I doubt MS was like "Hmmm, Google is our competitor, let's block them.".

Well, what oşer possible motive could şey have?

WalmartSniperLX
April 18th, 2009, 07:58 AM
It doesn't violate any laws. Ideally this is intended to protect under-age users from any 'junk' on the web. And, because this option would most likely be used by an adult or parent for the under-aged individual, law has no jurisdiction. I completely understand the purpose of this feature and see it as no evil. If a parent feels this is the way to make the net more 'safe', so be it.

CJ Master
April 18th, 2009, 08:02 AM
It doesn't violate any laws. Ideally this is intended to protect under-age users from any 'junk' on the web. And, because this option would most likely be used by an adult or parent for the under-aged individual, law has no jurisdiction. I completely understand the purpose of this feature and see it as no evil. If a parent feels this is the way to make the net more 'safe', so be it.

The problem is not blocking search engines in general, but blocking Google but allowing Micosoft's own search engine. (Can't remember the name)

Giant Speck
April 18th, 2009, 08:05 AM
The problem is not blocking search engines in general, but blocking Google but allowing Micosoft's own search engine. (Can't remember the name)

Windows Live.

I still don't see any proof that it does this, even after whitelisting Google.

gnomeuser
April 18th, 2009, 08:09 AM
Well.. there are several reasons why this could have happened, but I am mostly a follower of the cockup theory. It all depends on what the process is, and let's face it we are not perfect, just a few weeks ago Google marked all sites with malware warnings because of a mistake.

So I doubt there is anything neferious and evil going on, just a good old fashioned cockup, we are all humans, even Microsoft.

3rdalbum
April 18th, 2009, 10:41 AM
Google links to hundreds of thousands of porn sites. You wouldn't want your children to see them!

samjh
April 18th, 2009, 11:19 AM
Google links to hundreds of thousands of porn sites. You wouldn't want your children to see them!

Nice one. :p

Unfortunately for Microsoft, so does Live.

Sounds like a mistake, than a conspiracy. For whatever they are, Microsoft isn't stupid (most of the time).

mkendall
April 18th, 2009, 11:44 AM
Google links to hundreds of thousands of porn sites. You wouldn't want your children to see them!

Google has SafeSearch Filtering in Preferences to block adult sites.

4th guy
April 18th, 2009, 11:46 AM
That still does not explain if this was deliberate or not (and if it was, a public statement). But technically Google's services are not supposed to be used by under 18s (in the US).