Google to Censor Firearms Related Shopping Results

1. From Google’s “About Google” Webpage:

   “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

   So which side of their mouth are they talking out of?

   Since they are headquartered in Mountain View, CA, maybe that’s all that needs to be said as an explanation.

2. This is unbelievable. The libs are taking over like some sort of creeping fungus.

   • This. Google wants to do business with the US Government, where crony capitalism is the order of the day and leftists are in charge. I have no doubt whatsoever that one of the first topics of discussion was “how about you filter out gun-related shopping results”.

     When “we” are in charge, I say we have Google filter out coffee and hemp-related shopping results instead. And those Che T-shirts, I hate those…

     • NO! Not the shirts! Think of irony of a communist revolutionary’s face being printed on a clothing item and sold by a corporation for profit.

       • Also the irony of Che who was a medical doctor, shucking his Hippocratic Oath and doing quite the job of disposing dissenters within Castro’s ranks with murderous alacrity.

   • Paul, isn’t there an article about forest fires you need to blame the libs for?
     Or should I simple start doing the same?
     “Clearly this is the work of the Conservatives trying to take control”
     Or perhaps a bit more general?
     “This is a good example of how [competing organization] is trying to undermine the [positive property] of the [entity we are all part of].

     • Just because you don’t like the truth, doesn’t make it not true.

3. Wow can’t even search accessories, things that don’t go bang on their own. I got the same failed search page for “M&P sights”

   • And yet, for some reason, “glock night sights” still gets hits.

     Seems legit.

     • There in lies one of the problems with censorship. You’re always going to miss something and be playing catch up.

     • They must be implying that glocks are safer than M&Ps. I take offense to that. I love my M&P. lol

   • Just ran that search (M&P sights) and had no problem at all.

     • The general search results appear to be unchanged. What’s been excluded are the results when you search specifically for ‘shopping’.

       So you can still search for websites that sell gun stuff, but you’re not going to be able to use google to search a number of retailers simultaneously.

       Oh, well, there’s still Amazon.

   • You can still search for all reloading components *except* bullets. You can also still shop for ‘firearms’ by searching [brand name] lower receiver. You can still find some more uncommon ammo by searching for the projectile weight (e.g. 123 gr works, while 115 gr does not).

     It is just so much of a load of shit.

     Also interesting, you can search for broadswords but not katanas.

4. Alternate SEarch Engine to use??

   • If you use another search engine like Bing, Dog, Yahoo ect. you’re going to get the same results as if you had gone to Google.com and typed in a search in their regular search engine. The change they made affects their custom shopping market place. But you can’t search for vehicles, guns, porn, services, ammunition, knives, tobacco, gambling or casinos, digital goods that require additional software, products bundled with service plans,or additional marketplaces. So if you use the shopping feature try Amazon but you can’t buy firearms there either but generic searches like Ar-15 parts will return you with about 3,000 results.

   • I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for awhile. Google has been getting more and more domineering and intrusive for awhile. I don’t use GMail or Google maps either.

     • +1 on all counts

   • Bing seems to work just fine.

     • I’ll second Bing. Microsoft has been losing out in the evil corporation race to Google and Apple lately. If you start using bing might want to send them a “I switched to you because you respect the 2nd amendment and Google doesn’t” to preemptively prevent Bing from doing the same thing.

       • So I know it is hard to do a bit of fact checking.. but Bing Will Not let any one even CREATE an AD that has to do with firearms or the likes. Google is just restricting it to there new Shopping API… still lame… but I can still advertise on google. Bing Rejected any ad that had anything to do with firearms or ammo or the likes. BING IS NOT BETTER AT ALL!!!

   • I’ve been using Bing for a few weeks now, after Google told youTube to ‘cease and desist’ my favourite movie download website, zamzar. I now have one more reason for not using them.

5. “We ask that you make any necessary changes to your feeds and/or site to comply, so that your products can continue to appear on Google Shopping.”

   So what changes can be made to keep their firearm products and accessories up in google shopping? That statement implies there is something to be done…but there’s not. That letter is the most polite way of saying FU I have seen in a while.

6. “Google Shopping should be safe for all users. User safety is everyone’s business, and we can’t do business with those who don’t agree.”

   It’s okay, cuz it’s about the children.

   • The full suite of airsoft stuff still available suggests otherwise.

7. i can still search firearms and accessories…..is this only in select markets?

   • See Ben’s response below, this is only going to be for Google Shopping, which if I understand correctly, organizes a bunch of different price listings for different products in one location. So like their search results, except instead of just finding the webpage, they’re looking for a price as well.

     Plain-old web searches for a product will still work fine, just not this shopping section.

     • yes, google shopping searches are working for me. ???

8. If it’s about children’s safety, they should probably take off pool and pool-related accessories, since they cause far more accidental deaths every year than firearms could aspire to.

9. So, to be clear, this is just Google Shopping, not Google itself, correct? I still get hits for firearm related merchandise on Shopping, but it seems to be a very short list, so maybe they are working on getting everything censored. But the same search on the plain jane Google web search returned over 3 mil results.

   I think this is just a ploy to make Google look innocent and peace loving before they take over the world.

10. COMMIEGOOGLE had the balls to bitch about china controlling their content, and now they’ve turned into a bunch of no good COMMIES.

    • that must be why they are so hellbent on revenue and are remodeling google shopping in a way to make them more money, those damn communists! errrr, what…. ?

      • Actually, if you’ve been paying attention, the Chinese Communists have been all about making money in the past few decades. Freedom, not so much.

11. So… why did a search for ar-15 come back with a ton of AR-15s in results?
    Don’t see a problem.

    • Make sure the search is in Google Shopping, a subset of Google.

    • This is google shopping, not the general search. Both “ar 15” and “ar-15” show no results in shipping for me.

      Time for a new search engine.

12. I like google, but I just did a shopping search for “colt 1911” and got no results. Time to start using other search engines …

13. Yep, I just did a search for Glock 19 (under the shopping tab). According to Google, nobody sells them. Oh my.

14. I entered rifle, glock, ruger and handgun. No results. I entered f**k you google and got 2040 results.

    • +1
      I had to try.

15. The search engine still works though, the custom shopping marketplace does not.

16. Old fogy me never used Google Shopping so I won’t miss it…!

    • Me neither. I was thinking to mself, “there are tabs under Google? Why?” I don’t use Bing because it filters so many results. I prefer to be my own filter.

17. “Our company has a strong culture and values, and we’ve chosen not to allow ads that promote products and services that are incompatible with these values.”

    So guns go against their values. That’s all I need to hear.

    Google. Well……BYE!

18. [dolan]

    Gogel pls.

    [/dolan]

    • Dolan, pls

      • LOL bigr505, pls.

        • Brdy bunach pls
          Colishun 2 Stpo Gn Violens pls
          I could go on and in, this is fun.

19. I don’t use Google for my search engine. They disrespect the men who died at Normandy every D-Day by honoring tetris instead. They snub memorial day as well. President’s day is another. To me, they are un-American and I don’t appreciate it. They are happy to live the American dream but refuse to pay tribute to those who provided the safety and security for them to enjoy those very benefits. Shame!

    • I agree! How can the rest of the world dare exist? Those unamerican jerks!

20. Although they are free to make whatever policies they like for their business, I’m free to take my business elswhere… which is exactly what I’ll do.

21. Let them know here:

    http://www.google.com/quality_form?q=.firearms&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=423&tbm=shop

    When you check the last option, a feedback box will open.

    • Don’t go with the last option, go with “Google’s search results weren’t helpful”.

22. I entered the words “fighting knives” under google shopping and got 95000 results. Apparently, google doesn’t consider knives to be weapons.

23. Google says this will take affect on July 1. If it still works for you now, great, but the policy can be found in the link provided in the article. Don’t see the problem?

24. I just searched AR-15 and it worked fine. Yes I did do it on google shopping.

    ?????

    • Worked for me too. Wonder if they’re rolling it out regionally?

    • Same here. I guess it’s OK for my area to tool up with ARs.

25. Say what you want about Bill Gates but he doesn’t engage in this kind of PC censorship. He is about providing unrestricted access to information. I am sure he will smile when all gun owners dump google for Bing.

    • Technically, it hasn’t been Bill Gates in a while. Steve Ballmer’s has been the head of Microsoft for years now.

      • Bill is still raking in the cash

26. Time to ditch Google. I will write them a nice letter letting them know why I’m leaving. They were getting a little to big for their britches anyways. I guess the real question is Yahoo of Bing.

27. I don’t use Google, not even as a verb.

28. Isn’t Google shopping their version of Amazon? It’s a search engine geared exclusively to shopping. You can buy gun parts from Amazon but you can’t buy firearms from them. I’m not surprised Google shopping does not list firearms. I am surprised I couldn’t find parts for my M&P.

    • I think the reason Amazon doesn’t sell guns is because of the laws regarding shipping them. I don’t think they’re set up to make sure the shipping address you’ve selected is that of a FFL.

29. Must be a regional thing?

    I live in WA and can still do firearm/weapon searches in both regular Google and Google Shopping.

    • it’ll only be fully in effect July 1st. I guess your searches hit one of their datacenters where the change is not yet in effect.

30. And how long until the lawsuits start?

    • Under what legal theory?

31. Google Shopping not working for “AR 15” in Austin Texas. Not surprising. Is it working anywhere else in Texas?

32. Jeez, I hate having to do this. Damnit Google, WHY!?

    Here’s what I sent off:

    Just want to add my proverbial 2 cents to the mix. You guys will be getting tons of email since the word’s out that you no longer list firearms or accessories in your search.

    “Our company has a strong culture and values, and we’ve chosen not to allow ads that promote products and services that are incompatible with these values.”

    That’s a can of worms, right there. For instance, I can buy books that demean women, homeopathic remedies which are nothing more than modern-day snake oil, even videos of humans having sex with sea creatures. Don’t come at us with the “values” excuse, because it’s just not true. If it is, you guys have some really strange values, prioritizing things like woo science over a person’s right to self-defense.

    By restricting the advertising of items which are legal for sale and trade in the United States, you’re limiting your users to your version of culture. I won’t say that you’re forcing it down our throats, because there are other shopping sites on the web. However, you’re just making it harder for legal US citizens to purchase firearms and accessories. Your values and culture are unique. I’m in rural Montana. Google is (was) a boon for folks like me. But now, I must submit to whoever decided that what’s good for Mountain View, CA is good for the rest of the country.

    You won’t save any children. You won’t stop crime. Criminals will not be able to buy guns online (they still have to meet Federal regulations). So, I’d like to ask: why are you doing this?

    If I had to guess, I’m thinking there’s an anti-gun coalition behind this, and you’re just bending to their will.

    It’s unfortunate. You guys were trailblazers. Now you’re leaving me little choice but to go to Wal-Mart (ugh!) to buy cheap ammo because my favorite search engine no longer lists a legal, viable product made by established US companies.

    ===============

    You can still buy switchblades, brass knuckles, billy clubs, and tasers. I wonder, will their ban on guns include gun safety videos, safes, and trigger locks? If so, then they’re actually making things more dangerous.

33. I live in FL and I just searched (on Google shopping) Glock 19, CorBon ammo and S&W M&P – all showed many results.

    • I live in FL and I just searched (on Google shopping) Glock 19, CorBon ammo and S&W M&P – all showed zero results.

    • I must be blessed, google shopping still shows plenty of toys.

34. Related to California-based Google’s actions are Paypal’s which happens to be located close to Google. I read the passage below on the site of an online knife dealer Knifeworks:

    “PayPal is controlling our website with certain products we cannot sell, due to California’s Law, even though we are in the state of Louisiana. We have just removed 53 popular items off the website due to PayPal’s policy, which we think it is unfair, just because it is Illegal in California does not mean it is Illegal to sell in the rest of the world. Once all the changes are made, we will no longer accept PayPal through the website.”

    I find these trends disturbing. Is this the latest by the liberal states and liberal corporations to play these games believing they can reduce or stop certain products and ideas from being acquired by their residents? Are the firms being asked to take such actions by left-wing politicians they are closely connected too?

    I suspect that Google’s new software codes will not prevent anyone from buying a gun, ammo, accessories, etc who is determined to make a purchase. Rather, people will turn to new search engines and methods to pay for products.

35. The solution is obvious. We must get firearm manufatures to refer to their products as “rooty tooty point and shooties”

36. http://www.bing.com works fine.
    Also lets say I type in ar-15 I get nothing on Google, but I do get a search for spikes lower.
    As to Ahron’s remark. Those of you who think you shouldn’t stand up for 2A rights in CA, just because it doesn’t affect you, well there you go, it does now doesn’t it!

    • This. My thoughts exactly.

      I apologize again for California’s libtard idiocy. Sanchanim and I will support the 2A here, and I strongly recommend standing your ground on the 2A wherever you live.

      I can see many other liberal e-commerce vendors going the same way. Man, I hope I’m wrong.

37. Google’s like the government: drunk on tyrannical power, devoid of any sense of what true values, morality, and freedom really mean, and too big to be stopped. For every gun owner that leaves, 50 leftist brainwashed teenie boppers with single digit IQs will hop on board with Google.

    Here’s the difference. Google is just a company, offering a service that is by no means exclusive. Online shopping results? Whoop de crap, five more minutes of alternate searching will get me what I need. The scumbags behind Google can sit on their thrones and chortle all they want, it doesn’t affect me or anyone to any dire extent.

    But, government is exclusive. Government affects everyone. Look at what Google is doing here and know that similar measures are exactly what “progressive” politicians want to unlawfully enforce. Google is huge. So is the government. But Google is a private enterprise. The government is not. When the government reaches such an intrusive and tyrannical level, there won’t be any Bing to turn to.

38. I’m in Florida – A “Colt 1911” search on google shopping returned zero results. I repeated the search using Bing shopping and got pages of results.

39. I bought my Ruger LCP from Bud’s (I have no LGS and use a local kitchen table ffl)… to get there, I googled “Ruger LCP” and found it on buds.

    That was a few months ago

    Just now I googled “Ruger LCP” in the shopping section – and got absolutely nothing. I remember once getting 100+ holster results, magazine results, 50+ sites selling LCP’s…

    I am never using google again. This starts now.

40. Just sent Google a feedback form telling them that I am boycotting their site and why. Default browser is changed and Google phone apps have been deleted.

    • I figure Apple doesn’t really give a shit about gun rights either, but if you’re serious about dropping Google apps then you’ll have to completely ditch Android and go with an iPhone or Windows phone.

      I’m seriously thinking about it.

41. I just want to add that although I’m pretty computer/internet savvy, I never really knew that “Google Shopping” was a thing until this post. Having looked at it now, I realize that I have seen it pop up occasionally in the past when I was looking for stuff, but I’ve never “used” it as a service to find what I was looking for, because on the rare occasions that it showed up my search results, I didn’t find it helpful.

    • While I guess I get where people are coming from in their outrage, there’s more to this story. Now that I’m investigating the previously unknown to me Google Shopping, I find this:

      First, we are starting to transition Google Product Search in the U.S. to a purely commercial model built on Product Listing Ads.

      So where the previous iteration of Google Shopping was more of simply a price aggregator, and was done without cost to anyone, they are now transitioning to a fee based service, where merchants pay to have their stores and merchandise listed on Google Shopping. Part of their reasoning (other than making money) is:

      We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date.

      So, from my point of view, the “service” is going to go from one which aggregated prices that it found during web crawls, but that were not always entirely accurate (see my “not helpful” comment in the post above) to a service which only lists the merchants who are willing to pay to have their products listed, which is equally unhelpful, in my view. Instead of a larger list of (what I have found to be) inaccurate information, we will have a smaller pool of accurate information, but which excludes some portion of the market who are unwilling to pay to be listed.

      I didn’t use Google Shopping before, even in my small interactions with it, because I found it to be unreliable. I won’t use it now, because even if they did allow firearms and paraphernalia, it would still be a self-selected pool of merchants that only included those who were willing to pay for listings and excluded those who were not.

      Their decision to not list firearms and related paraphernalia is no different, in reality, than a merchant’s decision to not sell the same merchandise. You are well within your rights to not patronize those merchants, but the frothing at the mouth anger and wild-eyed conspiracy theorizing is probably unwarranted. You don’t get this upset when your local Wal-Mart decides to not carry rifles, or when your local merchant disallows carried firearms. You simply take your business elsewhere, and politely let them know why. I won’t use Google Shopping for the reasons listed above, but I’m not going to give up my Gmail or my Android phone in protest.

42. Guys, this is a result of Google Commerce/Shopping’s new rules implemented here:

    http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2012/05/building-better-shopping-experience.html

    It is up to the sellers now to list their items individually and probably with a new fee structure now. Considering a large majority of gun sellers are small/medium businesses, I doubt many will participate in this to any large effect. Probaby better off sticking with the main search engine instead now.

43. I have refused to use Google for several years since they require cookies, keep search term records and a record of sites visited for about thirty years. Knowing Google’s connected with big government I know they cannot be trusted for privacy.

    I used to use Scroogle that placed a shielded barrier for people between Google and the user yet used Google’s search engine. Now I use DuckDuckGo that supposedly respects individual privacy on the Internet. I’ve had great results with it.

44. I didn’t know there was a “Google shopping” thingy. Now that I know, I’ll be sure not to use it.

45. I once Viewed Google as a bastion of net neutrality among all the “Big Bad Corporations” Like Apple or Sony or Microsoft. I lauded the chrome browser to my friends, I loved the simple effective and UNFILTERED searching. That last one is important, when I search for pants on the internet I don’t want “TAILORED” results based of what some algorithm thinks I’ll like I WANT 4.1 million results! I WANT 68+ pages! Because if I wanted a piece of c$@$ search engine that thinks it know whats best for me then I’ll use BING! I came to Google for the clean interface and the knowledge that Google had the best damn search engine I had ever seen. I don’t even recognize the thing I see today. Congrats you’ve broken me, my last hope for an honest to goodness unfiltered uncensored and unedited veiw of the web has been destroyed. First you cave to china then you start this kind of underhanded filtering? Where does it stop? Will this comment even make it past the censors? I’m sorry but today you’ve become yet another company in the world despite your “CULTURE” you are no different than Sony the company who intentionally releases larger versions of its technology only to release a slime version right after just to squeeze out a little more money. Or Apple with its “S” models, or EA releasing games with features disabled so they can get you to pay for them at a later date? Are there any large companies left that simply take pride in making the best damn product they can for the customer? Damn you Google you were something special and now? Just another soulless corporation.
    “The above was posted on every comment box I could find on Google’s many pages”

    • Some posts here have poo-pooed Google’s action because it only affects their retail sales search tool and other options are available.

      The point is that Google is engaging in censorship when they publicly decry censorship; they are treating certain products preferentially when they decry anyone who treats Internet traffic preferentially.

      It is an ugly day when any entity engages in censorship or preferential treatment of certain groups. The hypocrisy and enormous size of Google make it that much uglier.

46. Some of you are missing something here. Google shopping is a search engine similar to Amazon and Bing shopping. It is not the information search engine it is a retail search engine. If google chooses to limit the types of products that their retail seach engine searches, then it is our choice as consumers not to use their search engine. The market will drive their decision making. If enough people abondon them to use Bing or Amazon, you can bet they will switch over.

    There is no reason to get mad about it. Let your wallets do your shopping. I for one have never used Bing shopping or Google shopping to find retail products on line.

47. Jewgle this

48. This kind of stuff will keep happening and it is going to accelerate and get worse. We cannot boycott, lobby, vote out, file lawsuits, etc. etc. etc. fast enough.

    Whoever has the strongest gang, wins. That usually means the biggest gang if all of the members of the gang have the will to fight. In the U.S. the largest voting block wins and I am totally serious when I say that people who value liberty MUST have more children and teach them — beginning at a young age — to value liberty. Unless we can flood the nation with balanced children who prize liberty and ultimately conduct business and vote appropriately, progressive ideals will flood the nation instead.

    As they say nature abhors a vacuum … and progressive ideology is filling the vacuum of liberty loving people. It’s time to refill the vacuum.

    • Most of them will end up progressives anyway.

49. I wonder if this is what the president meant when he said that “we are working on gun control ‘under-the-radar’ “?

50. This is bullcrap, we are now just slowly turning into China. I’m moving to Canada, at least there I can get full auto’s without living in the South or some God forgotten state.

    • wait… they allow machine guns in Canada? and even if they do, the 5-round magazine capacity’s not gonna make that too useful.

      • It just took a minute to delete Google Search from my computer and switch to Bing. I was a member of that “new fangled internet thingy” since the 2nd week it was made available to the American public. I was in graduate school working on my M.S. in Computer Science, so we had advance notice that this new thing was coming our way, and every student in the country was anxiously waiting for it to arrive. When it finally came to Texas, I knew immediately that there was something great going on, and I was right – for a change. Since those “Old Days”, I am always on the hunt for anything new and interesting to play with while cruising the web; and since I retired, I cruise the web – well, A LOT! I also used Google since the first month they appeared, but things change. No point in complaining to them about their brain-damaged ideas because the giants in any industry always consider themselves to be bulletproof; and that’s what makes their demise even more entertaining to watch. The last time I remember anything as incredibly stupid as this was in the early 80’s when IBM assured everyone that they would be the leader in internet technology with their POS version of DOS 1.0 – could they have been any more delusional? That was one of the worst operating systems ever conceived of, but they were an industy giant! That pesky little boy geek, Bill Gates and his merry band of fair-haired nerds working out of their garage were not even a microscopic blip on the IBM radar at that time. Surprise! Don’t complain about what Google is doing, just shut them off and move elsewhere. All entities eventually die, but the BIG BOYS are especially entertaining to watch as they shoot themselves in the head and then scream the loudest when it hurts. Just remember: Intellectual midgets are born every day, so please don’t try to change that because they make us regular folks look brilliant!

51. Helooooooo Bing.

    • Sorry about that post above Joel… I meant that as a stand alone, but clicked on ‘reply’ to your post. Oh well, I’m getting old!

52. Hmm. I just typed ” ar 15 for sale” on Google and got 56 million hits. Not sure what the deal is.

53. “reloading press” still works for me.

54. You are all a bunch of psycho asshats who should move to the middle east if you want to play with guns.

    • Another thoughtful, well-reasoned response from the anti-rights crowd. Thank you, Blaggerfasted, for that thought-provoking interjection. But give us more. Could you please walk us through the steps you took to get from “gun owners” to “psycho asshats”?

    • Good Lord Blaggerfasted… are you off your medications? You are aware of what country this is, right? Have you read the American Constitution and our Bill of Rights? If you feel this irrational need to slam this society, maybe you should be looking at relocating to the Middle-East. I understand that there are a lot of empty caves to live in now, and your neighbors will be as equally educated and tolerant as you appear to be!

55. Hey, you gun nuts are okay. 🙂 The interweb just wouldn’t be the same without your irrationality.

    • Gun control: the theory that lowering the speed limit from 35 to 30 will stop teenagers from flying down Main Street at 90. Who’s irrational?

56. I did a bit of fact checking.. Bing Will Not let any one even CREATE an AD that has to do with firearms or the likes. Google is just restricting it to there new Shopping API… still lame… but I can still advertise on google. Bing Rejected any ad that had anything to do with firearms or ammo or the likes. BING IS NOT BETTER AT ALL!!!

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