I had always discounted the idea that there was some kind of "conspiracy" at Google which "suppressed" pages maliciously. It seemed to me that those who complained about Google's search algorhythms were simply calling "sour grapes." Why should Google actively suppress pages? Isn't their goal simply to be the most effective search engine out there? This slashdot thread discusses the idea that some sites may be "censored" by Google's search engine. Is this a problem--even when the sites in question are child pornography?

It turns out, the issue is even more complicated than that. Take a look, for instance, at this (modded down) subthread. Yes, that's me commenting on Lebowsky's claim that his friend's Web site (for a basically nonoffensive band--no kiddie porn here) had been censored. Yesterday I was able to find the site using a Google search. Today, however, using the same search terms, I wasn't. Apparently, something in Google's algorhythm is actually supressing results.

In the past, I had assumed that if I scrolled through the search results, I would eventually find every page that included my search terms--that "pagerank" was simply a technology for placing the most "relevant" sites first. It appears it's doing more than that. Is it because Google is "broken," or is Google actively sacrificing search accuracy for globalization and commercialization?