Comments on: CenSEARCHip: Visually Comparing the Effects of Online Censorship http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/07/25/censearchip-visually-comparing-the-effects-of-online-censorship/ News, opinion, and fresh thinking for web developers and designers. The official podcast of sitepoint.com. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:23:27 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: mmj http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/07/25/censearchip-visually-comparing-the-effects-of-online-censorship/comment-page-1/#comment-769988 mmj Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:10:55 +0000 http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/?p=2712#comment-769988 Interesting tool. As the above comment sort of points out, it is not just showing censorship but is also showing the difference in the way events are recorded/reported in different countries, Google for example being a heavily geolocated search. If you want to see Google search results as if you are in another country, it isn't enough to go to that version of Google, as Google does geolocation regardless of the TLD you visit. You need to set a search parameter named 'gl'. Note that this is different to limiting the results from one country. This shows the full Google result set as if you did a normal search on Google.com from within that country. For example, here is a search about 'police' in google.com from within Australia, and then google.com from within USA. http://www.google.com/search?q=police&gl=au http://www.google.com/search?q=police&gl=us It's unclear whether setting this to &gl=cn will also apply Chinese government censorship to the results. I assume it would. Interesting tool. As the above comment sort of points out, it is not just showing censorship but is also showing the difference in the way events are recorded/reported in different countries, Google for example being a heavily geolocated search.

If you want to see Google search results as if you are in another country, it isn’t enough to go to that version of Google, as Google does geolocation regardless of the TLD you visit. You need to set a search parameter named ‘gl’. Note that this is different to limiting the results from one country. This shows the full Google result set as if you did a normal search on Google.com from within that country.

For example, here is a search about ‘police’ in google.com from within Australia, and then google.com from within USA.

http://www.google.com/search?q=police&gl=au
http://www.google.com/search?q=police&gl=us

It’s unclear whether setting this to &gl=cn will also apply Chinese government censorship to the results. I assume it would.

]]> By: krdr http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/07/25/censearchip-visually-comparing-the-effects-of-online-censorship/comment-page-1/#comment-768939 krdr Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:54:04 +0000 http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/?p=2712#comment-768939 So, "Guantanamo" gives more hits for France and Germany than USA, and "Iraq" gives more hits for China than USA. If we do image search, pics on China part are blood and war, but on USA there's 5 maps and one girl! Also, comparing China and USA on "Tian'An Man" is nothing more than bad intention. But this is just "prove of concept" than useful tool So, “Guantanamo” gives more hits for France and Germany than USA, and “Iraq” gives more hits for China than USA. If we do image search, pics on China part are blood and war, but on USA there’s 5 maps and one girl!
Also, comparing China and USA on “Tian’An Man” is nothing more than bad intention.

But this is just “prove of concept” than useful tool

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