Google – a faceless giant

13/06/2013

Google’s search engine is great, whenever you have a question or need information on a subject simply type in the words or a phrase into the Google Search engine and you’ll get an answer – except how to speak with someone in Google about a problem with their search engine.

My problem is with the search in Google images showing hard core pornographic material with safe search switched on, but Google don’t appear to care. Have you ever tried to phone them? No matter where you call, London or the US you’ll get through to an answering machine that tells you if you don’t know the direct dial number of someone in Google then access the help on their website, how’s that for customer care!

Now in order for you to be fully informed you need to know some history of my predicament, I don’t sit here all day looking for porn , but instead have thousands of schoolchildren that do that for me. NCI provides secure internet access to schools in the UK and work with world leading providers that constantly update their software and hardware to prevent the children from bypassing proxies and accessing sites that they shouldn’t however the global players whose software indexes the images need to stand up and take responsibility for child safety at a higher level.

A while back I had a similar issue but to a much lower extent with Bing images. This was discovered on a Friday evening and I was able to report the issue to Microsoft straight away. About an hour after the issue was reported I had an email from Clare Barclay, General Manager for SMB and Partner Group asking for more information which she was immediately sent. It took a weekend for the Bing team to fix but fix it they did and the problem never occurred again, now that is service for you. For Clare to take the time on a weekend to call in people to fix a global issue and also keep me informed with every step of the way is admirable.

Now Google on the other hand…..

This problem was reported to me late last week, it’s now a week on, it’s been reported in the press by CRN http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2274071/var-blasts-google-over-safesearch-porn-loophole?, contacts in Google have been emailed, yet no-one from Google has showed the slightest bit of interest in even what the issue is.

I’m not talking one image here, I’m talking a complete series of images and many combinations of things anyone can type in Google image search to get very undesirable content with innocent search contents. Would you like your 7 year old to view this type of content? They can now, in the safety of your home with safe search on. The issue does not occur in Bing or Yahoo.

NCI promote internet safety through their corporate responsible website www.esafetymatters.com and we will do our best to help prevent any damage irresponsible people on the internet create.

Google, a direct message to you: You may be a global player but you also have a social responsibility and a customer care responsibility. If you really care then feel free to get in touch with me to find out more information on the problem, I’m not chasing my tail trying to get in touch with you anymore – and your search engines are blocked until you fix the issue.

For obvious reasons I will not publish the innocent search terms used to get the images.

Andy Trish

Director

NCI Technologies

BACK