I'm Finally Sick Of It

For the longest time now, if you place the term Natalee Holloway into Google - the first link up has been to a Kuroshin article entitled "F@ck Natalee Holloway".

If someone is paying their own way on the Internet and not breaking the law, I don't support censorship and Kuroshin is free to write or host whatever they want. I have no complaint with their site and have been seeing the link forever.

But given that Google has a reasonable amount of control over their search mechanisms and subsequent results - there's simply no excuse for the same old tired, insulting and, frankly vulgar link to be sitting at the top for every school kid who might do a search on Natalee Holloway without safe search on.

I don't care how someone feels about the issue - whether it is over-covered, or not - that's a fair point. But there is absolutely no reason for what is now a Major Public American corporation to continue a situation potentially so insulting to many Americans for so long.

Here are two email addresses - one for their PR Department and one for investors. I would strongly encourage everyone to take a minute and let them know what you think - whatever that might be.

Comments

[The Internet]

By the way, this page and subsequent discussion was linked to from kuro5hin, providing a great deal of enjoyment and derision at the moronic whining of you oversensitive self-rightous ignoramuses.

[rakanishu]

Personally, I don't even find miss Holloway attractive.

[beverins]

To the fool who said "write to wikipedia.org and tell them to remove the link". You obviously have absolutely no inkling clue as to how a WIKI works.

[beverins]

I absolutely 100% agree.

With kuro5hin that is.

I, for one, couldn't care less about this woman. I'm sure she wouldn't give two shakes of a rat's ass if I went missing, so who am I to care about her? in Aruba, no less! Wish I could go spend a holiday in Aruba!

[jospeh K]

You appear to have run out energy. You weren't really that *sick* of it really were you, just a bit of fashionable short lived outrage. "Fuck Natalee Holloway" is frankly nowhere near as offensive to me as people like you lot treating the death of a young girl like it was the latest greatest reality tv show ever. Sickos.

[kenny]

perhaps some of you sheep should read the article rather than simply whining that the title contains an expletive.

[vor0nwe]

"Here's my point. Your objection is not to the presence of the story, you claim. Your objection is to the story coming up on a search, if Safe Search is turned OFF."
-- Posted by: macker | Aug 9, 2005 4:27:35 PM

Amen to that, and the rest of your post, macker.

[macker]

Okay, I see a ton of comments here, ranging from "yes, this is disgusting!" to "we should boycott Google!".

Last time I checked, a boycott meant choosing not to use something. Much like choosing not to click on the Kuro5hin link. But hey, that's not the point.

Here's my point. Your objection is not to the presence of the story, you claim. Your objection is to the story coming up on a search, if Safe Search is turned OFF.

Safe Search is there, and enabled by default, for this exact reason. Anyone who turns it off is explicitly agreeing to accept results that may be adult in nature, offensive, pornographic, or downright obscene. In fact, this is probably the main reason one would turn off Safe Search, with few exceptions. I can't see why some student using a computer searching for Natalee Holloway would have "Safe Search" turned off, unless it was because he was searching for porn five minutes ago.

And that's the point. We're not here to make sure that kids can't search for porn on google, or that people wont see an opinion they don't like, or even an offensive page title. That's up to the parents of that child. ANd if you personally can't deal with offensive content, I have two suggestions, in order of effectiveness:

1) Turn 'Safe Search' back on.

2) Unplug your computer from the Internet, because its most popular commercial use is still for the purveyance of offensive content.

[AndrobTech]

I was trying to google bomb the term "natalee holloway" so that it could put the wikipedia's article in the first result. But apparently there aren't many volunteers..

[aphrael]

That's certainly worth trying, but I doubt it will fix the problem; kuro5hin articles in general rank unnaturally high.

Kuro5hin is #7 for "mary poppins", and in the top 5 for "christian leader", and #1 for "molesting", just to cite a few bizarre recent examples.

[Natalee-Holloway.com]

IMO, the reason why http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/3/491/18474 is topping Google searches is because it is directly linked with Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalee_Holloway#External_links . Notice the "External links" and you'll find kuro5hin.org . Wikipedia.org's PR (Page Rank) help kuro5hin.org Google rank to climb up. It's a simple principle in SEO.

Send you complaints to Wikipedia.org, tell them to remove the their link to kuro5hin.org and I'm very sure that the site would not top Google search anymore.

[aphrael]

Suz - I think you, and many people for that matter, are failing to understand how the site in question works. Anyone can create an account. Stories are written by people who have accounts, and are posted only after a vote, in which anyone with an account can participate.

Neither the 'host', nor the site owner, nor any of the administrators, have any say in what gets posted or doesn't, except for their single vote, which is equivalent to the vote of any other ordinary site user.

[let's not burn books]

I must clarify--Dan, you do well to include other news. I appreciate that you give other stories attention.

[let's not burn books]

"Your "Remove Content from Google's Index" states:

'We're committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users
; therefore, we cannot participate in the practice of censorship.'

First, you perform a sorting/weighting function to what is returned. So you
have already biased the search results.

Second, censorship is something a government or government offical performs.
You are a private company, you can do what you want, or not.
--------

This claim of censorship has happened in other places. When Susan Sarandon and her husband went public with their criticism of the war Iraq, it was just before the Baseball Hall of Fame was to have an anniversary showing of “Bull Durham”. People got mad, and the whole celebration was called off. SS screamed censorship. Nope, she has a right to say what she thinks, and the Hall of Fame has a right to tell her to get lost.

Google can change the weighting function so this link does not always appear at the top. But the main issue is they do not want to get into an editing bind selectively removing an entry here or there.

I don't like it, I sent email, but if Google does something about it, it is not censorship."

Posted by: Wayne | July 30, 2005 09:31 PM

Wayne,

You should have looked up censorship in the dictionary before you sent that email. You're confusing the concept of censoring with the law in the US. Censorship is when any person, not just the government, edits, blocks, or removes material that some see as untasteful. In certain circumstances, our government may not impose it upon its citizens.

If google changes its algorithm because people are afraid of the word FUCK, as used in the website (it says "fuck natalee holloway"), google is by defintion "censoring" its site. But that would be perfectly legal.

To all,

I agree with the author of the "Fuck Natalee Holloway" webpage; however, I disagree with his title. But in the paragraph below the title, he makes good points about how all of you ignore many other similar news stories, for some odd reason, and concentrate on a rich, attractive, white girl. You should question your motives.

God Bless

[jaybo]

If you really want to have an impact, go to the web site's main page and inform the sponsers that you will never use their products if they continue to support that kind of trash.

Trust me, if the idiot that replied to all of you by ridiculing your responses has his sponsors leave, he will change his attitude in a second.

[TyBee]

Isn't http://www.nataleehollowaynaked.com/ a better target for your outrage?

[TyBee]

Isn't this a better target for your outrage?

[Cindi in PA]

I don't like it, I sent email, but if Google does something about it, it is not censorship.

Posted by: Wayne | July 30, 2005 09:31 PM

Damn right Wayne, I spend 50 some dollars a month for two aol accounts, one for me and one for my kids...........they have sent my ass packing on more than one occassion for my foul mouth :0, its their site, they can boot me anytime they like. No freedom of speech there.......even if your paying for it.

[George]

Google ranking algorithm uses numerous criterias most of which would not favor Kuro5hin.org. One seems outweighted all others together - a full search string most frequently including "Natalee Holloway" exactly matches the beginning of Kuro5hin's page title. Even if conservatives manage Google to restrict reflection of public interest (what is unlikely), this will not change how most of Internet users views things. BTW, I invite you to look at "Natalee Holloway" discussion forum at http://rjames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6.

[Morrs]

Notify Geraldo, Greta & Bill O'Reily....they may be over the top sometimes, but their coverage would probably result in it being gone by Tuesday... I've emailed both.

[FANNIE]

I AM GLAD someone is still caring. As a point of view from Texas, we feel Natalee was sold as a slave. Why have not the authories or the FBI gone beyond the island. Is there a problem going to Colombia, Venizuela, or even where our war is going on. Keep in mind there is a war going on, strange things will happen to our children.
The mother feels strong enough that her daughter is there then she is there. Listen to this mother, a mother is very sure of her children .A mother's point is very strong. She feels her daughter is there, and that this men had something to do with it, she is right.Her daughter is alive, and possibly seeing all of these. She is able to pray, and pray
Please check the islands aroung the island, I see these young men laughing when the camera, they have no feelings, for these teenagers. We do not need to be threated like animals, the island makes alot of money from the united states of america. Try going beyond the island, and the light house something happen there. The body might had been hidden at the pond, but remember that the guy in the boat, was also part of it. Why was not the pond checked before. Now these two new witness, they show the body or something, then they went to both places, and paid someone money to get rid of it,. Now keep in mind that these people stay together, so many witneses are keeping back scare of the police. They will be taken care of, if they confess the truth.
It was dark, the young lady might be in a attric or closet in one of the men that hurt her. Why not restart the case again. It is a piece of cake for these guys. They do not care they are treated like kings there. crime for them is a game for them. Death for them is nothing.

[DanFan]

Dan, I have only posted a few times because of the vitriol of a few of the regulars on this forum .

I continue to find your site full of many interesting viewpoints and hope you do not close it down. Those of us who have been regular readers will miss your insight.

For the most part, I think we ignore the noise from those whose main objetive is to shut you down and disrespect the culture of America (without the k).

I don't pretend to have any of the answers to this horrible story, but my heart goes out to Beth Holloway Twitty, Dave Holloway and their daughter Natalee Holloway. Jug Twitty has been the most supportive husband and step father and all of the criticism of him has been obscene.

Where is the outrage against the fathers of the boys who were last seen with Natalee?

[Anonymous]

Why complain? Why not just write the owner(s) of the page and get them to take fix the problem? And if they don't fix it, a lawyer will. I have a web page and when I did a Google search, the first site was an X-rated porno site proclaiming that they have X-rated photos of me. So, I wrote to the site and told them I'd take legal action.

The site, incidently, was not in the USA (I live in the USA) but to make a long story short, they fixed the problem.

So, why simply complain when you can take ACTION?

Lastly, I hope they find Natalee.

[Richard Ames]

Oh come on. So the post uses a "dirty" word. If you read the post itself it basically says that the writer does not believe that the Holloway story should be national news for as long as it has been. I tend to agree with that, and I find is childish to get "disgusted" because the writer used a bad word. If the writer needs to grow up, I'd say you do too.

[Wayne]

lets_burn_books

Here is part of my letter:

--------
Your "Remove Content from Google's Index" states:

"We're committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users
; therefore, we cannot participate in the practice of censorship."

First, you perform a sorting/weighting function to what is returned. So you
have already biased the search results.

Second, censorship is something a government or government offical performs.
You are a private company, you can do what you want, or not.
--------

This claim of censorship has happened in other places. When Susan Sarandon and her husband went public with their criticism of the war Iraq, it was just before the Baseball Hall of Fame was to have an anniversary showing of “Bull Durham”. People got mad, and the whole celebration was called off. SS screamed censorship. Nope, she has a right to say what she thinks, and the Hall of Fame has a right to tell her to get lost.

Google can change the weighting function so this link does not always appear at the top. But the main issue is they do not want to get into an editing bind selectively removing an entry here or there.

I don't like it, I sent email, but if Google does something about it, it is not censorship.

[P.K]

Well I sure the hell mailed google because what is going on is totally sick. There are some real uncaring assholes in this world, it may be their right to free speech, but it is my right not to use google until the trash disappears off the first hits we see. Could be along time....I think the family has been through enough. It is also disruptive to those who care about Natalie as we have to wade through that crap. What childish trash. You people who don't see a problem with it would feel very different if it were your child missing. It's easy to talk sh!t on the internet.

[Wayne]

Hi Dan,

I will send email. There is also a link to remove information.

http://www.google.com/remove.html

But read what it says...

Need to remove content from Google's index?

Google views the comprehensiveness of our search results as an extremely important priority. We're committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users; therefore, we cannot participate in the practice of censorship. We stop indexing pages of a site only at the request of the webmaster who's responsible for those pages, when it's spamming our index, or as required by law. This policy is necessary to ensure that pages aren't inappropriately removed from our index.

[Mark]

I seen that too....It is outrageous especially when I pay for an ad to promote the interests of Natalee Holloway that is supposed to appear at the head of the search page and it does not. Garbage. Probably someone who obviously thinks this trash will garner some attention.

[candace green]

couldn't agree more. completely appalling. thanks for the link to email a complaint

[Jessie]

Why don't you right wingnuts just use parental control software on you PC and leave everybody else the hell alone? And adult using parental control on their own computer. No that is a real Hooter.

[Cindi in PA]

Posted by: let's not burn books | July 30, 2005 06:52
YeP, thanks to the let's not burn books folks!

[let's not burn books]

I would be so upset if Google started changing their search results based on morality. A search engine should give you the most relevant webpages, regardless of whether it's innocent enough for a nun or raunchy enough to make a biker bar blush.

I hope everyone emails Google and asks them to alter the design of their search engine. I know that Google won't sway from its mission to provide relevant search results no matter what censorers ask.

The reason the webpage comes up 1st is because it's so popular. If more people linked to more palatable sites, then the G-rated sites would be ranked higher than the "F Natalee" site.

[Cindi in PA]

I didn't know that site,thanks for the lead! I think it's good that there are also people who express a different opinion. I will not mail google because I think this ohter sound needs to be heard/seen.

Posted by: Plepo | July 30, 2005 03:13 PM

Yes Plepo, you are right, I also have to think based on your opinion, your a sick mother f****R, THIS IS NOT FREEDOM AZZHOLE.

[Cindi in PA]

Froggie,

I was never aware of Claudia either till I read Dans post here. And I live one state away from her. Amazing what info blogs can bring out, that the MSN has no desire to reach.

[Dan]

Froggie - then you should read here more often
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2005/07/natalee_hollowa_64.html

[Nuke Aruba]

Has anyone noticed TJ's abilty to restate what we've already heard from a previous guest or article...his comment about the Aruban police academy being better than american counterparts...yeah right

[Cindi in PA]

You do mean Scott playing with his own Peterson. At least we caught the bastard in that case. If, i ever ran across the likse of him in a club, my first thought would be.......car salesman lol.

[Froggie]

Yeah the title is offensive, but I do agree we have focussed so much on NH and give much less or little attention to other missing persons.

As I read in Yahoo this morning, there is a missing girl that vanished in Jamaica in 2000. I never heard of this one. Her name is Claudia Kirschhoch.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/12214169.htm

[A concerned US citizen]

You couldn't get me to go to Aruba if you paid me more than that useless PI, Ward, is being paid. Maybe we could send Scott Peterson?

[Nuke Aruba]

Any truth to the romor that TJ Ward is doing talk shows while he is home?

[Nuke Aruba]

We need to take up a collection...send one of the blog regulars to Aruba...maybe we could accurate info...any volunteers...?

[Suz]

I have just sent my 2 e-mails to Google as well, and have forwarded the request to everyone in my address book. In the meantime, I am boycotting by going back to my old favorite search engines.

[Kat_Gram]

I went to that site and read some of the posts before. They are disgusting. So, I don't go there. It's either here or Scared Monkeys. I will email them. I am not into censorship, but you're right, it doesn't have to be the first thing you see !.

[Cindi in PA]

How does one get access to a WORD or PHRASE where Google first shows a horrible link on such things as "NATALIE HOLLOWAY"? Have you checked your own search engine?

Signed,

Disgusted and switching back to YAHOO!!!


Jay
Corona, CA

I removed Jays last name, although I am sure he would love the attention........ladies lol.
But this is an example of what the power of Dan's message can do to get google to remove this site.
Go for it.

[Cindi in PA]

Thanks Dan, and everyone who took the time to email google. I just sent Dan's header to everyone on my email list, including those that don't like me lol. I suggest everyone do the same, at least get the message out there to google.

[Suz]

P.S. I wouldn't say another word about his site here (or anywhere), which gives him even MORE notariety. He deserves nothing more than to be ignored completely.

[Suz]

This guy wouldn't be talking like this if it was member of HIS family. He refers to Joran as "whitey" which makes me believe he is not only bitter, but racist and compares Natalee to Chandra Levy and the missing hispanic girl from my town. (Who happened to turn up the same day.) It all depends on how much time, effort and money the families are willing to put into their recovery that puts them into the limelight. I'm a mother and grandmother, and if it were my daughter or granddaughter (or any member of my family or friends for that matter) I'd be making waves myself, maybe even larger than the ones being made by the Holloway/Twitty families.

This guy is one huge, racist sicko.

[Dave]

I use Google everyday. I have been following the events of the Natalee Holloway disappearance and google search daily for posts
and updates.
Some voices have been raised in the blogging community in protest to the first Google result listed for search: Natalee Holloway. This result has been first for many weeks now. It couples the name of an eighteen year old girl who is missing and possibly murdered, her parents devastated and struggling with doubt and fear of never finding or recovering their daughter, with a bit of profanity in an entry obviously written to demonstrate a callous disregard for Natalee, her family, those concerned about her, justice, and compassion for her plight.
A man once said, "Pofanity is the language of violence." Perhaps Google may consider that to many who search for news of Natalee,
"F@ck Natalee Holloway"is a slap in the face.


David Petro
dpetro33@earthlink.net

[bubba]

Unfortunately it requires sensationalist language and brutal honesty for some very cogent yet politically incorrect points to be heard over the din of the Natalee Holloway drama.

[Kipster]

Nice post mattereth not. FWIW, Yahoo & MSN do not contain the expletive:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=natalee+holloway
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=natalee+holloway