A technical glitch in the system has transformed Google’s new personal classifieds service, Google Base, into a bustling “red-light district” on the Internet.
Launched just last weekend, Google Base represents the search giant’s effort to penetrate the market for user-generated content. Anyone can use this free service to post all kinds of information, from business services to selling used cars, or sharing photos and recipes with others.
Google Base also allows users to upload “adult” content, but of course, they filter visitors through SafeSearch – a feature that blocks “XXX” content from appearing in search results. However, things did not go according to plan in the early days of this week. A technical glitch allowed XXX content to infiltrate all search results on Google Base, turning the site into Google… XXX.
It was not until last night that Google became aware of this issue and quickly took action to rectify it. In an email sent to CNET, a company spokesperson mentioned that the filtering feature of SafeSearch had been “down” for a period, although specifics were not disclosed.
Todd Ripley, a real estate investor from Asheville, discovered the technical problem with Google Base yesterday morning when he uploaded photos of his 2-year-old daughter, Jasmine. Initially, Todd intended to share the link with others, but he immediately changed his mind after searching for the keyword “Jasmine” and being confronted with a barrage of unexpected results.
“I was really shocked. Every page I clicked on was adult content. It was horrifying!”
Considering that Google Base had only been open for less than a week, the amount of explicit content on the site was truly alarming! A reporter from News.com tested the keywords “XXX” and “XXX webcam,” receiving over… 14,000 search results for each term. Worse still, many links were titled “XXX teen webcam.”
It’s not just Todd; Google XXX has become a hot topic of discussion in the global blogging community. “Oh my God, just like Google Images, Google Base could turn into a massive repository of adult content; even with its classifieds function, it could become a different type of ‘red-light district.’ I have personally read several posts introducing and reviewing ‘X’ movies on there,” wrote one blogger.
