Google bans www.spacewar.com

newuser23

Padawan Learner
Google Inc. has banned SPACEWAR.COM, a news site covering military space. Reasons for the ban by Google are unclear. The company did not communicate with Space.TV Corp., the owner of SPACEWAR.COM, prior to its action, and Google representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Google Inc.'s preferred method of banning a site is to delist its primary domain URL - www.spacewar.com - from the Google search index. Google also can reduce a site's page rank, or eliminate it entirely, as it has done to SpaceWar.com.

SpaceWar.com is owned and operated by Space.TV Corp., a Delaware registered company that publishes a range of space, science and technology Web sites.

In operation since the mid 1990s, the Space.TV network enjoys a monthly audience of more than 1 million visitors to its sites - with more than 100,000 monthly visitors to SPACEWAR.COM.

Google Inc in the wake of pressure from the Chinese government has begun blocking access to various websites deemed unfriendly to the "Boys From Beijing" (TM).

At this stage we have no evidence to suggest this is the reason why Google has banned SPACEWAR.COM. The lack of any forewarning that SPACEWAR.COM was operating in violation of Google's increasingly strict search engine compliance requirements, however, leads us to suspect the ban is politically motivated.

Google Inc.'s corporate mantra is "Do No Evil." Obviously, this is not true given Google's willingness to submit to the censorship requirements of the Chinese government.

Space.TV Corp is consulting with legal advisers in the United States and Australia, where production of the company's Web sites is conducted. We consider the ban a violation of the recently enacted US-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

Following a previous search engine compliance issue with Google, the Space.TV Corp. board of directors voted to remove and delete all links and pages that may have fallen within the area of practices deemed unacceptable by Google.

Our effort to achieve network-wide compliance with Google's requirements was completed in mid-January, and Google's army of Web robots was advised of this effort to comply.

Google Inc. is mostly operated by robotic systems agents with a brick wall between its human customers and human workers.

The only method of contacting a human at Google Inc is via its AdWords business, where Google's human employees will happily sell you an advertising package to get your site listed in its top-of-page sponsored links section.

What makes this case even more interesting is Space.TV Corp, decided in November 2005 to convert 90 percent of its advertising inventory base to Google's AdSense program, which enables publishers to run Google context-based text ads.

As a result, Space.TV Corp. now receives over 50 percent of its advertising revenue from Google, and this figure is forecast to rise to 80 percent by April.

Space.TV Corp is obviously now reconsidering its position as a Google Ad Sense partner site.

However, Google is has become the dominant advertising network for owner operated sites, and its competitors come a very poor second in terms of available advertIsing inventory. Essentially, Web sites such as those operated by Space.TV Corp. have little choice but to run Google AdSense text ads.

The only other network advertising available in any significant volume comprises ads for Smiley Icons and ScamWare Scanning Software, which we removed almost entirely from our network sites in November 2005.

We have done our best to provide a network of news sites that are informative and diverse in opinion, and free to readers.

As President of Space.TV Corp. and the nominal publisher of our network of news sites, I am deeply concerned by the implications of Google banning SPACEWAR.COM.

We consider Google's action as an attempt to dictate what information will appear on Web sites, and what links will be allowed between Web sites. If true, this constitutes a gross abuse of market power, and it should cause our political leadership in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia to investigate fully the business operations of Google Inc.

We are deeply concerned about retaliatory action by Google Inc. against our company and its various Web sites. In recent months, we have bet the business on Google advertising revenues, which has left us dangerously exposed to major revenue losses should Google cancel our AdSense contract, and delay payments and/or sue us for going public.

We ask that you communicate your concerns about Google's action in banning SPACEWAR.COM by contacting your local political representatives using the enclosed form letter. We also ask that you to communicate your concerns to Google's public relations officials via the following email address: press@google.com.

Simon Mansfield

President and Publisher Space.TV Corporation


http://www.spacewar.com/Google_Bans_Australian_Based_Military_Space_News_Website.html
 
Maybe they were concerned that people might see comments on spacewar.com, such as these, which might clue them in as to how the US military views space:

General Lance W. Lord retirement speech said:
Space Capabilities Integral To Economic Livelihood Central To Defense Structure

by General Lance W. Lord
Commander of Air Force Space Command
Colorado Springs CO (SPX) Feb 23, 2006
On April 1st I will retire after more than 37 years of active duty service. Over that time the Nation's space capabilities have become integral to our economic livelihood and central to our defense structure. As warfighters, we in the military rely increasingly on space to provide a critical asymmetric advantage for U.S. and allied forces.
Fundamental to delivering this advantage is a space acquisition system that consistently delivers the world's most effective and reliable space systems.

Contrary to what some would like us to believe, space acquisition is not derailed. It is true our failed acquisition strategy and manning policies of the 1990s did get us off track. The result: Our major programs developed in the 1990s had multiple congenital defects. We were wrong to think we could take short cuts to success and are now suffering the consequences. For good reason, the entire space enterprise has come under careful scrutiny and sharp criticism.

Addressing the acquisition challenges is critically important to the joint warfighter, and we in Air Force Space Command are committed to doing our part to ensure robust space capabilities are brought to the fight.

Our goal is to become the model of acquisition excellence, DoD-wide—and we are going to succeed Our 40,000 space and missile professionals throughout Air Force Space Command are working harder than ever to restore the credibility pioneers like General "Bennie" Schriever established. Our focus is on developing our people, refining our processes, and strengthening our partnerships through integration across industry and, most importantly, the joint warfighting community. We call this strategy our "3 Ps to Success."

Our acquisition team, led by Lieutenant General Mike Hamel, is poised to deliver on this strategy. Space professionals are the building blocks of our success. We have already stabilized the acquisition team by mandating four year controlled tours and have reorganized the Space and Missile Systems Center.

Winning this battle will also require us to break down existing stovepipes by horizontally integrating across the National Security Space enterprise. We are emphasizing lean, transparent processes with solid business ethics and a clear recognition integrity must always come first. A healthy relationship with industry is another essential ingredient. Towards this goal, we understand the need for honest dialogue on cost and for establishing realistic expectations of untested technology.

As we've taken on this challenge, we recognize there is no substitute for mission success and nothing is more costly than mission failure. We witnessed this first-hand back in the 1990s when a good part of $11 billion in space assets literally went up in smoke following successive launch failures. Due to the hard work of our space warriors, today we sit at 43 consecutive successful launches. If you consider the historical launch failure rate is 1 in 10, then our launch team's tremendous efforts have translated directly into a $3-4 billion cost savings for the taxpayer.

Let's discuss the status of our space programs. We have the healthiest Defense Support Program constellation in history. Our Satellite Communication capabilities are an indispensable ingredient to successful joint warfighting. The Global Positioning System continues to set the world-wide standard. Simply stated, I would put GPS up against any system. Our investment in weather forecasting capabilities paid dividends as we braced for the awesome destruction of Hurricane Katrina—mother nature's version of a weapon of mass destruction.

The loss of life we witnessed would only have been the tip of the iceberg if not for the early warning provided from space. Finally, satellite after satellite continues to outlive its expected design life, which cannot be attributed to "good luck." It's a direct result of the hard work and long hours our "Space Team"—scientists, engineers, operators, maintainers, active duty, guard, reserve, civilian, contractor, and industry—has put in.

Presently, we stand at a crossroads in our recovery efforts. We are not yet up to full speed, but we are making progress. The DoD, industry and Congress all falsely believed the reforms of the 1990s would save money and enable us to better acquire world-class systems. There is no use in looking back though.

Instead, we do need to "get over it." As we move further into the second half century of space, it will be vital to incorporate the lessons learned from our many hard fought battles, but not be paralyzed by past mistakes. Slowly, we are restoring credibility in our acquisition processes. The challenge for Space Professionals across all Services will be to maintain the patience to see these reforms through to the end.

Over 45 years ago, the developers of our Nation's first photo reconnaissance satellite, CORONA, demonstrated the kind of persistence necessary to fielding leading-edge and ultimately strategically decisive space capabilities in the face of technical and budgetary challenges. They did not back down, even after the first 12 satellites were destroyed during launch or failed in orbit. Success didn't happen until the 13 th launch! Imagine where we would be today if they had quit after the 1st failure, or the 5th, or the 12th?

In the coming months and years, we will begin to see small achievements build momentum towards greater acquisition successes and accomplishments. As I depart Air Force Space Command, there is no doubt in my military mind that space acquisition will become the model for the DoD. That is what we are working towards every day. It is time for all of us to get on board and devote our full energy to achieving mission success—not for our benefit, but for the joint warfighters whose lives depend on it.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Space_Capabilities_Integral_To_Economic_Livelihood_Central_To_Defense_Structure.html

Cheers,

John
 
After a number of complaints and bad publicity, Google have re-indexed the page:

http://www.spacewar.com/Google_Bans_Australian_Based_Military_Space_News_Website.html
 
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