According to FoxNews.com, “Google tweaked its search algorithm overnight, making it much harder to stumble upon pornographic images.”
The winner in the Google moves seems to be ICM owner and operator of the .XXX TLD and the owner and operator of the porn search engine Search.XXX.
Search.XXX went live in late September, and after just the first week totaled over 1.4 million visitors and 8 Million page views
Foxnews.com quotes Stuart Lawley CEO of the ICM Registry as saying:
“Google has made a good decision, one that reinforces the purpose and usefulness of the work we’ve been doing to build a destination for adult consumers who are looking for high quality content,”
“The Internet is changing into a more targeted community where people can more easily find what they are looking for — including for the porn-searching consumer.”
“Lawley said Google’s actions continued a trend his company has already noticed, Other large search engines have already made or are likely to make similar moves.
“The effective de-ranking of adult content in an attempt to prevent inadvertent exposure to adult content is a trend we have seen in recent months by the major search engines. New top-level domains such as .xxx are only making it easier for consumers to find exactly what they want but at the same time making it easy for those wishing to avoid content.”
“To us it’s all about giving the consumer what they want and expect without surprises,.
For its part a Google representative told Fox it isn’t opposed to pornography, however “If you’re looking for adult content, you can find it without having to change the default setting — you just may need to be more explicit in your query”
Interesting…but i don’t think it will really matter…for real porn sites anyways…
Google says: ”this will minimize the likelihood that a random search for, say, bicycling, would return sexually explicit pictures.” quote from Fox news.
And probably actually helping all real pron sites no matter what the TDL, .com, .xxx, .net etc.
I love following this subject!
Thanks Michael!
The changes affect only logged in users to Google/Gmail. Otherwise, it’s business as usual. Checking a box won’t break the paradigm. That being said, Search.xxx delivers adult content 100% of the time. Quite the shocker! 😀
that’s the only reason i ever find porn on the internet… by accident.
That’s what they all say
wait… there’s porn on the internet?
wow, learn something new everyday 😉
Doing a search for the term “sex” on Google a couple weeks back revealed sex.com in the top 5 results on page 1. Now, it doesn’t even make the top 10 pages.
Though only available for people who are logged in to Google it might be signal for adult operators to aquire .XXX domain names.
Course it depends on lost search volume and conversion.
Search engines changing their algorithms should benefit us all.
There’s just so much rubbish in the adult space, so many viruses, so much spam, etc. that the search engines have to do something. The porn industry can cry censorship all it likes. It’s totally inappropriate that a teenage girl could be searching for something innocent, and be directed to porn, simply because greedy individuals (I could use stronger language) are hoping for random hits. But this is what companies like Manwin support. No regulation. No filtering. No parental controls. It’s pretty sickening when you think about it. The adult industry should be ashamed of itself for trying to maintain the status quo.
ICM Reg and .XXX is part of the solution, but I’d like to see search engines continue to “clean up” search for all concerned. No company, including ICM Reg, should have a monopoly over adult content. I own some .XXX domains, but I also own some .CO, .COM and other domains. I want to see them all succeed. No domain should be shut out of providing adult content. But .XXX is onto a good thing. Not to mention their own, “porn specific”, search engine. It stands to reason that other search engines would rank .XXX sites higher, as they are scanned for viruses, etc.. As a result, I see .XXX making a bigger impact to the industry over time than the current quantity numbers show.
But I’d like to see better regulation, search algorithms, etc., with respect to adult content, across the board. It’s about time adults starting acting like adults. Leave the kids out of it! And while you’re at it, drop the annoying pop-ups, spam, viruses, etc.. Rant over.
Intresting info Paul.
This my view on the TLD landscape.
You want todo business in the USA you need the .com, simple as that.
You want todo business in a country outside of the USA you need to require the ccTLD, simple as that. Exception to this rule are the countries where .com still rules .. see above..
With this in mind it would make sense that adult operators move to .XXX if Google is changing their algorithm further to provide “better” search results. Just as they do outside of the USA and how they treat ccTLD’s.
I do not always like the fees some ccTLD operators charge but google forces me to register those. But if it allows me to capture that traffic and the conversion is good then the decision is easy .
@ cctlddk
I generally agree with your views. However, business in the U.S. can, and is being, done on platforms other than .Com. If you can acquire your .Com for a reasonable price, great. But most .Com domainers are not reasonable. Therefore, I would like to see some of the new gTLDs succeed.
As for adult content and .Xxx, I agree that it makes the job easier for search engines. Will Google default more and more to .Xxx sites, as it tightens down it’s algorithms? Only time will tell. But Stuart Lawley, the founder of ICM Reg is no fool. I don’t believe he got into this game to make a quick buck on registrations (defensive or otherwise). I think he saw real change coming.
Manwin is not spending millions of dollars in court to fight a non-entity. Manwin is worried and I think they see change coming too. If what you predict comes to pass, I’ll eventually drop my non-.Xxx domains. But the jury is still out. It’s going to take time for .Xxx to gain momentum. However, Google, and other search engines, could greatly accelerate that momentum.
I like the idea of porn being generally available, but if the adult industry refuses to regulate itself to protect consumers from spam, pop-ups, viruses, etc. then, quite frankly, .Xxx deserves to succeed. I’m sick of the status quo. I was sick of the status quo long before ICM Reg came along. I can’t tell you how many times my computers went down just from visiting “seemingly safe” adult sites. You just never know. With .Xxx you do know, as all sites are scanned. Based on the volume of porn content, .Com could never provide such a service. So .Xxx has something no other domain has.
It’s going to succeed. It’s just a matter of to what extent. Will it become a sort of premium channel for porn, or will it become the new standard that search engines like Google default to based on changing algorithms?
Interesting times.