Google Bans Australian-based Military Space News Website

Google Bans Australian-based Military Space News Website

Google Inc, Bans Australian-based Military Space News Website
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Gerroa, Australia (SPX) Feb 24, 2006

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

Contact Details
Simon Mansfield
Publisher
Australian Office
02-4234-3841
simon@spacedaily.com

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Writing To Your Senator or Political Representative

Please use a version of the following letter:



YOUR LETTER HEAD OR CONTACT DETAILS

RE: Google Blacklists worlds leading space and defense news website, www.spacewar.com

Dear Honorable Senator/Congressman/MP ......,

I am writing to ask you to investigate Google Inc's abuse of market power to destroy competition and squash free speech in America, Australia, Europe and Canada.

One of my regular news sites on the Internet - SPACEWAR.COM has been blacklisted by Google Inc. for reasons unknown.

Please visit www.spacewar.com and ask yourself if Google should hold the power to quash competition and free speech, ESPECIALLY since Google's market position is so dominant and important to the United States. The google index now feeds data to Microsoft and Yahoo and their blacklisting is not singular to the google index, but in reality reaches the very core of the market place.

Google is not a school project anymore, the index IS the American economy and the larger Internet economy throughout the world. It's regulation within the marketplace is of global importance and integral to the future economic prosperity of my country. Yours sincerely,

Your Name

Your Address

Your Phone number

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Readers can obtain contact details for their senators, congressman or political represenative via the following links organized via nations here:

Please also CC a copy to the Google press office at: press@google.com --

- US Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

- US Congressman:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

- Australian Senators:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/index.htm

- Australia MPs
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/index.htm

- Canadian Readers can contact their political representatives here:
http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html

- UK MPs and Lords can be found via here:
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/directories31.cfm

- Citizens of EU member nations can also contact European Parliament representatives
via here and choosing your language of choice
http://europa.eu.int/

Again make sure you CC all email letters to Google Press Office at: press@google.com