New Zealand Porn Industry Screwed by Google?

First off I need to point out that I don’t actually search for porn! I do, however, keep an eye on what Google is up to. Through this, it has occurred to me that the porn industry in New Zealand is potentially screwed.

As evil as it is, porn is massive all over the world.

It’s big business. Porn is Russia’s largest export after vodka (Note: I made that up).

People search for porn in Google more than they search for cookie recipes. I know. I too was shocked. Porn entrepreneurs (I may have made that up) know that to be successful, they need to be ranked in Google.

Not too long ago, the Google chaps sat down for a cup of tea, or “coffee” as they pronounce it in Americaland, and said “Let’s change stuff”. One major change was that they removed the Pages from New Zealand checkbox from the www.google.co.nz homepage. I’d post an image to show you but hey, it’s not there any more. You’re keeping up right?

So anyway. To get pages from New Zealand you now have to submit a search, get some results and THEN click “pages from New Zealand” to narrow your search. This isn’t tooooo bad as you still get some NZ-specific results without checking the option. Google knows that you’re in New Zealand when you make your first search. Heck, Google knows what you’re having for dinner tonight even if you don’t.

You can narrow your search down even further by only clicking for “images” or “news” etc. That’s where Google seems to have screwed New Zealand’s hard working porn businesses.

Do a search for “porn” in Google. Results are as you’d imagine. Lots of porn. All over the place. One website’s description even says “Porn and free porn videos updated daily. We have porn movies of 100% porn.” Ok mate. We get it. You have porn.

Here’s where it gets interesting – click on “pages from New Zealand”. What do you get? You get this. Unless Google have changed things again, what you’ll see is a heap of listings for NEWS websites. Stuff, NZ Herald, Infonews, Scoop and 3News dominate the results with news stories about porn. It’s like the “Only show me news websites” button is stuck down. Where’d all the Kiwi porn go?

Yup. The actual porn is only on the right in the sponsored links section. And only two sponsored links?? Surely some other porn places need to switch on to this and start advertising there. Maybe that’s what Google intended? Now companies will have to pay for adwords rather than feature in the organic results?

Seems a bit unfair to New Zealand businesses when you happily get a heap of international porn sites without “pages from New Zealand checked.

What ever happened to Google’s slogan; “Don’t Be Evil”?

Note: Boob photo from mylor on Flickr.