Google Shopping Censors All Gun, Ammo & Accessories Results

[maximus otter]

July 1, 2012

Google sent out an email to Google Adwords customers saying that they are going to pull all Google Shopping results for guns, ammunition, gun optics and gun accessories (Shopping results, not general search results).



"Weapons

As highlighted on our new policy page http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/ApI7UWRj6OCZpd, in order to comply with the Google Shopping policies you need to comply first with the AdWords policies http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/StQ08jAzM4fVtG.

We do not allow the promotion or sale of weapons and any related products such as ammunitions or accessory kits on Google Shopping.

In order to comply with our new policies, please remove any weapon-related products from your data feed and then re-submit your feed in the Merchant Center. For more information on this policy please visit http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/GbBNIGHOribLzf."

Full item.

If you feel that you have an idea to improve Google AdWords, they can be reached here, even if you aren't a customer.

Join the NRA for only $35 per year.

Don't end up with my level of "gun rights".

maximus otter

[Gollnick]

I suspect that their decision is not so much political as public relations. It's not hard to predict that some very public incident will happen, e.g. a Virginia Tech-style incident, and it will come out that the perpetrator got his weaponry using Google which will be bad for Google. Even so, I think it's a bad decision by google.

[Gollnick]

It's also important to note here that what Google disallows here is NOT searching for guns and knives, but their "ad words" program. This is a program under which you can purchase a position near the top of the list of results for certain search terms.

[Gollnick]

Notice, also, that the Prison Planet website you cited has, in their article, reprinted in its entirety Google's copyrighted letter sent to one merchant; they've even been so through as to reproduce Google's copyright notice. This is a clear violation of Google's copyright. So, there's a bit I the pot calling the kettle black here. Nothing's good that uses bad.

[shunsui]

I don't know about your browser, but mine has several other search engine options besides Google.

However, I don't think the issue here is precious copyrights or public relations.

[00ChevyScott]

This caused me to switch to Bing yesterday. I still use Gmail, but am thinking about changing to a different email service.

[Gollnick]

Change is good, but people change every day for a variety of reasons. Change will only make a statement if you tell google why you are changing.

[555]

Unless, they're too big to care.

[Gollnick]

No business is too big to care... it's just a matter of where the threshold of caring is.

[Unicorn161]

They also consider knives to be part of the same prohibited category.
http://support.google.com/merchants/...swer=188484#US

They still seem to be filtering out sites as many shopping sites are still there, but more are going away every day.

[baldtaco-II]

petition

[Sid Post]

I suspect that their decision is not so much political as public relations. It's not hard to predict that some very public incident will happen, e.g. a Virginia Tech-style incident, and it will come out that the perpetrator got his weaponry using Google which will be bad for Google. Even so, I think it's a bad decision by google.

Mail order guns direct to the end user is a violation of Federal law. Mail order ammunition direct is generally legal with a few exceptions and caveats. High profile crimes do occur with firearms purchased in compliance with existing law (Gabriel Giffords for example) so, I question the PR aspect in general.

Google and Paypal are one and the same. Paypal has a long history of being very unfriendly to gun accessories, not just guns. Try paying for a rifle scope with Paypal and see what happens.

If you want to speculate, look at Google senior management and the physical locations of their major facilities. I believe this is more politically motivated then anything,especially if you examine campaign contributions and support in general.

Keeping firearms and similar items out of the hands of those that should not have access to them is admirable. Restricting the rights of those that should have legal access is a totally different issue.

[Sid Post]

They also consider knives to be part of the same prohibited category.
http://support.google.com/merchants/...swer=188484#US

They still seem to be filtering out sites as many shopping sites are still there, but more are going away every day.

I was "googling" for a new knife the other day and was shocked to find the reduction in available links. The ad prices available were much higher. If you manually go to your favorite websites, good pricing still exists but, this really hurts the general consumer shopping for a good value in their new knife.