GoogleGayFail could be this week's AmazonFail, but it's contained on a drastically smaller scale for now.
The gay and lesbian news site BGay.com noticed an apparant bias in Google's AdWords program, when an ad containing the word "gay" was rejected with the message "Gay- Unacceptable Content."
A posting about the incident on BGay reads, "What's even worse is the accompanying text: 'We've detected that your
ad may contain words often associated with pornography. Google policy
prohibits the advertisement of pornography unless it involves
consenting adults. Related content is not permitted on the website or
as ad text or keywords."
"We don't believe Google to be homophobic, but they need to do
something about their filters...Defining the term
'gay' to be pornographic and suggesting that it does not involve
consenting adults is definitely offensive."
Another blogger, Rustybrick, tested the service by posting his own gay ad, with success. His take was that because he could post an ad, there must have been something else about BGay's ad that triggered the rejection.
As AVN noted, Google has a history of supporting gay rights, including their opposition to Prop 8, so although Google didn't respond to AVN for the story, this issue will likely be addressed. It should happen pronto, before another backlash like AmazonFail arises.
Related:
Amazon Rank Fail
