the future is coming

Yahoo Clues Filters Out Searches for Gay or Sex, But Leaves in Lesbian

Last week, Yahoo announced a new feature called Yahoo Clues. Like Google Trends, released four years earlier (ouch!), Clues shows users popular search terms, but over the past month and broken down by gender, age, and income. Sex educator and tech columnist Violet Blue discovered that Clues, which is still in beta, turns up zero results for gay or sex, a statistical impossibility considering that Yahoo is both (a) a search engine and (b) on the Internet. Like Google Instant before it, which excluded lesbian and bisexual, Clues looks like another bumbling attempt to make its features childproof and, possibly, heteronormative. But before the LGBT community/people who have intercourse get up in arms, consider that Clues persnickety search filter leaves in the words transgender and lesbian, which reached more than 90 on its 100-point scale, with the majority of the searches coming from men below the age of 24. Based on recent searches, nothing turned up for masturbation, but Clues left in men on men, hot lesbian girls, and missionary position. Yahoo, we think you have a consistency problem.

No “Gay” or “Sex” In Yahoo! Clues: The Emergent Trend of Filtered Results [ZDNet]

Yahoo Clues Filters Out Searches for Gay or Sex, But Leaves in Lesbian