27.3.09

I know this may sound crazy but is Google part of Media blackout on Antúnez and the ongoing siege in Placetas?

While the most well known US and international newspapers continue to ignore the siege of 5 fasting Cubans in Placetas by 'State Security', bloggers continue trying to alert the world to the unfolding events to the extent they are able to objectively confirm them.

Yet bloggers such as me are also facing a daunting challenge and from no less a media powerhouse than the Google search engine. Yes, the Great Google.

Typically Google will post my blogs and a little while later they appear on its search engine if one queries with 1 or 2 of the keywords mentioned on the title of the post. If one then sorts the results of the search by date, they appear immediately and on top of later ones. If one sorts by 'relevance' they will appear at some point depending on how relevant Google's search engine has evaluated them to be.
Such, however, is not the case with my 2 posts (one in English and the other in Spanish) relating to the media blackout on Antúnez and the ongoing siege in Placetas.

They don't appear if one sorts the search either by date (March 26) or relevance. I tried it with the keywords 'Antunez', then 'Antunez Placetas' and finally with the exact titles:

Continua Bloqueo de Noticias sobre Antunez y Disidentes Sitiados en Placetas, Cuba

News Blackout on Antunez and Dissidents Under Siege in Placetas, Cuba Continues


If you wish to confirm this, try searching them in Google or Yahoo and you may see they are just not there, even though others can presumably reach them by going to this blog, but only if they happen to know my blog's address. However, my other posts are available. Other later posts by others appear when these posts should be. What's most curious is that they don't even appear if one searches for the whole title of the post! Ironically, the posts are about a media news blockage.

Possibly there's a logical and justifiable explanation for this selective censorship of my posts and they may even appear soon after I post this. Let us not get paranoid yet, but if the problem continues with these 2 posts , I wonder what else might explain this phenomenon apart from censorship.
Meanwhile the news blackout on Antunez and 5 others under siege in Placetas, Cuba continues and the US or international mainstream media has yet to visit, confirm and report...and I was even hoping for our friend Google's help with this. Still am.


.............................UPDATE.........................................

Less than 1 hour after I posted this it can be found on the Google Search engine. However, the other 2 that are cited above still do not appear in Google's search results. This new post is the one that appears in Google search results when one searches for those other 2.

I will proceed to take out the photo of Antúnez published by the Herald which I had inserted in said 2 posts as allowed by copyright 'fair use' provisions. Perhaps that is what has been causing the problem. We'll see.


.........................UPDATE # 2...............................
The post "News Blackout on Antunez and Dissidents Under Siege in Placetas, Cuba Continues" has not been blocked by Google. However, it does not appear in a blog search but rather in a standard Google web search. I guess Antúnez and I should be thankful and suppose this means it's been upgraded (although it should appear in blog searches as well). The Spanish version does not appear anywhere yet.

I wonder who can read it in Cuba.

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