Searching for "torrent" lists tpb as the first result for me, as does "tpb" and "thepiratebay". Similarly, "isohunt" returns the expected site, and isohunt.com ranks third for "iso". It doesn't seem to matter whether or not I'm logged in.
The search results themselves are unchanged, but the instant suggestions are. From a couple quick tests, this seems to be the case for me as well, though it would be easier to be sure if I had results from a year or so ago to compare against.
For example, "the pirate ba" returns "the pirate balthasar", "the pirate bar", and "the pirate bar" in several different cities. Amusingly, "bittor" doesn't complete to bittorrent, but does include at least one "piracy" related term. It also has a torrent client as its top result.
Spelling suggestions don't seem effected for now. "bitorent" suggests "bittorrent". "thepirtebay" shows results for "thepiratebay".
Well I don't see what the issue is, then. They do the same thing for porn or anything else that could be remotely offensive. I don't have a problem with that. They aren't blacklisting torrent sites; they're just not suggesting them.
BitTorrent is a trademark of a legal company that's trying to make money to pay employees. Google is censoring their name because they've decided they're involved in illegal activity, not because they actually are.
If Google decided to censor your business would you be happy about it?
There is no problem. Some websites are just hiding behind "censorship" so they can look like victims when they're actually acting illegally. Now I seriously doubt that Google will begin to blacklist these sites. That would be a step just a bit far. That is true censorship.
For now they'll let you find whatever you want, legal or not. They just won't give you any extra help along the way. I mean, even without the bells and whistles like autocomplete, spelling corrections, +1 suggestions, etc. you can still very easily find anything on Google without much effort.
It isn't Google's job to punish illegal activity but they have every right to take away the extra helpful tools that basically shove it in your face. In fact, why would Google even want to censor sites that contain illegal material? Forget the outrage about censorship for a moment. I think law enforcement would want "bad apple" sites in Googles index so they can be easily found and their owners prosecuted.
From the article "Google’s blacklist prevents the names of sites appearing in their Instant and Autocomplete search services, while the pages themselves remain indexed."
"Google’s blacklist prevents the names of sites appearing in their Instant and Autocomplete search services, while the pages themselves remain indexed."
