What constitutes socially responsible search? Bing has segregated explicit images, and Google is under fire for generously giving artists the opportunity to have their work exploited for free. But for some groups, search raises even more pervasive value conflicts, such that working with the leading commercial search engines seems impracticable.
Case in point: Koogle, an Israeli start-up search engine designed for Orthodox Jews, though from the perspective of trademark law it is decidedly unorthodox:
The new site, named in a pun on Google and on a Jewish casserole pudding, is meant to let devout Jews search for things they need without encountering sexual material or breaking religious taboos. Even when filters are used on mainstream search sites, explicit results sometimes appear under subjects like "breast cancer" -- as users of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) new Bing search service have discovered. (Microsoft took steps recently to make filtering more effective.)
Koogle will not only screen out sexual material or even images of women dressed provocatively, but it will also not offer things like television sets, which Orthodox families aren't allowed to have in their homes.
Koogle will not permit any shopping on the Sabbath, from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday.
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