It still works...............
Posted on 05/23/2014 10:09:30 AM PDT by Yossarian
Free Republic is a great resource to visit and browse, but it also is valuable to use as a searchable resource. It is very useful to see what FReepers have to say on various subjects, as we come from wide array of backgrounds, and have lived practical lives in the very-real world.
Hence, one of the ways I access FR is via Google's search engine. I do a search, but specify to ONLY get results from Free Republic by appending "site:freerepublic.com" to the search term(s). In the past, this would guide me to the pages hosted on freerepublic.com, full of FReeper commentary, and this would help inform me on various topics.
HOWEVER, this recently has changed. Now, when I perform the same kind of site-restricted search, the results I get from Google look the same as before, showing links that should take one to freerepublic.com. However, when one clicks on the link, it brings up FR's "redirect to an external website" mechanism. As a result, it takes me to the external web page of the article being discussed, rather than the Free Republic-hosted page full of FReeper commentary on the article.
The end effect is EXTREMELY maddening: it effectively silences FReeper commentary. So far, I only see this affecting freerepublic.com - corresponding checks on dailykos.com, or democraticunderground.com do NOT lead to unexpected forwarding to the external article that is the item of discussion.
Are other people seeing this problem? What is an effective fix (beyond using a different search engine)? Can JohnRob fix this?
Thanks much for your time,
Yossarian
old-timer
It still works...............
Try it without the “site:freerepublic.com”.
I just tested: al gore freerepublic.com
Worked fine, but with the word “site:” Google went directly to the article page.
My results so far have been mixed: in some cases it goes to the original thread on FR, in others it goes to the page containing the referenced article. Interesting.
Yes, I have noticed that some false results this last week that have been planted often at the very top. I now have to look at the URL under the results to make sure it is freerepublic.com as the lead URL... and even then I have been redirected to unrelated web sites that are about as conservative as the general Berkley university student.
PS. this computer is 100% STD clean of any malware/adware/trash as some have suggested as the possible problem. I run a clean ship.
Works for me................
Why in the heck are you using Google? Google is the devil.
Someone should give the search syntax for other engines.
I hated having FR pages show up on google. Probably because 90% of the time I’m googling it’s for a discussion on FR and unfortunately often the very thread I’m discussing on wound up the first page. Rather inconvenient that.
That it would pick up this thread so quickly on google ought to be of itself a cause for concern.
Why would google have such up to date information about the commentary on Free Republic?
You get BOTH the freereublic page, AND the redirect link leading to the linked site. You have to look at the URL you are about to click to.
I put your exact post in google and hit this thread...
www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3159410/posts
It’s scary amazing how fast their spiders crawl sometimes.
Do not doubt for a moment that google is part of the deliberate Liberal propaganda apparatus. It's ran out of California and i'll wager it employees 90% Liberal Democrats. For a company who's motto is "do no evil", I regard them as probably the most evil corporation which has ever existed.
Google will become the "Skynet" network from which the Government "Terminators" will get much of their information.
Yeppers. I’ve noticed this for a month or two now.
Not every time. But it does happen. Either Google wants to direct traffic from site:freerepublic.com or they have dumbed down and screwed up another search function.
Either scenario is possible.
It’s a search engine. It should be current. I’d be concerned if it weren’t.
History belongs to those who write it.
And as Google and the bassturds in the Media scrub and delete any and all articles that they don’t want us to see; it will become impossible to prove what we all saw with our very eyes.
Do you think our grandchildren will actually believe the truths behind 9/11? Will they be taught it? In a few years when you Google 9/11 will you find any mention of the word muslim or islam?
I’m surprised that Google even allows Free Republic to be mentioned right now. We are a hate group, right?
This was happening to me so I switched to bing!!!
Is google evil ?
Current to the hour, or even the minute? How about as fast as you've typed something?
My understanding is that Google uses "googlebots" (a computer dedicated to searching for information on web pages) to read data that has been posted on a page, and then incorporate it into Google's database. It is also my understanding that you have to have read the data before you can return it in a search.
That this thread, which was created today, is already in Google's database, implies that Google has a searchbot parked here at Free Republic, which implies that Free Republic is getting more than the usual or ordinary scrutiny from Google.
Do you think they park a Googlebot at every website in the world? I noticed that minutes after I typed something over at "Ace of Spades", I accidentally did a search on what I had just typed (My copy and paste didn't work properly, the buffer hadn't cleared from what I had previously typed) and did you know that google returned a link to the very web page I had just finished typing that on?
Again, this is only possible if they have a googlebot parked on Ace of Spades, dutifully relaying everything typed there.
If you don't see this as ominous, I do not know how to make it clearer as to why it is.
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