Bobb9000 - Slashdot User

Why is Google Blocking Tor? 1

Submitted by Bobb9000 on Monday March 30 2009, @11:07AM

Bobb9000 writes "As I and I'm sure other Tor users have noticed, Google has recently begun blacklisting any query coming from a Tor exit node. There's been some discussion of this, but not very much, and while the Tor FAQ claims this is only a temporary problem, and that Google has taken no positive steps to block Tor, for the past few months I haven't been able to find a single exit node that can use Google. Now, it's possible that recently there's just been a massive amount of automated request activity coming from every Tor exit node, but that seems unlikely. Even if it were true, somehow Yahoo has been able to cope, as it almost always works through Tor. So, why is Google making it harder to be anonymous online? Genuine security concerns, or a dislike for anything that takes away their ability to harvest personal data?"

Why is Google Blocking Tor? 0

Submitted by Bobb9000 on Monday March 30 2009, @10:30AM

Bobb9000 writes "As I and I'm sure other Tor users have noticed, Google has recently begun blacklisting any query coming from a Tor exit node. There's been some discussion of this online, but not very much, and while the Tor FAQ claims this is only a temporary problem, and that Google has taken no positive steps to block Tor, for the past few months I haven't been able to find a single exit node that can use Google.

Now, it's possible that there's just been a massive amount of automated request activity coming from every Tor exit node recently, but that seems unlikely. Even if it were true, somehow Yahoo has been able to cope, as it almost always works through Tor. So, why is Google making it harder to be anonymous online? Genuine security concerns, or a dislike for anything that takes away their ability to harvest personal data?"

The Death of Google's Patents-> 0

Submitted by Bobb9000 on Monday July 21 2008, @04:23PM

Bobb9000 writes "At the Patently-O patent law blog, law professor John Duffy has an article arguing that the patent on Google's PageRank technology would likely be invalid under recent court and patent office decisions. Duffy wrote an amicus brief against the patent office in one of these recent decisions, so his conclusions should be taken with that in mind, but it's a good overview of a recent trend in the USPTO against software patents."
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