Orthodox Jews tuck into kosher Koogle

Orthodox Jews - whose religious beliefs have previously kept them a safe distance from the internet - can now avail themselves of a "kosher" search engine, suitably tuned to satisfy even the most demanding rabbi. According to Reuters, Koogle "omits religiously objectionable material, such as most photographs of women which …

[Anonymous Coward]

censorship

"The tighter your grip, the more star systems will fall through your fingers."

Surely if orthodox Jews need something like this to stop them/protect them, they aren't really orthodox. And/or Orthodox Judaism is failing with its teachings.

[lansalot]

oh come on

Why didn't they just call it Jewggle ? Seems like they missed a trick there, and the fact that they wandered away by a leading letter really draws attention to that fact.

Oi vey.com !

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting

They're removing main reason for Internet to exist - PORN! That will be funny ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Just what we needed

This is what the world has been waiting or. A search engine that doesn't flood you with pr0n0graphy. Thank you Zion. Can you ask them to do it in English too?

[HFoster]

*facepalm*

This is why official state religion is a bad idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to mention...

the default view is in Hebrew.

A first glance its more of a yellow pages than anything. I guess, cos it gave me 404 errors! on searchs for "fish", "liver", "halal" and "food"

Its limited to Israel too.

[The Original Ash]

"Lindows" anyone?

I forsee some of that rumoured Jewish Gold heading over to Mountain View some time VERY soon...

Paris must be their legal advisor.

[Bad Beaver]

Teh Awsum!

A service that takes away the need for awareness and discipline in a religious practitioner, that's just superb. I guess you could make a big pile of cash if you tailored this to individual religions...

[Tony Green]

Strange...

... that they aren't allowed TVs, but they're allowed computers.

A perfect example of how religion screws people up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a search engine

It's basically a version of an existing portal with some content omitted.

And it's not censorship or "official state religion" any more than the Disney channel is.

[Anonymous Coward]

ick.

"named in honour of a Jewish noodle pudding"

Ugh! That sounds simply disgusting.

There's no chance it's *actually* being named with something that rhymes with "Google", can it?

/Paris, because we're all that dumb.

[E_Nigma]

@AC 10:45

"It's basically a version of an existing portal with some content omitted."

Isn't that the definition of "censored"? Also, if it only left out "immodest pictures" (quote: "such as most photographs of women"), that would be one thing, but I'm somehow guessing from what I've read that the choice of pages it allows access to is somewhat slimmer than what Internet users in China and Iran get.

Fun fact: The article on Koogle in Wikipedia says that Koogle was the brand name for a flavored peanut butter marketed by Kraft Foods.

[Anonymous Coward]

It gets worse...

These are the same people who demand buses where the women sit in the back (the women get on through the back door of the bus, too, lest the men actually catch a glimpse of a woman and have impure thoughts - really!), and who riot and throw stones and dirty diapers to force a parking garage in a major tourist area to close on Saturday.

[MinionZero]

The whole Internet seems to be heading slowly towards this goal.

HFoster: "This is why official state religion is a bad idea..."

That's exactly my thoughts. Its all part of official state *this* and official state *that*. Who decrees what is official and so who chooses what to censor? ... There attitude is lets censor every other thought out of sight of the ones who need to be lead away from such thoughts.

What makes them think they are so bloody important that they can choose what others should see or learn?! ... Its pure self important arrogance hidden behind a thin layer of false piety. If they had true piety they would have empathy towards others rather than to impose their will on others.

So how long before we have Orthodox political search engines and Orthodox political blogs and Orthodox Internet. Are we going to let the self important censor away every thought they don't like, as they aim to push the world towards a global automated Ministry of Information.

The world is run by control freaks (literally!). The sooner everyone finally stands up to the control freaks the sooner we will have a fairer world rather than being lead by a bunch of self important know it alls who want to manipulate others into their own point of view, ultimately for their own gain, as they then get seen as the high up (self)-important powerful people with control over the thoughts and actions of everyone else.

We have suffered self important people behaving like this throughout human history. Its time to finally stand up to them before they make our lives a bloody misery forcing us all into their ways of thinking and behaving. The battle for the Internet is our time, its now, not in a few years from now. Future generations will resent us all, if all we give them is a means of thought censorship and control over their lives.

[John P]

This just

goes to show how ridiculous and contradictory such restrictive religious practices are in the modern world.

TVs are banned, but computers are fine! Sounds like changing the rules to suit yourself to me.

Everyone is, of course, entitled to follow any religion they like, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem to others, but a religion that won't allow you to look at women in case you have impure thoughts, is just completely insane.

Paris, cos those Orthodox jews won't be able to read this if it means they will be looking at a woman.

[Throatwobbler Mangrove]

Bees are on the what now?

"This is why official state religion is a bad idea..."

Huh? What does this have to do with state religions?

[Anonymous Coward]

?חילול שבת

>>> That's not the only e-commerce prohibition, as Altman elaborated: "If you try to buy something on the Sabbath, it gets stuck and won't let you." <<<

Surely, if this system was for the TRULY orthodox, they should instantaneously be struck down by lightening for attempting to use their computer on the Sabbath - let alone attempting to buy something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_on_Shabbat#Computers_and_similar_appliances

http://bible.cc/exodus/31-15.htm

[Russelld]

So many comments, so many unqualified opinions....

@AC @ 9.48

Can you not understand why people may want to use technology, operating in a safe space, free from content that is against their religious beliefs? Would you not employ Internet filtering for your kids?

@HFoster

Why do you think that this has anything to do with the state?

There are filtering services aimed at the Christian market. Like those services, use of this web site is elective.

@Bad Beaver

This doesn't take over awareness or discipline, but is rather the result of acute awareness that pornography can all too easily be delivered even with innocent search queries.

@Tony Green

The strictly orthodox may choose not to have TV's because they do not wish to be exposed to content that they deem unsuitable or incompatible with their religious beliefs. That does not equate to being backward with technology - there has been a very high level of computer use even with the orthodox community. However, Internet access has only been selectively adopted, due to concerns about the "variety" of content out on the Internet that they do not wish to be exposed to.

@E_Nigma

"Censored" signifies that one party controls the content that can be viewed by the majority. Surely this is a case of people *electing* to utilise a service which filters content according to an ethos that they also subscribe to? No-one is forcing this upon anyone....

@AC @ 11.54

If their religious beliefs state that they should have no physical contact with the opposite sex, other than with their wife or husband, can you not understand that maybe they don't want to be squashed right up on a bus that would result in unwanted physical contact with every jostle?

@MinionZero

See my comment to @HFoster.

What makes you think that anyone is forcing anything upon anybody else? This is an elective service. They are not forcing Google to make changes. But they do probably want to provide a safe environment, free from Porn, that any good parents should be using web-filtering software to achieve. Any maybe the adults want to benefit from a search engine, without having to see any Britney Spears up-skirt pictures...

I think you really need to separate out your connecting of a niche and truly elective search engine that filters out unwanted content, and the "media" as a whole. Please remove your tinfoil hat and get a grip on reality. Faceless corporations do undoubtedly exert an unhealthy influence on this world, but the damage of information control is far more problematic in certain territories, compared to the wider, "open" world.

How you can compare / confuse / show equivalence between an elective search engine and the global media shows that you need to get out more.

Can I suggest you have a look at the on-line copy of this research, to see the type of Internet filtering carried out in the "West" and the rest of the world: http://opennet.net/accessdenied

In some ways, the filtering of pornography by China and several Arabic nations could almost be commended, in order to create a "safe" environment. It is the political filtering that is problematic....

@JohnP

See comment to @Tony Green above. If you cannot see the difference between a TV and a computer, then that is down to your lack of understanding, rather than any contradictory relgious practices. Likewise, if you cannot understand a religion that acknowledges the realities of human feeling, but which funnels it into the relationship between husband and wife and cannot understand how someone subscribing to those religious sensitivies might want to "guard" themselves from inflaming what are normal feelings and thoughts, then perhaps you not the best qualified to impose your own judgements on the situation.

@AC @ 13.43

Yes - you are right - it shouldn't even let you logon. Maybe they need BIOS extensions to deactivate the power switch on Saturdays, to stop curious kids!

[MnM]

@ Throatwobbler

Indeed. The geez-o-meter is off the charts.

MinionZero, no-one's going to inflict this on you. It's opt-in, and then only if you really, really, really want to. And even then, you probably won't be accepted. She may yet be yours.

[Ken Baker]

Want one

I typed 'Miley Cyrus' into what I assume was the search box, and hit return. It returned no links at all. WIN! Can we have one in english please?

[Matt Bryant]

RE: So many comments, so many unqualified opinions....

Ah, but then it is becomingly worringy common for two things - firstly, not knowing the first thing about Judaism or the different strands of Judaic belief; secondly, it being fine to poor scorn on anything Jewish in a manner that simply would not be tolerated by the PC brigade if the same attention were directed against more protected religions such as Islam. Maybe that's because Jews don't chop the heads off unbelievers or crash airliners into highrise office blocks.

[HFoster]

Re: State religion

OK, so Koogle isn't officially endorsed by the Israeli government, but imagine if it was.

What would happen if an Orthodox majority came to control the Israeli parliament (or indeed if any strongly religious faction came to control the parliament of any nation)? I'm pretty sure that what would happen would be that a particular intepretation of scripture as deemed palatable by the ruling faction could be taken as the foundation of law and policy.

Imagine Taleban-controlled Afghanistan. Now imagine the same, but with a greater degree of affluence. Depending on the flag flying over this theocracy, you could be looking at Israel, the USA or any Western European nation.

From controlling what people may or may not purchase, through to what information they may or may not have access to as a matter of law rather than a matter of choice, theocracies are rarely much different than other forms of totalitarianism.

And FYI: The USA and most Western European nations have no official state religion, although they are nominally Christian cultures. But there's a difference.

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright infringement in 3... 2... 1...

They could have at least called it Jewgle.

[Martin 6]

I feel lucky

Is there an "I feel guilty" button, for using the interweb, instead ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Russeld - so women are at the whim of men's beliefs?

Russeld - so women are at the whim of men's beliefs?

Women should sit at the back of a bus because certain men cannot control themselves around women? It's the women who are dirty, at fault, "immodest"?

I think that line of thinking is REPULSIVE. What if I, as a woman, were to tell a man that I think he should have to cloister yourself, hide in the shadows, remove himself from my everyday life, just because I cannot control myself around him? How the hell is that justifiable?

Koogle is censorship. I think it's sad that there are people that feel they have to filter out most internet content because they cannot handle reality. I use the internet regularly and rarely come across anything offensive, and if I do, I am mature enough to just move on and ignore it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:censorship

It is acceptable for an engine such as Google to try and cut down on unwanted results and increase accuracy. All this engine seems to be doing is the same, if you're using it then it can automatically be assumed that you wish to have these results omitted if only to help you sift through to what you *actually* want. It's just another variation on such projects as "google without google" searches, helping you remove the crap you always get in almost any search. The hardest part of finding what you want is sifting the results, it isn't a matter of discipline for the believers to my mind at all.

While it would be scary to have a state backed and required search engine in some countries the truth is this is not what this specific engine is, at least currently. Unless or until this happens then such comments have no validity within this context.

Disclaimer:

I'm an unbeliever to just about anything out there. I just happen to be open minded and have some common sense, something which is sadly an oxymoron.

[Anonymous Coward]

@HFoster

So to recap your argument:

If you were to imagine a different set of facts and add some conjectures, that would prove that state religion is wrong.

[Russelld]

Re: State religion

@HFoster @ 16.07

I concur that state induced Internet filtering certainly has the *potential* to be very problematic.

But let's not confuse the official and agreeably altruistic motives practised by China and many middle eastern countries of wishing to avert pornography, with the covert and unofficial agenda to control and limit access to information about the restrictive nature of the regimes in power.

I don't think anyone need be concerned about the smaller than infinitesimally minute chance that the Israeli govt might want to even contemplate any filtering other than the IWF child-porn filtering as practised in this country, when there are plenty of countries which currently *do* control all Internet ingress/egress points and actively filter news and political access within their territories.

I look forward to the day when all the currently problematic *realities* are all resolved, allowing us to think about all the *potential* problems that this planet and its inhabitants face!

Can I direct you to the excellent and informative: http://opennet.net/accessdenied

Regional profiles: http://opennet.net/research/regions

Country profiles: http://opennet.net/research/profiles

RussellD

[Maty]

Announcing my new ultimate net filter

Yes! sign up for '00 gle' and you get the ultimate web search experience. All web searches produce an empty page tastefully coloured medium grey, (our extensive research has shown that this colour offends fewest people).

00 gle is guaranteed to return no results that offend puritannical parents,or religious or political groups of any persuasion and as such is a perfect reflection of the grey blandness which some people feel the net ought to be reduced to. An additional benefit of a content-free page is that content causes people to think, and we all know where that can lead.

Note also that 00 gle will not work on Sundays, Lent, the hours of daylight during Ramadan, or at all on the Sabbath. By artfully including the remaining world religions, including some animistic African tribal cults, Beta 2 (00 gle follows the Mountain View naming convention) should actually not be functional for any days at all, thus putting the genie of the internet back into its bottle for once and for all.

[system]

Sounds familiar

No TV? Check.

No pictures of women? Check.

Assassination squads? Check.

U.S invasion of Israel to rid the country of those awful Taliban types? Not likely.

[Alistair Young]

@Matt Bryant

My particular scorn for this sort of tosh is not limited to Jews, or Christians, or and other Sons of Abraham. No, I have scorn for anyone who believes any of that supernatural rubbish. Ever read anything about Hinduism? or Zoroastrianism come to that. Hard to believe that anyone can say with a straight face "Yes, I really do believe that Aeshma can be driven away by the recitation of a prayer". Bloody rubbish, the whole lot of it.

[Sandra Greer]

These Orthodox are kind of a pain in the behind

but in this case they are building a search engine for themselves. That is pretty harmless.

These folks are harmful to Israel in other ways, as they get money and more lunatics from their American counterparts, and build colonies where they aren't supposed to. A lot of them are leeching off the population and not doing their military service.

[Steve Roper]

The problem is

That right now this Koogle is optional, as some commenters have pointed out. That's fine, and those who want to ensure they don't come across anything that offends their sensibilities are welcome to use it. But what happens if, as HFoster pointed out above, an Orthodox / fundie government comes to power, and establishes that Koogle becomes the *only* search engine permitted to be used? History has already shown us that what starts out as a gimmick becomes a luxury, then commonplace, then a necessity, and finally mandatory.

While it's perfectly acceptable for people to choose filtering and censoring if they wish, these sorts of services and those who support them should be monitored carefully to ensure they don't become the only source of information permissible to us.

[Anonymous Coward]

restriction

I'm not religious, but if I was going to be, I'd join Christianity: there are far too many restrictions in other religions, I just can't see the point of it,

A jewish friend of mine, non practising jew, in his middle age, you can see the damage that's occured to his psyche with the indoctrination about not being able to eat certain foods.

In my opinion, it's stupid and unnecessary.

[Mr Larrington]

Censorship my donkey!

No-one is being forced to use it. Teh Intarwebs in all its sordid glory is still there for anyone who decides of their own free will not to use this particular search wossname.

[Anonymous Coward]

kvetch engine?

To kvetch is to complain or whine. So "Kvetch" would be a great name for a kosher version of twitter. Don't know how you came to associate it with search.

[Damien Thorn]

roogle

ive just invented roogle, if you go to the top of this page you will see search site, thats roogle (register search) but its named after kangeroo and eagle, not register and google.

if they want there own search great let em have it, but dont call it something "oogle" thats like having a skodaghini, and were not stupid, kosher search "k-oogle".

Think they are pushing boundaries. 50 quid bet, if you run roogle you get a polite but firm cease and desist, but will koogle?

Ya cant just take a company name and change it enough that its still implies itself, then trade off that name... oh wait you can.. damn that sux.