i went to google and did the search. couldn't get on the site. seems like they have successfully found a way to block "harmful" conservative perspective.

I couldn't get onto AS either.  

How did you learn of this?    Any idea if it's being challenged or if it's happening to other sites?

Does Google rely on internal or outside reports?   If outside, how does Google block possible malicious reporting?  

What's even better, if you scroll down, you'll see "theamericanspectator" (www.americanspectato...) a "parody" site.

Sure looks like Google is trying to muddy the waters!

McAfee Site Advisor gives A/S a clean bill of health.  Less than one pop-up and all secondary links are green also.

Reporting from suddenly stormy southern Florida putting my vacation on temporary hold for your benefit. :-)

So are you going to visit Blonde in South Florida?  Stop by my place too. And don't forget Sarc either.   

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. dscott's corollary: The line between malice and stupidity is called depraved indifference.

This is not mistake or an accident. Google is deliberately filtering the site and slandering it with false accusations of it being dangerous. I don't care if this is a software bug (I highly doubt it but that is what they will claim). The American Spectator needs to sue Google for libel and loss of business revenue. Google needs to be held accountable for this otherwise they will do this to other sites and simply claim "ooops the filtering software had a bug" - my ass.

The correct website is www.spectator.org

Huckabee: Get Rid of Gitmo
The Anti "Man-Made" Global Warming Resource

It would appear that the G-Spot qualifies search engine return domains through a third-party database (StopBadware.org) of known “badware” (their sophomoric term for malware) sites and that Spectator.org is somehow listed among its violators – hence the block. A quick trip to the SB site identifies a code “yellow” attribution for AS, which they define as “One or more StopBadware partners are reporting badware behavior on this site.”

In other words, ANYONE can lodge a complaint and StopBadWare subscribers will shoot first (flag the site) and ask questions later. In this case, it was Google, itself that reported it had “found that some portion of spectator.org/ contains or links to badware or otherwise violates Google's software guidelines.” While this does seem to mimic Google News’ lame approach to so-called “hate site” complaints, the search engine behemoth’s intentions may – read that may – be chaste in this case.

After all -- the concept is far from unprecedented. Open relay databases are still used by some ISPs in an effort to thwart spammer exploitation of flaws inherent to the SMTP email protocol. You may have experienced an e-mail bounceback or delivery failure notice from your mail server warning you that a certain piece could not be delivered because the sending domain was on a DNS-based Blocking List.

Of course, analysis techniques are easily susceptible to spoofing mechanisms implanted by anti-site-theme motivated hackers.

In any event, as such databases are compiled largely through unchallenged third-party reporting and, thereby, prone to mischief, further investigation is surely warranted -- particularly when the big G is involved.

What’s that I smell – perchance a post 4-day-weekend 3rd Google evisceration?

There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that the actions of mankind can impact global temperatures even a single degree Celsius in either direction.  Fight the hype.

I've stopped using Google, as a search engine, quite a while ago.  Once I started reading about the politics, of the founders, and understood the power they had to do things (reading stories about Google and China, etc) I decided to drop them as a search engine, although they are difficult to get away from. 

Democrats: Specializing in "high tech lynching" since 1987.

and I thank them; I backed into the "real" site by going into Wikipedia and linking thru there....as I am sure many found if you type the full name you are sent to a liberal site which is pure garbage.

Illegitimi Non Carborundum; Vinegar Joe Stillwell and Barry Goldwater.

What is going on over there at that cesspool of west-coast liberalism?

Check out what happened when I googled "NewsBusters":

http://www.mr-shy.co...

We bid a fond farewell to Professor Talking Points & Cheetos

I am proud to say I have never used google. Dogpile is a far superior search engine.

I tried googling several conservative and liberal sites and only got the warning on the American Spectator link. I also went to the Spectator site using Explorer with Norton Fraud protection, and did not receive any warnings.

So caveat emptor I guess.

There is none so blind as they that won’t see. Jonathan Swift 1667-1745

Google must be contacted and given a chance to fully explain themselves.  The possibility that some sabotage has been spotted by Google can't be discounted.  Leftists are up for this kind of thing at any time.  If Google can't come up with good answers, then they'll take the blame for hitting at conservatives. 

Google is a big money making business, I can't imagine their top tier people simply allowing a gag to be put out as the real deal.  The fallout would be enormous. 

But if Rosie O'donnell once fooled people into thinking she's the "queen of nice," then anything's possible

Hi Noel (and NewsBusters readers):

I work for StopBadware.org, and noticed your post about the Google
warning on the Spectator website. It took a while for my application to comment to be approved, but since I now have an activated account here I hope I can help clear up some of the confusion.

It's actually Google, not StopBadware, that flagged the Spectator site.
Google independently checks the web for badware and badware-linking
code, and places warnings in its own search results. StopBadware comes
in simply to help site owners who want to remove the warnings in
learning about badware and getting the warnings removed.

It is not possible for anyone to falsely report a site to Google or
StopBadware and have a warning placed in search engine results. Google
independently identifies sites that host or distribute badware, and
places warning pages based on their own internal identification and
testing. A warning is never placed simply due to an unverified report
from the public.

Further, the warnings have nothing whatsoever to do with the political
or other content of a site, and are entirely and solely based on
Google's determination of a malware danger at the site. Such dangers can
be from software offered for download, but are far more frequently due
to hidden "drive-by download" redirects placed onto a site by malicious
hackers. In those cases, often the website owners themselves are not
aware that their site is distributing malicious software.

Many sites that are the subject of Google's warnings have been the
victims of a malicious hacking attack, in which code linking directly to
badware through exploits was inserted onto an otherwise innocent, but
poorly secured, website. Another common reason for otherwise innocent
sites to be flagged by Google is if badware is being distributed through
third party provided content such as ads provided by an ad network.

To remove the warning, the Spectator’s site’s owners will need to
discover what code on the site caused Google to flag the site, and then
clean and secure the site. Then they can submit a request for review.
They can submit a review request to Google directly by logging in to
its Webmaster Tools as a verified site owner. While StopBadware was
closed for Harvard University’s winter break, during that time website
owners were encouraged to use Webmaster Tools to request reviews. Now
that we are back in the office, the Spectator’s owners can also submit
a review request to StopBadware using our Request for Review form,
available on our homepage or at http://stopbadware.o....

Further information is available on our information page for owners of
sites with Google warnings here: http://stopbadware.org/home/faq#partnerwarnings and our Security Tips
on finding and removing badware here: http://stopbadware.org/home/security. We also offer a one-stop page displaying our information about a site,
which is the page anyone coming to us from a Google warning will first
see. That page for the Spectator is here: http://www.stopbadwa...

Your readers may also be interested in the comment conversation between me and Brian of Six Meat Buffet, at http://sixmeatbuffet...

Lastly, the Spectator's owners may wish to take advantage of some helpful folks in the StopBadware discussion group, who have already created a thread about the site and offered some insight into issues that may have caused the Google flag: http://groups.google...

Please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions I might be able to help answer.

Sincerely,
Erica George

StopBadware staff