The German website of BMW, the carmaker, has been removed from Google’s search results Well, as long as they're blocking "Tienamen", "Democracy" and "Free Press" why not?
Well, that summary is a little off base... Google has guidelines about how a site presents itself in order to be listed. One of those is that the content you give Google is the same as what you give a person. BMW didn't do that. They got delisted. I see no problem here... (now, the filtering on the Chinese google, I do take issue with, but that's another matter entirely)
And BMW says they didn't violate those rules. Guess it depends on credibility. Google has less now than they did a while ago, and I suppose they'll have to live with people doubting their truthfulness and motives, eh? Especially since it looks like Google Blacklisted them after the 'offending' links were already gone, and went public with it without talking to BMW or letting them know there was even an issue. Looks to me like Google was trying to get a little credibility back by showing they are 'tough' on bad actors. Doesn't really impress me all that much but I hope they got the publicity mileage they were looking for.
Grinding an axe much? Google is a advertiser sponsored service which is made available to consumers at no cost. They have every right to apply whatever rules they deem necessary to protect the quality of the product they deliver. They do this to provide a better product. Do you really believe they would reduce the quality of their product as some sort of tiny PR stunt that most people will never hear about? If you don't agree with their quality criteria or motivations or are not satisfied with the quality of the free product they are offering, use another.
