Bizarre comment about jw.org at SAD

by sir82 76 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sir82

  Recently attended a SAD.

  Bethel speaker was gushing about the WT's embrace of new technology, in the part of his talk warning about "apostate" web sites.

  A loose summary of his comments:

  "And the brothers at headquarters have made it very safe for you to go to our website. In fact, the brothers talked to the folks at Google, and they made a special arrangement so that when you type in 'J W period' into the Google search engine, it automatically shows you the JW.org website. Isn't that a loving provision for our safety?"

  I spend the next several minutes trying to decipher what on earth he was talking about.

  I later did what he said - I entered "JW." into Google. It returned, at the top of the list, JW.org, followed by a bunch of links for the hotel chain JW Marriott and other assorted flotsam.

  I was slightly surprised that there were no evident "apostate" sites that come up when you just enter those characters, at least not for the first several pages.

  But what do you suppose he meant by that "special arrangement with Google"? The way he said it, it sounded like a troup of GB went over to the Google corporate headquarters and demanded a meeting with Larry Page, and he gleefully acquiesced to their demands.

  I would have thought he was a closet apostate sending a hidden message (do you really want to tell 1300 JWs to fiddle around with "Jehovah's Witnesses" and Google?), but he is a Bethel lifer, 35+ years there, never worked a day in his life. His literal survival depends on his remaining a "good" JW.
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  PaintedToeNail

  Sounds like some kind of search engine optimization. Someone else had a recent post about everyone typing in JWfacts daily to change the optimization, might be a good idea. I only did it one time...
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  cantleave

  I call bollocks on that statement- there was no negotiation, it just how the Google algorithms work.
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  joe134cd

  Although not a computer or google expert. I'm surprised that WT is able to get away with it. It sort of makes a mockery of been at 1st place because it was the most popular. How can google differentiate between a +ve or a -ve site unless they had some one sitting there to monitor it and I can't see google doing it.
• 

  Gayle

  How much did the WT pay Google for that?
• 

  EdenOne

  I was at the start of a forum that gathered members that used to post on the (now defunct) forum of E-Watchman (Robert King).

  I suggested we registered it as www.e-jw.org, which was the name that ended up having. Note how close it is to the official www.jw.org :D

  Doesn't seem to attract many new curious people, though, although I'm not a forum administrator there. But it was fun to be able to register that website name.

  Eden
• 

  ShirleyW

  "Isn't that a loving provision for our safety?"

  That line alone absolutely nauseates me. Yes it is a loving provision that some folks sent their children to college without getting the evil eye, and those educated children made sure you can type in just two letters and be lead to all the bullcrap and lies.
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  Comatose

  He was talking out his butt. Internet browsers just work that way now. They autofill after you type or search for the most likely result.
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  pixel

  The WT is late to the internet game and already they are at the top of it, have the best website in the world, have the most visited page in the world, and make Google do whatever they want. Yeah sure.
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  tresdecu

  I just tried typing in " JW." (J and ah Dubyoo and ah period) into a google search bar and the fourth result was non other that JW Facts !!!! Still on the front page! Good job...way to keep us "safe" there GB.