CatholicGoogle, a new site based on Google’s custom search, is “striving to provide an easy to use resource to anyone wanting to learn more about Catholicism and provide a safer way for good Catholics to surf the web.” The site uses a permanently-on Google SafeSearch to filter out profanity and pornography, along with a filter for specific topics that floats Catholic-related sites to the top. For example, a search for “birth control” serves up pages on why birth control is viewed as a sin in the Catholic Church as its first results.
The search engine might appeal to some devout Catholics if it actually worked. However, it seems that when it comes to filtering topics beyond the standard “offensive” categories (swear words and sex) , CatholicGoogle only serves to make queries potentially more offensive. A search for “drunk” yields a video of “Drunk Catholic Kids”. Perhaps even more bizarre: a search for “sex” offers an article bashing the Church’s stance on sexuality (they may have included this in the results for a balanced alternative perspective, but I doubt it). It’s as if the site just appends the word “Catholic” to whatever you’re searching for and crosses its fingers.
If this is your sort of thing, you might also be interested in GodTube, the YouTube for Christians or Gospelr (you guessed it – the Twitter for Christians).