Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.
Right now if you run a Google search for “palm pre” from a mobile phone, you’ll be shown that there are 0 pages related to Palm’s upcoming smartphone, which will soon faceoff with Google’s Android, Blackberry, and the iPhone in the battle for touch-screen supremacy.
In fact, a number of searches with the world “Palm” in it are turning up zero results (even “palm tree”), though many searches still work just fine. The bug seems to have existed for at least the last two days according to recent tweets.
The issue seems to only be affecting Google’s mobile site, which is used for both the iPhone and the G1 (as well as a number of other phones).
Thanks to Brian Krausz for the tip.
Update: Looks like the problem has been fixed.
LOL
LOL
-Jim
http://www.movi...nlineforum.com/
(just getting started so check it out)
When I search “who cares,”I also get no matches
I’m not a lawyer, but I think the justices would side with Palm.
LOL
http://www.goog...amp;site=mobile
http://www.face...s-7/39012423321
News of Palm’s demise were prematurely late.
Uh oh. I wouldn’t want to be on Google’s Sh*t List. Please, oh please, Google Gods, be kind to your fellow man – er, competition!
I doubt that this is intentional on Google’s part, but if it is they can get the stuffing sued out of them. Neutrality of search results (meaning that Google doesn’t preferentially rank its own services above everyone else’s) will be easy pickings for lawyers.
Er.. what? Google have no legal obligation to provide neutral search results. They can rank sites however they want and exclude whatever they want (indeed, Google Search has had human input for years now).
And Microsoft has no obligation to allow other developers equal access to the Windows platform right? Oh wait, wasn’t it Google who sued to break that precedent?
Anti-competition is anti-competition.
Works on my phone.
You know, “Pre” might just not be the best product name in the world when we live in an online world where having a memorable, but unique search target might not be a bad idea. Choosing as a brand/model name a text string that is a prefix, and is maybe even a stop word in some contexts, maybe wasn’t real bright. (Even if “pre” isn’t a stop word with Google.) The results for just “Pre” make plenty of sense and “palm Pre” works just find. Maybe there’s a latency for updating some special index servers used for mobile.
In any case, evil or not, there’s probably nothing insidious here on Google’s part. I again suggest that maybe Palm should have worked harder on a name.
While I like Google a lot, the fact is I’m not really interested in their cell phone or the Android platform. No time soon anyway. Nor does the iPhone really do it for me for various reasons. (15K apps notwithstanding.) Nope, I actually want the Pre. I’ve been waiting for something like this. When available, I’ll maybe dump my Blackberry and Razr and just carry this. Too bad Palm couldn’t come up with a trademarkable neologism or something for the name. Poorly thought out branding is not Google’s fault.
Scott
This post is so uncanny. This happened to me and was like WTF? I researched only because of reading about the Palm Pre on Techcrunch in regards to IP issues w/ iPhone…
Shady, shady, shady…if the G-1 didn’t suck so much they would not have to block search results of competition.
Maybe now I’ll find results on Palm Pre.
Shady…without a doubt google was dorking w/ their own algorithms to keep Palm Pre at bay….
and they say those working at google are smart this proves otherwise. this is clear as day that someone at google blacklisted the term palm pre from their search engine. google is scared ……………………….. of the competiton……………………………..
Google can be funny sometimes.
it isn’t fixed. my search pulls up ‘did not match any documents’ on an ipod touch. through a regular browser, tho, i get plenty of hits.
Still not working…. So Google… hows that whole don’t be evil thing going for you? Quarter one go good for you?
duh…google can do whatever it wants. there’s no law saying it needs to return good results. it’s called editorial control. you think News of the World is sued because they have stupid nonnews items? only if they slander/libel. i wouldn’t be surprised if this was intentional. the googols are smart. they know what they are doing.
this is not true. try it people. try it.
lol…not true at all.
yahoo mobile search (OneSearch) does way better.
http://in.m2.ya...ng=en&_ym=1
What a useless, false article!
Th search works fo me…
“In fact, a number of searches with the world “Palm” in it are turning up zero results (even “palm tree”), ”
correct me if im wrong but did you mean to say word and not “world”?
Palm as a brand is dead – if they want the product to have a chance they better get busy re-branding.
DID NOT work up until just now on my iPhone.
Google search for “Palm Pre”
HAS NEVER worked for days on my iPhone.
I love the competition.
I have been waiting for a good phone for 10 years.
“Palm Pre” search on Google does work now on my iPhone.
GO Palm!
Who is going to be the next company to come up with and ADD everything Palm is leaving off this phone?
I have owned Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Nextel, ATT, and Cingular.
I am so excited to see improvement.
These manufacturers have been sleeping on the job forever.
It is about time we were offered a decent PDA that would cancel out the need to carry a laptop.
I still carry my laptop because a PDA so far has just not got the job done.
Jason, what a waste of time!
Maybe “Pre” won’t be the name of the final released priduct.?!?
I think the Palm Pre will be an amazing phone now that there are more details out on it. Palm used to be at the top, and I hope to see it there again, if not close