Does TechCrunch have beef with Christianity?
I love TechCrunch as much as the next geek, but it seems that some of its contributors have a problem with Christianity (see “Gospelr: Twitter For Christians” or “CatholicGoogle: Your Search Engine For All Things Catholic”). Now, this doesn’t really surprise me at all. After all Christ said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).
Below is my comment about the CatholicGoogle article and to some of its other commenters:
I happen to like the idea. Google offers customized Twitter Groups (well, not exactly. But Twitter Groups are handled by Google Friend Connect). I’m pretty sure Google offers a customizable Google search too. Would people have the same reaction if there was a customized Google search for vegans?
In my humble opinion, people have a problem with Christianity more so than they do with the fact that there is a customized Google Search site for Catholics.
I can understand people getting upset, because it could give some Google juice to Catholic sites that normally would be on the 16th page of a search result. I would accept this as a valid argument.
For there to be a lawsuit against the Catholic Church over something like this would be silly. For the very reason that the church is made up of many Christians. CatholicGoogle is not funded by the Vatican. The people that have a problem with a customized Google search that is catered towards Catholics, have a bigger problem with the fact that Christians are using technology to serve a Higher Power. Namely Jesus Christ.
Get over it people, the customized search wasn’t created for you!
CatholicGoogle’s own page states the following:
CatholicGoogle is powered by Google using “safe search” technology, it produces results from all over the internet with more weighting to given to Catholic websites and eliminates the vast majority of unsavoury content, such as pornography. The site is not associated or affiliated with Google.com, we work closely with Google to help ensure that the adverts are not objectionable in nature, however, some of the results and adverts that are displayed may not be in line with Catholic doctrine and we do not endorse any of the results or adverts displayed on CatholicGoogle.
I’d love to hear what you think about this. As always, you can leave a comment. God Bless.
Oh yeah! I don’t know if you noticed the above parody logo for TechCrunch. The first time I visited the site, a few years ago, I misread their logo as “TechChurch.” I shouldn’t have wasted my money on that online speed-reading course ; )
03 Jan 2009 Catholic Tech Tips
Hi, I wrote the article. I can assure you that I have nothing against Catholics at all. My issue was that the site just doesn’t seem to work very well for what it is supposed to do. If you’re going to build a site that is advertising itself as being a safe place to search, it should work much better than the site in question does.
And I seriously doubt anyone would actually make a suit against the Catholic Church -if anything it would be against the people who made the site.
Cheers,
Jason
Jason, I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Your article was less condescending than the other article that I mentioned.
You do bring up some good points about how it doesn’t work perfectly. And you gave some good examples.
My comment wasn’t just directed to you, but to some of the other commenters.
I think those who see the Catholic Church as an oppressive institution, see CatholicGoogle as the Church trying to keep Catholics from apposing viewpoints. I see it as a Christian who is using technology to serve Christ and His church. This is what I try to do on this blog. Pope John Paul II talked about a new evangelization. We are living it!
Thanks again for leaving a comment.
From the TechCrunch article it appears the search doesn’t work the way it should. Prayerfully, someone will work out those bugs.
Telling to me was not the tone of the blog post but the tone of the comments. The post itself was balanced, imo, but most of the comments left were not exactly friendly toward the Church. (An understatement I know.)
One option for us Catholics is http://www.catholicblogs.com/ which is a search engine for Catholic blogs. Definitely not a comprehensive search as an ideal Catholic Google would be, but one small option for us.
I do get a number of hits on my blogs via CatholicBlogs.com.
PS Thanks for your blog — love it!
It’s also worth noting that Google offers some of its own custom searches, like google.com/linux (which often feels like it’s just appending the word ‘Linux’ to searches). It’s not a bad idea, even if it could use a bit of work.
Maureen, CatholicBlogs.com is great! And they have a couple of nice add-ons too!
Thanks : )
Blaise, Using that Linux Google search you commented about, I found a really cool Catholic blogger who plays around with Linux that I otherwise might never have come across. I’m always learning something new by reading you guys’ posts. Thank you.
Joshua: no problem! Link?
The blog is Catholic+Linux+Monkey. She is from Singapore (at least that is what her profile says).
Thanks!
Check out this article: “Lourdes-based ‘Catholic Google’ may be rebaptised”
“CatholicGoogle” is now “Cathoogle” and they have a new logo.
Hi, thanks for adding my blog over at your blogroll. “Catholic Tech Tips” sounds like an interesting idea! Keep it up!