Nexus One Censors Swear Words: Here's Why

[Generic Other]

<snip>The built-in voice recognition software in the Nexus One is one of the Google Phone's niftiest features.

But, as Reuters first noted, the feature comes with one key handicap: it censors swear words, automatically replacing expletives with a series of "#" symbols.

The voice-to-text feature is made to let users dictate their text messages, emails, and even search queries--so long as they're G-rated, it seems. An spoken insult could be translated by the phone into "#### you," and, as CNET notes, the phone even censored the "S" in "BS."
<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/25/nexus-one-censors-swear-w_n_435166.html

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Dicks Everywhere

[Kutjara]

2. Apparently, you can get around the filter by...

...saying "dot com" at the end of any swear word. I guess profane URLs are OK.

[Ian David]

4. Seriously? LOL n/t

[Kutjara]

5. Neil Gaiman tweeted about it last night.

He says he stumbled on it accidentally.

[Ian David]

6. "I wanna fuckyou.com in the ass.org" Oh, yeah. Sounds like sexytime. n/t

[rockymountaindem]

8. That is some funny shit.com

Cool catch.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. ### I just bought a ####### Google phone

That's ###### ####! A whole load of ####! Now I can't even ####### swear? Did I buy a ####### Apple unit by mistake? What the #### is this???

(Posted from my cool Google Android phone)

[Generic Other]

7. LOL...reading between the pound signs

Next up phones that taste like soap!!

[MuseRider]

11. LOVE my Droid.

Hated to leave BlackBerry but I was seduced by the slick graphics and rapid internet access.

[lpbk2713]

9. So if someone talks about their Bachelor of Science degree it gets censored?

That's taking it way too far IMHO.

[freeplessinseattle]

10. here's why:

A Google spokesperson told Reuters, "We filter potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid situations whereby we might misrecognize a spoken query and return profanity when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent."



Now that could make for some humorous back translation!