The entertainment industry has fought long and hard to get Google and other search engines to combat piracy and promote legitimate purchases and downloads. Now the porn industry wants the same treatment.
The BBC reports that “Porn stars and studios have called on Google to help publicise legal ways to buy adult content in an effort to combat piracy.” They claim that Google is unfairly discriminating against the industry by not allowing porn companies to purchase AdWords.
The article quotes a porn-industry spokesperson saying “Google is perpetuating the misconception that the adult industry is not a legitimate industry.” As with the music and mainstream film industries piracy and copyright violations have hurt porn-producer revenues.
There are different estimates of the volume of porn-related search on the internet. There were no recent statistics that I could find. However a 2011 analysis using keyword research estimated that there were at least 22.8 million porn-related searches each month in the US. A 2008 estimate of porn-query volume (based on AOL search traffic at the time) found that porn-related keywords were 6 percent of overall volume.
In August comScore reported that there were more than 12 billion search queries on Google in the US. The 23 million figure above would put the percentage of porn-related queries at only a fraction of the 6 percent claimed in 2008.
While pornography is a “legitimate industry” that creates jobs and generates billions in revenues, it remains highly taboo in many countries. Google’s ban of porn-related advertising is a “political” decision to avoid public condemnation from government and religious leaders.
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