Google Groups Adds SafeSearch

but will anyone use it?

[mfagan]

Does anyone use the web filter? I think I read somewhere that it is less than 1% of searches.

Also, Google added a medium filter to their image search a few months ago.

[ciml]

Google have said it's a very small proportion, I'd agree with less than 1%. For some kinds of searches it's possible to see from the referring URL whether SafeSearch is enabled. I found between 0.2% and 1.1% depending on the site.

If GoogleGuy gets bored one afternoon (OK, not likely working at the 'plex) then he could compare the searches run by people who have SafeSearch enabled against those that don't. I think we can guess what kinds of words the SafeSearch users would not be using, but I'm sure that the words SafeSearch users use more than other people would would make interesting reading. I guess homework, music, and toy related. Probably SEO too, as we're a pretty puritanical lot.

One of our main pages was not available with SafeSearch on for a while last year, it made no noticeable difference.