Did you all see this yet or hear about it?
Kind of funny, but probably a good idea...
Just Koogle itNow there’s a tool on the internet to keep people on the straight and narrow, especially when negotiating the limitless expanses of cyberspace.
Apparently rabbis have given the theological green light to a new ‘kosher’ search engine, developed in Israel for Hebrew speaking orthodox Jews, that automatically weeds out religiously unseemly material.
The inventor has cleverly named it Koogle playing on the word kugel, a popular Jewish noodle casserole dish and the leading internet search engine Google in the hope that it will gain acceptance from the target audience. Ultra orthodox Jews are often apprehensive about getting onto the internet for fear of what even seemingly innocent words can dredge up from the murky recesses of cyberia.
Not only will the Koogle search engine filter out material that the clergy deems ‘objectionable’ — which includes all photographs of women besides sexually explicit content — it will also simply not work on Saturdays. On their Sabbath day, no orthodox Jew is supposed to do any work let alone surf the net, so if there are attempts to post or buy, the site will simply crash. Though Koogle is being posited mostly as a business and services related tool, there are caveats. While there will be links to Israeli news sites and shopping channels, it was clarified that non-kosher items, like television sets for instance, would not be allowed to be sold on the site.
Crafting an internet tool to suit a particular demographic is obviously an idea that can easily be picked up by other orthodox sections elsewhere in the world to screen out taboo material. It will, therefore, probably inspire many knock-offs, perhaps even in India. There is another potential target clientele, however, that the rabbis and the inventor of Koogle may not have thought of: offices.
Thanks to its stringent inbuilt content controls and an alternative American English language option, it could be just what companies in search of ways to contain their employees’ computer waywardness during working hours, could be looking for.
Topic: Just Koogle it! (Read 957 times)