We know by now that Google is not really our friend. While it is the largest search engine in the world and owns the second largest (YouTube), it also seems to think that, because it’s a private company and has the right to do certain things, it’s obligated to do those certain things.

Most recently, the search engine decided to restrict what you could use its Shopping feature for. They didn’t want you looking up anything to do with guns.

It did not go as planned.

Early Tuesday morning, Internet shoppers started noticing and documenting the digital gaffes. Users received error notices when they searched for glue guns and water guns, toy guns and airsoft guns, nail guns and nerf guns. The algorithm is apparently so strict that even the color “burgundy” triggered an error because it includes “gun” in the spelling.

This set off something of a parlor game on social media. Turns out, adults don’t like it when faceless bureaucrats try enforcing arbitrary restrictions — federal, corporate, or otherwise.

Casey “Stable Genius” Smith found that Google now censors “Laguna Beach.”

Other censored searches included the movie Top Gun, bands like Velvet Revolver and the Sex Pistols, and even the Indianapolis Colts.

Whoops!

The benevolent nanny nerds at Google quickly began cleaning up their mistake. Many of the search terms had been restored by the early evening, but not before an important lesson was learned: Attempts to coddle adults will always backfire.

Granted, Google is a private company. If they think they can help keep our streets safe by banning the sale of guns and gun-related paraphernalia on their website, go for it.

But is that effective? No, not at all.

Precisely. Contrary to what the anti-gun media likes to claim, you can’t really buy a gun off the internet and skip the background check. Any purchase on the internet has to go through someone with an FFL, which means a background check takes place.

Google’s efforts here are political virtue-signaling designed to make sure everyone knows they don’t have any WrongThink going on there.

What they forget is that they weren’t the first search engine, nor will they be the last. While they’ve grown, they’re not too big to fail. If they continue to monkey around with what people want to see, someone will step up and replace them by creating a product that just doesn’t care about politics.

The really funny thing is, I don’t know anyone who uses the shopping function on Google to look for actual firearms. At best, they’ll use it to look for the best price on accessories. Or did.

Google has accomplished absolutely nothing except that virtue-signaling previously mentioned, but that’s okay by them. That’s probably all it was meant to do.

In the meantime, people can and will continue to buy guns, and they’ll use the internet to facilitate it. All Google is doing is becoming willfully less functional for millions of Americans.

Good job, nimrods. Keep this up and you’ll do half your future competitors’ jobs for them.