Try running a Google blog search for menstrual stem cell or C’elle. Do you see any of these posts?

• 6 Nov – Collect and FedEx menstrual stem cells with the C’elle kit: the next flow (Attila Chordash @ Pimm)
• 6 Nov – Pie in the sky between your thighs (PZ Myers @ Pharyngula)
• 6 Nov – Every month is a miracle (me)
• 8 Nov – Must be a low flow day (me)

A new comment on the Pimm post makes the list, but the original post doesn’t. All sorts of press releases, splogs, and flogs are still padding the search results, though.

Does Google Blog Search really suck that badly? Really?

If I were prone to crazy conspiracy theories, I might draw unwarranted conclusions from the observation that C’elle is a Google AdSense client, as Ms. M & P and Frenchy relate, or that C’elle is represented by PR giant Edelman, a company that is no stranger to either ties with tech companies or attempts at manipulating the blogosphere.

Here’s the non-crazy question. What if a search engine hegemon like Google – or Technorati, for that matter, which has engaged in joint business ventures with PR companies – were to, at some future date, start offering special services to advertising clients? Deleting critical blog posts from the search results would be easy. So would tweaking the spam filters to let splogs and flogs bury blog discussion. How would you ever know?

Do you really expect that there’s anything preventing a search engine corporation – any search engine corporation – from filtering what you read?