The porn-only search engine is coming

ICM Registry, the company behind the pornographic .xxx sponsored top-level domain (sTLD), plans to launch a search engine designed solely for it. The goal is simple: drive more traffic to .xxx websites while also giving porn watchers a more enjoyable search experience.

The service has a decent chance to become an alternative to Google when it comes to pornographic searches for two reasons. First, you’ll no longer have to worry about embarrassing search history popping up when your mom or significant other use your computer. Secondly, Google frequently tweaks its algorithm to rank porn sites lower.

Geeks will of course shrug at this given that erasing search history and filtering for the .xxx domain in Google aren’t exactly difficult tasks. Still, some porn sites fall off the first page of results in favor of news articles or pages with definitions of sex terms.

“Google, in their wisdom, has decided that’s more relevant to what their customers are looking for,” ICM CEO Stuart Lawley told Network World. “The adult industry is feeling a little bit deranked by the major search engines.”

Search.xxx is slated to launch tomorrow (on Thursday). Lawley told The L Magazine that the search engine is ICM’s next attempt toward making the .xxx world a safe haven for everyone between consumers all the way to porn producers.

How will that happen? Well, all .xxx sites will be scanned daily for malware using McAfee security products, and those that fail the test won’t be indexed by the search engine. Search.xxx has alrady cataloged 21 million webpages from .xxx sites.

Furthermore, Search.xxx will be customizable for users who want to change its appearance and will also let you set your sexuality. The latter will only really be effective assuming the sites and content are using accurate metadata (unlikely, given their reputation in this area).

I’ll leave you with an amusing image that Lawley draws for PC Advisor: “Porn is very personal,” he said. “You may have been looking for Brazilian midget transsexuals, and you’re sitting there at home with your kid or your wife saying, ‘Let’s go on a holiday to Brazil,’ and the next thing, it’s suggesting Brazilian midget transsexuals from your previous Google search history.”

Image credit: Petra Giner