German experts at a Berlin seminar this week argued that search engines need to be more regulated. They want companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! to exercise editorial control over their search results and filter out sites with x-rated content or that glorify aggression.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/30/google_too_powerful/

Who are these German experts?

Machill, mentioned in the article, is the guy I met this Monday – this article apparently talks about one of the events in Berlin this week. On Monday, there was a closed scientific workshop, but on Tuesday largely the same crowd was attending a public conference at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

See
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-06-27-n46.html
Machill is pictured speaking in the photo, and is discussed in the lower half of the article.

Ironic that the article doesn't mention that there are already mechanisms in place here, i.e., that Google and other search engines in Germany already agreed to self-censor for years.

Oh, I can see the Registered article already links to here.

Google public relations' Rachel Whetstone mentioned in the article was on the list of people attending on Tuesday, by the way.