Microsoft Family Safety blocks Google? Not here.

Last week, a Slashdot commenter took Microsoft's Family Safety for a test drive. After he had it installed, strangely, he wasn't able to visit Google. He then tried to add an exception to allow Google, and still couldn't get the site to load. Finally, he disabled the filter entirely, and was able to load the page again.

Over at The Register, they contacted Microsoft about the issue and were told that Google falls into a group of "unclassified portal pages" along with sites like MSN and Yahoo. According to the Register, that means you have to opt in to access Google if you're running Family Safety.

Not so fast, fellas.

Sure, it's easy to point the finger at evil old Microsoft when something like this comes up, but it's best to do a little testing first. On my own laptops (and I tested on two separate machines), a fresh install of Family Safety with all settings left untouched did not, in fact, block Google - as you can see in the screenshot above. It was even polite enough to leave the AdSense ad in place.

Sure, it's possible that the Live team worked a little behind-the-scenes magic in the past few days and corrected an error, but it's also possible that this was a coincidental occurrence. A weird one, I'll grant, but I've seen plenty of computer problems that were far more bizarre.

Got a minute? Try it yourself and report back! Yes, unfortunately you will have to put up with the Live installer.

Tags: live-family-safety