Weren't sure where to find the best illegal files online and thought you'd turn to Google for help? It just got a wee bit harder. Google is living up to its promise to cut down on enabling piracy through its search engine by removing piracy-related terms from its autocomplete. Now, if you want to find certain sites related to file sharing, you'll have to know exactly what you're looking for if you want it to turn up on Google.

Google's autocomplete feature has become the stuff of legend, turning up strange observations about human nature and helping the world's Internet users get to their Web destinations that much faster. However, users began noticing that searches for BitTorrent, RapidShare, uTorrent, and the like aren't being autocompleted anymore—they'll only show up if you type the complete phrase into the search engine and hit enter.

The change doesn't come as a huge surprise—Google outlined its plan to "prevent terms that are closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete" in December as part of a new approach to digital copyright. In addition to the autocomplete changes, Google also said that it would work with rightsholders to "expel violators" from AdSense and "experiment to make authorized preview content more readily accessible in search results."

Still, Google's position is controversial, as some of the sites being censored also offer legitimate content, and plenty of other P2P sites (such as the Pirate Bay, Vuze, and MediaFire) are apparently not being censored. "What Google may not realize is that our technology is used for many purposes that provide significant value to the technology industry, companies, artists and consumers at large," BitTorrent VP of Marketing and Product Simon Morris told TorrentFreak.

Vodo founder Jamie King agreed, arguing that Google was willing to censor for China (until it wasn't), and now it's doing the same job for Big Content. "I guess it’s simple: our favorite search monopoly cares less about helping the thousands of independent creators who use BitTorrent to distribute legal, free-to-share content than they do about protecting the interests of Big Media in its death throes," King said.