November 22, 2017

Google Does Evil

Up to about 2006 or 2007 Google provided an excellent search engine. It then started to prioritize and present more general results even where one searched for very specific information. It became cumbersome to search for and find details. The situation has since further deteriorated.

The Google News search is now completely useless. It delivers the main stream media trash without showing divergent views or opinions. What is the use of a search result page that links to twenty sites with the same slightly rewritten Associated Press story?

Google's algorithms now amount to censorship. Since August it downgrades websites that offer alternative views to the left of the pack. Searches that earlier led to the World Socialist Web Site or to Media Matters no longer show these sites, or show them way down the result pages. Traffic to these sites collapsed.

This week Google announced that it will censor RT.com, the website of the international Russian TV station: Google will ‘de-rank’ RT articles to make them harder to find – Eric Schmidt. Schmidt, the CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet, claims that he is "very strongly not in favor of censorship.” That is a laughable. Intentional downgrading a website that has relevant content IS censorship. Down-ranking means that less people will find and come to the site. Its content will have less viewers. It will be censored out of the public perception.

The original Google algorithm used the number of links to one site as a measure for its relevance. It was reasonable. In 2004 Google's founder proclaimed:

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating … We believe it is important for everyone to have access to the best information and research, not only to the information people pay for you to see.”

Back then the motto of Google was "Don't be evil". When its new parent company Alphabet was launched that motto was discarded.

Google has become a prime cooperator and contractor for U.S. intelligence services. The private data it collects from it users is fed the dark-site's databases.

But its new evilness is not restricted to data. The company ran a campaign against homeless people near its headquarter in Venice California (video). Google conspired with other tech-giants to keep the wages of its engineers down.

Since its beginning Google had some intimate connections with U.S. intelligence services (Long read: part 1, part 2). The relation is a two way street. Google Earth and its map products were, for example, originally created by U.S. intelligence services. They were given to Google for practically nothing. Google makes profits from advertisements within those products. It is providing special versions back to the intelligence people. One can only speculate how much of its user data comes with those versions.

Google's smartphone operation system Android collects users’ locations even when location services are disabled. There is no technical reason to do such. There is no reasonable explanation from Google why it does so.

Google early on sold out to the Democrats. Eric Schmidt is a Clinton/Obama acolyte. During the Obama administration Goggle's staff had at least 427 meetings at the White House. Emails from the letterbox of Clinton advisor Podesta, published by Wikileaks, show how Schmidt offered to promote Clinton even a year before she launched her campaign. Google paid staff helped her to organize.

Maybe Google was just buying goodwill with the White House to protect itself against the various anti-trust lawsuits it is engulfed in. It will do anything to avoid regulation of its monopolistic position and to protect its highly profitable business.

It is now, like other internet companies, under pressure to support the war party in creating a new Cold War with Russia. The "de-ranking" of RT.com show that it is willing to do so. It is degrading the quality of its product in exchange for political good-will from warmongers.

The best and most benign search engine available now is DuckDuckGo. Its quality is as good as Google's once was.

I recommend to use it as the standard and to avoid Google and its products wherever possible.

It is evil.

Posted by b on November 22, 2017 at 18:02 UTC | Permalink

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