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How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 15, 2019 | Kirsten Grind, Sam Schechner, Robert McMillan and John West

Posted on by karpov

...

Over time, Google has increasingly re-engineered and interfered with search results to a far greater degree than the company and its executives have acknowledged, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

Those actions often come in response to pressure from businesses, outside interest groups and governments around the world. They have increased sharply since the 2016 election and the rise of online misinformation, the Journal found.

Googles evolving approach marks a shift from its founding philosophy of organizing the worlds information, to one that is far more active in deciding how that information should appear.

More than 100 interviews and the Journals own testing of Googles search results reveal:

 Google made algorithmic changes to its search results that favor big businesses over smaller ones, and in at least one case made changes on behalf of a major advertiser, eBay Inc., contrary to its public position that it never takes that type of action. The company also boosts some major websites, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

 Google engineers regularly make behind-the-scenes adjustments to other information the company is increasingly layering on top of its basic search results. These features include auto-complete suggestions, boxes called knowledge panels and featured snippets, and news results, which arent subject to the same company policies limiting what engineers can remove or change.

 Despite publicly denying doing so, Google keeps blacklists to remove certain sites or prevent others from surfacing in certain types of results. These moves are separate from those that block sites as required by U.S. or foreign law, such as those featuring child abuse or with copyright infringement, and from changes designed to demote spam sites, which attempt to game the system to appear higher in results.



(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...

TOPICS:

Business/Economy

Crime/Corruption

Culture/Society

KEYWORDS:

duckduckgo

google

goolag

Based on the whole article, I don't see that Google has done anything illegal, but it may be a good idea to try other search engines mentioned, such as Mirosoft's Bing and DuckDuckGo.



To: karpov

I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for about a year now and I’ve never felt that I was “missing” anything on any search. To me, this really isn’t a legal question, it’s one of ethics and I just disagree with their business model. Because of that, I no longer support them.



To: karpov

I find that I often just have to use bing to get what I’m looking for. I still prefer google maps, though.



by 3 posted onby cuban leaf (The political war playing out in every country now: Globalists vs Nationalists)

To: karpov

This is a surprise? Google is sooooo biased and obvious about it. I use duckduckgo mostly, and every once in a while toss copies of my browsers (completely uninstall all the hidden dreck) in the trash and get fresh copies to compare search results that aren’t “tainted” by their perceptions of what I’m looking for. Oh well, just the nature of the world these days. marketers gotta market.



To: econjack

Ive been using DuckDuckGo for about a year now and Ive never felt that I was missing anything on any search. I kicked Google out of my house about a year ago now. Haven't looked back and like you, don't think I'm "missing" anything for the things I search for. If anything, DuckDuckGo eliminates the clutter that Google layers on top of its searches and makes finding what I'm looking for much easier. I also use the Brave browser (new version is AWESOME) and block all social media cookies as well. People really need to learn how to take control of their privacy on the internet and stop being tracked in everything they do.



by ) 5 posted onby usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box

To: cuban leaf

"I still prefer google maps, though." I reluctantly concur.



by 6 posted onby HangThemHigh (Entropy is not what it used to be.)

To: karpov

Just because it was perfectly legal for google to systematically and deliberately “disappear” over half a million hits on image searches for “obama birth certificate” in mid-July 2008 does not make it right.



To: glorgau

Get CCleaner and “freshen up” your browser each time you close it. Settings are simple.



by 8 posted onby carriage_hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)

To: karpov

DuckDuckGo is google. It just doesnt use cookies or collect info.



To: karpov

In the past, I could find whatever I was looking for. But in the last few years, google is nearly worthless as a search engine.

It simply ignores your search terms and directs you to something only tangentially related to your search. That is with basic things that could be related to a something to buy. On politics it’s even worse, directing you to the opposite result. They have become useless as a search engine for anything other than extreme non-commercial non-political basics.



by 10 posted onby DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)

To: usconservative

I have not seen the Brave browser, but will take a look at it...thanks!



To: DesertRhino

On politics its even worse, directing you to the opposite result.



Like 'White Inventors'. Give that one a spin...



To: DrGunsforHands

What makes you say Duckduckgo is Google. That seems to be inaccurate unless you have some information to the contrary.



by 13 posted onby DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)

To: karpov

Remember that General Petraeus who was screwing around with a journalist (Broadwell) who wrote a book about him.. then he had to resign.. They were discovered because they were using Gmail to communicate.



by 14 posted onby george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)

To: karpov

I don’t know for sure that Google has interfered with my search results. But why take a chance? I’ve been using duckduckgo’s search engine since forever and have no complaints. Google is dead to me. I avoid it when ever possible.



by 15 posted onby upchuck (Epstein didn't kill himself. Criminals love gun control. It gives them a safe work environment.)

To: karpov

Google is getting worse worse and worse. No matter the search it keeps returning narrow results. Take “fish sauce” for example. Because I clicked on “tartar sauce” first, and decided that wasn’t it, I searched again and Google only returned “tartar sauce”. It’s like that with everything. Completely messed up. I’m trying the others but because they are not as good as Google used to be I feel they’re not very good. Ah well.



To: karpov

I find myself using duckduckgo more and more, as I search for something I know exists, and have a very hard time finding it with Google. Sometimes, with Duckduckgo, it pops up right away.



by 17 posted onby marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)

To: karpov

I'm aware of google's bias and now type in complete sentences instead of waiting for their fill in the blank. Let's face it. The world at large is against us. We have no allies. Every actor, every car maker, every clothing manufacturer..........



To: karpov

Google delenda est. Break them up. By deciding what information gets presented to people, they are acting as a news organization and not a public utility. They control approximately 90% of the market for web searches and, not being a public utility, are thus a monopoly. Break them up into about 20 companies.



by 19 posted onby Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher)

To: DrGunsforHands; DesertRhino

DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources,[14] including Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Bing, Yandex, its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot) and others.[1][14][15][16] It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate knowledge panel boxes to the right of the results.[16] From wikipedia



by 20 posted onby Pollard (If you don't understand what I typed, you haven't read the classics.)

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