Hard-Coded Bias In Google Search Results? 257
bonch writes "Technology consultant Benjamin Edelman has developed a methodology for determining the existence of a hard-coded bias in Google's search engine which places Google's services at the top of the results page. Searching for a stock ticker places Google Finance at the top along with a price chart, but adding a comma to the end of the query removes the Google link completely. Other variations, such as 'a sore throat' instead of 'sore throat,' removes Google Health from its top position. Queries in other categories provide links to not only Google services but also their preferred partners. Though Google claims it does not bias its results, Edelman cites a 2007 admission from Google's Marissa Mayers that they placed Google Finance at the top of the results page, calling it 'only fair' because they made the search engine. Edelman notes that Google cites its use of unbiased algorithms to dismiss antitrust scrutiny, and he recalls the DOJ's intervention in airlines providing favorable results for their own flights in customer reservation systems they owned."
Re:Stupid Article (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you believe any advise is unbiased?
Re:No Way!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Stories like these are written by people who either don't understand business or do understand business and are butt-hurt because they can't compete against their competitor on their competitor's website.
They understand better than you do apparently.
Google is welcome to bias its results if it wants to. However, if it biases its results than it loses any claim to neutrality. Given that google is actively using its claim of neutrality elsewhere to its benefit then somehthing's got to give.
It can't take the benefits of biasing its results and the beneifts of claiming its results are unbiased.
One or the other. Not both.
did a search on "search engine" (Score:1, Interesting)
Did a search on "search engine" (no quotes, just the words). The result had a bunch of competitors, no mention of a google site until the third page.
Re:No Way!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously: you completely omitted the "if I make awesome website A, and advertise it on google."
you're claiming that your website is awesome: but people are not going TO your site, people are going to your site because it was linked somewhere else. how is that unfair? you're using their name to get free advertising for your domain name essentially, and you wonder why somebody would take your "trade secret" and use it themselves?
sorry: I don't see how a site that's "the most popular" of anything can't get direct traffic.
Google seems to get a hell of a lot of direct traffic.
I consider this a feature and use it regularly! (Score:1, Interesting)
When I want Google Analytics, I type "analytics" into firefox's google box and click on the first box that pops up, knowing that it will take me to the right place. Same goes for maps, earth, code, and several other things. This is nothing new (and therefore not "news"), in fact, it's been this way as long as I can remember. Why are people even complaining about this?
OMG! Slashdot is Biased! (Score:3, Interesting)
Slashdot is totally biased!
They have their name in huge print at the top of the page, and all the links go to various pages on their domain! Clearly they're biased toward themselves!
Same acne results, has google already reacted? (Score:3, Interesting)
Can't Reproduce The Paper's Results (Score:3, Interesting)
I saw this article earlier in the week and decided not to submit it to /. because it said the following:
I tried this. Without the comma, Yahoo Finance came up as the first result. With the comma, Yahoo Finance came up as the first result. If I can't reproduce your experiment's results, then I view your whole hypothesis with skepticism.
Re:weird (Score:2, Interesting)
Are they actually biased, though? Someone who uses Yahoo search is probably more likely to want to use Yahoo Finance. People who use Bing search are probably more likely to want Bing Finance.
Even without any sort of deliberate bias, if the search algorithm of each search provider does nothing more than blindly rank sites the way they normally do, they'd likely still wind up with their own products at the top of their search results. That's not bias, that's providing the search results that you think your users are looking for, which is the whole *point* of modern search engines.