Google Altered Search Results?!
If you know anything about search results, search engine optimization, and search algorithms, you probably wondered if Google ever changed its search results so they would be favor one search result over another. Google already alters results with Google AdWords, the Right to Forgotten, and removing results if they break rules.
The FTC revealed via The Wall Street Journal that Google has been altering its search results for profit: “Inside The US Antitrust Probe Of Google.” The FTC found that Google was using its monopoly on search to harm Internet users and its rivals. FTC recommended a lawsuit be brought against Google for three of its practices.
The FTC voted to end the investigation in 2013, which is strange, but they did so because they had competing recommendations.
Google continues to stand by its own innocence, citing that the case closed two years ago and that people continue to use its services. There is one big thing that the Wall Street Journal points out:
“On one issue—whether Google used anticompetitive tactics for its search engine—the competition staff recommended against a lawsuit, although it said Google’s actions resulted in “significant harm” to rivals. In three other areas, the report found evidence the company used its monopoly behavior to help its own business and hurt its rivals.”
Can this be considered part of their “do not evil” bylaw?
Whitney Grace, April 8, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Phi Beta Iota: Robert Steele likes to say “the truth at any cost lowers all others costs.” Steele was inspired by his former employer the CIA's disrespect for its own motto (“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”) and the below quote from Bob Seelert, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide in NYC:
When things are not going well,
until you get the truth out on the table,
no matter how ugly,
you are not in a position to deal with it.
This is practically a haiku, and a lovely encapsulation of what it means to be a CEO demanding intelligence with integrity for the good of the business and its stakeholders. Google's cheating — along with Google's collaboration with NSA in violation of the US Constitution — are evil. Worse, Google is distorting and retarding deep knowledge development. Sadly, neither Baidu in China nor Yandex in Russia have stepped up to their potential as Google killers, so the world awaits an Open Source Google Killer — one that can process 100% of digital knowledge instead of 2-4%; one that respects the role of humans as curators and just enough just in time creators of needed knowledge not yet digital; one that integrates the open source tools and open deep data bases for doing holistic analytics, true cost economics, and open source everything engineering.
See Also:
BOOK: Intelligence for Earth: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability
BOOK: The Open Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth, & Trust
