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How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet - WIRED (www.wired.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from [email protected]

Google may be altering billions of search queries daily to generate results that increase purchases.

Testimony in an antitrust case revealed an internal Google slide about changes to its search algorithm, involving "semantic matching" to generate more commercial results.

Google covertly changes user queries, substituting them with ones that generate more revenue for the company and display shopping-oriented results.

This manipulation benefits Google's profits but harms search quality and raises advertiser costs.

Despite legal challenges, Google's market dominance allows it to continue these practices, impacting users' ability to access unbiased information.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, that's unfortunately true, too. It probably comes with how sites will try to optimise as much as possible for search engines to find them, even if it means that it's no longer useful (like those posts on social media that include every conceivable tag instead of the ones that actually fit thematically to the post)

There's this project for a paid search engine, Kagi, that tries to make results more useful again by not needing to favour advertisements. I haven't tested their trial offer too much because I keep forgetting it exists, so I cannot say how much better the results really are, yet.

Edit: Big lol, I just read the other replies in this comment chain and yeah I guess by now you are aware of this Kagi project hah.