Technology

37603 readers

539 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

133

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

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

impacting users’ ability to access unbiased information.

I never like the implication that "unbiased" or "objective" info/searches exist. They don't. Don't get me wrong, google is 100% in the wrong here and is deliberately putting their thumb on the scale in a very certain way. But yeah, the "unbiased" thing always nags at me lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think it's appropriate in terms of product review searches.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But what is an unbiased result? What does that look like?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Reviews that don't involve affiliate links or products provided by the company.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

How do you weight the different reviews that meet this criteria? Plenty of reviews don't involve either.

At some point you have to pick and choose. If it's "truly" random, then the search is meaningless. If it's curated/weighted, then it's biased.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

The challenge is in elevating outright paid sponsorship and affiliate material above actual reviews.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It would be nice if we could choose our bias. Sometimes, we might want it biased towards scientific sources, sometimes, towards user-generated content, sometimes towards institutional sites, etc.