According to Launch.is, Google has been told to stop “manually massaging” their search results. Of course, this tweaking isn’t new, nor is it something Google denies. However, government investigations have put such actions on hold for now.
Google stands by their actions, saying that non-algorithmic search adjustments are necessary to defeat spammers, but they also seem to use it to push results like Wikipedia to the top of many single word searches [my observation].
For more info on the whole situation, head on over to the source article.
Source: Launch
The government is trying to dictate how a search company can search things?
Really?
If Google ran on Gov’t funds, I’d see a reason for this, but it’s a service that is provided for free to the masses. If I gave shitty free haircuts to tons of people, the government would have no right to tell me to give better free haircuts.
On the one hand, I understand why. If theres a legitimate investigation going on, injunctions are a normal and expected part of the judicial process.
On the other, this is a pretty critical invasion into a core service of a major tech company, arguably the only service they actually make money off of, being hindered by an allegation of misconduct. If this allegation is false, it puts Google at a serious competitive disadvantage during a time that said service is experiencing the fiercest competition it’s faced in a decade. This does not seem like the kind of intervention any government agency should be taking.
“Google stands by their actions, saying that non-algorithmic search
adjustments are necessary to defeat spammers, but they also seem to use
it to push results like Wikipedia to the top of many single word
searches”
I think this is just the result of Wikipedia’s amazing SEO. Bing does similarly.