FTC Report Reveals How Google Manipulated Search Results

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According to the FTC, Google used a special algorithm to make sure search results placed its products higher than its competitors products.

According to the 160-page report, the employees found evidence that Mountain View was demoting its competitors and placing its own services on top of search results lists, even if they weren't as helpful. Google Flights, for instance, would rank highly during the staff's test searches, even though it didn't offer as many options as other flight aggregators and travel websites like TravelAdvisor.
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^^ Yup, what else would you expect. This isn't any different then going to buy a new Camaro and having their finance guys start out by offering you a loan thru GMAC. You don't have to use GMAC, but of course they are going to try to put their own Lender up front first.
 
Bing does the same with their news team?

Anywho.... google should pay ads so they get placed on top lol
 
wait...they didnt start a company for purely egalitarian reasons?

i need to sit down.
 
If Google is smart, they'll be asking MS for legal strategies right about now...
 
I think there is too much focused on whether Google did it, which Google never denied and its competitors already pointed out was happening. The issue was whether Google should be doing that when its search was supposedly returning the "best" results. The FTC chose not to pursue any actions, despite the recommendations in the report. Since Google had stopped doing it so blatantly (after bad user feedback), maybe that was a mitigating factor in the FTC's decision.
 
SEO is factored by "a lot of factors". Google knowing what is best can apply those standards. Not sure if that is considered an advantage. Google has changed their algorithm to:
a. relative content
b. freshness of content.
c. speed of access to content
d. perceived "user friendliness"
e. error free code
f. shrunk/efficient code
g. repeated a-f for mobile devices

If the competitors make irrelevant, slow, out of date, never updated, buggy, bloated websites they would naturally be ranked less and this is well known.
 
wow...inb4 FTC discovers political site x is ranked before y's site who donated to the FTC chairman's z's fund
 
@ all the people saying "of course," how many of you question the "facts" you search for using google or wiki? Yeah, didn't think so.
 
I question them all the time, but am just too lazy to look for other alternatives. Well, I've been using Bing more nowadays, for no real reason. I just do.
 
pothb said:
I question them all the time, but am just too lazy to look for other alternatives. Well, I've been using Bing more nowadays, for no real reason. I just do.
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Bing does not give better search results than Google, and to top it off it just makes a person feel so dirty and violated after you've used such an inferior MS product.
 
I love that with all the scam and fly by night businesses that operate in this country and get reported by people cheated out of money, that 160 page reports to state what's already obvious and widely known - that's what the fucking FTC wastes time and taxpayer dollars on.
 
LBJM said:
Bing does not give better search results than Google, and to top it off it just makes a person feel so dirty and violated after you've used such an inferior MS product.
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Oh, I'm not saying they are. I just use it nowadays. Has great porn pics for image search too! I also use DuckDuckGo, and on rare occasion excite... Google's just has been less used. You can sort of say that, I've just been spreading my searches.
 
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