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Google Faces EU Probe Over Doped Search Results
Barence writes "The EU has launched an investigation into whether Google is deliberately doctoring its search results to favour its own services. The search giant stands accused of artificially lowering the search ranking of competing price-comparison sites in organic and paid-for search results, in favour of Google Shopping. 'There is a growing chasm between the enduring public perception of Google's search results as comprehensive and impartial, and the reality that they are increasingly neither,' said Shivaun Raff, CEO of British price comparison site Foundem, which lodged the complaint with the EU. Google has denied any foul play. 'Those sites have complained and even sued us over the years, but in all cases there were compelling reasons why their sites were ranked poorly by our algorithms,' it claims."
Foundem, one of the sites that has complained publicly and to the European Commission, duplicates 79% of its website content from other sites
Interesting to read this from entity like Google that copies or 'generates' like 90% of its content from other sites.
And who gets to decide that, the competition or a neutral party?
A few billion neutral third parties have said that they like Google's appraisal just fine. If their results weren't so in line with what people want and expect, users would have gone with a different search engine.
That's the way things used to work, but not anymore. In the past, you had to go out and find a search engine. I remember we'd type in hotbot.com or Lycos, or AltaVista, and whatever else we could find and just see which one gave us more of what we were looking for. And at some point, Google was good enough that it became popular like this. But now that they've become dominant, they want to make sure nobody else wins the same way Google did. We are past the time where people go out and find their search engine. We are at a time where Google pays to be included in your web browser, on your desktop, in your phone, and in your workplace. Nobody even asks how to find what they're looking for, or ever gets given a list of addresses for search engines. And no, a dropdown list that nobody is aware of does not count as being given a list of search engine addresses.
To summarize, we're not all using Google because we evaluated all of our options and found them to be the best. We're all using Google because it was shoved down our throats and we have no idea there are other options out there.
You are one naive motherfucker if you think that there is ANY body of humans in the world that decides ANYTHING "purely on the basis of law(s)" with no political or economic influence. Last time I checked, the EU had not achieved some utopia where courts are completely unbiased and objective and no corruption or political influence exists.
Sounds like YOU'RE the one who's bought into the propaganda.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.