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Google Search Results Have Liberal Bias, Study Finds (thedenverchannel.com)
According to a new study reported by The Wall Street Journal, Google's search results tend to lean liberal. "An analysis by online-search marketer CanIRank.com found that 50 recent searches for political terms on Google surfaced more liberal-leaning webpages than conservative ones, as rated by a panel of four people." The Denver Channel reports: "Minimum wage" tended to yield more liberal results, while "does gun control reduce crime" resulted in more conservative ones. Searches for "financial regulation" and "federal reserve" found mostly nonpartisan links. CanIRank used the opinions of four people to determine how liberal or conservative each website was. For 16 percent of the political search terms studied, no right-leaning results showed up at all on the first page of results. CanIRank noted this could be a problem for democracy. A different study found most people click on one of the first five search results. Users rarely move on to the second page. A Google spokesperson said in an email to the WSJ: "From the beginning, our approach to search has been to provide the most relevant answers and results to our users, and it would undermine people's trust in our results, and our company, if we were to change course." According to Google, their results are "determined by algorithms using hundreds of factors" and "reflect the content and information that is available on the internet."
Which is an asinine argument because us normal people are trying to protect children from those damn things.
One of the few things the liberals get correct is that one should not leave them laying around loaded. They should be stored safely under lock and key. Once locked up the children are safe.
We're not the emotional ones. They're emotional and irrational since they love their guns more than their children.
Thank you for proving my point about liberals being delusional and emotional on this topic.
In many conservatives' minds, it is, because they are obviously co-conspirators in the liberal conspiracy. All too many conservatives disregard anything that disagrees with the tinfoil hat set's holy trinity (Limbaugh, Beck, and Jones) because obviously so-called "legitimate news sources" are trying to hide the truth... the truth that gay and nonwhite people are in cahoots with the lizard people who run the Illuminati and therefore the shadow government.
Yes, some people really believe that.
It's maddening, and no amount of evidence will prove to them that "crooked Hillary" isn't, and that Trump isn't a saint. Oh, and the videos of Trump admitting to sexual assault, bragging about ripping off small businesses deeming it "good business," and so forth are faked, just like the moon landing.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
This study is just way, way too small to have the conclusion it claims to have.
Whether left-leaning or right-leaning results turn up depends upon a wide variety of factors, not least of which is wording (left-leaning sites and right-leaning sites often use slightly different wording for the same issue). I don't see how it is even remotely possible for a group of four people to review enough searches to make up a representative sample, and four people is too small a number to provide a solid opinion.
Also, there's a distinct possibility that for some issues, left-leaning sites have talked about those issues far more frequently and in far more depth, while right-leaning sites will have discussed other, different issues.
Finally, I see no reason why Google should be held to any sort of standard of false balance: there are many issues for which the facts very solidly support the left, and it makes sense for Google's search results to reflect that bias. One of the clearest examples here would be global warming, but there are many others.
Search phrase wording affects results returned. GASP!!! Almost like the algorithms are working as designed.....
I tested the theory several times through the election process. "How do I vote" would immediately fill in "for Hillary Clinton" and the name "Donald Trump" would not appear even when you typed in "Donald Trum". Searching for "Presidential Candidates" would show Hillary and Obama, with Trump being down between 6 and 9 places in the list. When millions of people report the same exact symptom, it no longer remains something you can explain with a personal anecdote.
Google Management and executives have a bias toward Democratic/Liberal politics. This can show up in their product with relative ease, and if you don't believe so perhaps spend a bit of time with data analysts who can show you how to manipulate data for the effect you want. Study Statistics, which is all about manipulating data for effect.
While it's true that the study will be accepted by people who have the world view that Google censors content, people who happen to favor Democratic/Liberal politics will disbelieve it.
Reality is not distorted, only our view of it is distorted. Without facts, such as the question in my subject, we can only speculate on the facts that we do have.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
BTW... Apparently Slashdot also has a left-leaning bias. Wont' let me say "Nig.ers" with two 'g's.
Remember that as you read all the other posts here. This is a left-leaning site.
So you're saying since Slashdot doesn't let you use a racial slur, it's left-leaning? So you're saying right-leaning users want to use racial slurs but are thwarted by this left-leaning site?
That's what I thought.
passetspike!
Except that's complete nonsense. Conservatives have been responsible for the vast majority of new spending in the last decades. They sign the laws and then blame the liberals for the costs. Conservatives just use the budget excuse to complain about things they don't want to do.
Reality has a liberal bias too, that's been shown again and again. That's not surprising since the other side is based on beliefs.
thegodmovie.com - watch it