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.
Nice to see #Google hamstring themselves; they're seen as a #search engine benchmark, so this makes it easier for #DuckDuckGo (which uses #Bing to provide it's search answers, if I understand correctly) to edge up on them in the rankings… #DDG #searchEngine #Alphabet #surveillanceCapitalism