Granted, these aren’t extremely pressing issues. People researched oil paints and found places to eat for decades upon decades without the assistance of the internet. What is a bigger deal is how nakedly partisan Google has become. Former President Trump has even complained about it, taking time to call CEO Sundar Pichai to point out the problem.
Naturally, his complaints were downplayed, but your Google search is supposedly tailored to your interests. As I am not suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and have written positively about him (and used Google to find info for such articles), my results should be reflective of that. Instead, I get the latest anti-Trump bromides of the day.
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Well, that’s weird. Whereas Trump’s campaign website is pushed down the page when his name is Googled, beneath mostly negative opinion pieces, Harris’ website is right there, with the “top stories” below it. I’m sure that’s just how search engines work, with no biases programmed in whatsoever. The completely neutral algorithm just happens to display the info the campaign would prefer to be displayed first at the top of the page, with the top stories about the candidate being answers to questions people might have about her, as well as a hit piece on Bret Baier thrown in for good measure.This isn’t just about the election, though, but also about the changing nature between users — again, the product — and the online services we allow ourselves to be pimped out for. The disparities between the results for Trump and Harris simply highlight how stark the problem is.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/22/when-did-google-search-become-totally-useless/