Peter ButlerOct 3, 2023

"I have spent decades looking for examples of Google putting its enormous thumb on the scale to censor or amplify certain results, and it hadn’t even occurred to me that Google just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better.”

Absolutely bonkers. The Google antitrust trial discovered that Google is actually *changing user queries* in order to generate results that give more sponsored ads

https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/

#Google #Antitrust #Fraud

A Note From WIRED Leadership

WIRED
Show threadDr Ro SmithOct 4, 2023

@peterbutler realising Google was doing this a few years ago was the big mover for me to use something else. I just didn't get relevant results from it as a search engine anymore.

For people looking for an alternative, Start Page has revolutionised my ability to actually find what I'm looking for. There are ads, but they are clearly labelled and once you scroll past them you see the kind of sites you haven't seen in years, with exactly what you want.

Show threadrspOct 4, 2023
@Rhube @peterbutler I've never experienced this myself. What I type in as the keywords have never changed--and I do lots of searching using Google (and other search engines). I'm also not seeing any difference in quality or relevance between Google and Startpage in side-by-side comparisons. Their results both start with a few clearly labeled sponsored links, followed by alternative keywords, followed by lots of relevant links.
Show threadDr Ro Smith
@rspfau @peterbutler interesting that you think I care about your lack of observations skills, but I don't.
Oct 4, 2023 at 2:59pmWeb
Show thread⌛️🧮 Bruce Carnwell (🐣 & 🌴)Oct 6, 2023
@Rhube @rspfau @peterbutler Really? WTF are you talking about ?