How Google Skewed Search Results
FTC staff report details how Google favored its own shopping, travel services over rivals
By Rolfe Winkler And
Brody Mullins
Updated March 19, 2015 7:25 p.m. ET
A previously undisclosed report by staffers at the Federal Trade Commission reveals new details about how Google Inc. manipulated search results to favor its own services over rivalsâ, even when they werenât most relevant for users.
In a lengthy investigation, staffers in the FTCâs bureau of competition found evidence that Google boosted its own services for shopping, travel and local businesses by altering its ranking criteria and âscrapingâ content from other sites. It also deliberately demoted rivals.
For example, the FTC staff noted that Google presented results from its flight-search tool ahead of other travel sites, even though Google offered fewer flight options. Googleâs shopping results were ranked above rival comparison-shopping engines, even though users didnât click on them at the same rate, the staff found. Many of the ways Google boosted its own results have not been previously disclosed.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-skewed-search-results-1426793553
Big deal.
Google is free.
If you don’t like it use yahoo or bing.