4 ms·

Spoofing Google Search Results

107 points by m1guelpf 8y ago

simjue 8y ago
Known issue since 2016 https://plus.google.com/+AaronBradley/posts/92wjiusi2YC https://plus.google.com/+AaronBradley/posts/92wjiusi2YC
- jacquesm 8y ago
  Looks like he managed to put enough indirect pressure on the big G to get this fixed.
to-maruf 8y ago
Seems like google figured it out
pexaizix 8y ago
https://www.wietzebeukema.nl/assets/2019-01-07-knowledge-graph-2.jpg https://www.wietzebeukema.nl/assets/2019-01-07-knowledge-gra... Define "fake results".
okket 8y ago
The example links do not work for me, meaning they show sane results. Is this issue fixed? Or is uBlock interfering? Or is my "Google location" (Europe/Germany) changing the results?
- cyborgx7 8y ago
  >Update - Two days after the publication of this blog post, Google seems to have fixed the issue, after TechCrunch asked the firm whether it was planning on taking any action. Although no official announcement was made, it looks like the kgmid parameter has been disabled. As a result, the flaw described below is no longer working. Very top of the article.
chillydawg 8y ago
Not gonna lie: I wish google had been a bit slower fixing this. I was looking forward to having some (mostly) harmless fun!
saagarjha 8y ago
> unfortunately Knowledge Graph doesn’t tell you where it got the information from This is really the biggest problem I have with the cards. They don't tell you anything at all about their source, and lead people to believe that Google itself has verified and checked the source of the information, making it very easy to treat them as "facts". A somewhat (possibly overly?) cynical viewpoint is that Google likes to keep it this way, since it makes it seem as if they're the arbiter of that information.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  Not only that, the legal status of this info is murky at best and a clear case of copyright violation at worst.
  - krn 8y ago
    I thought the Knowledge Graph was based on Freebase[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebase
    - blattimwind 8y ago
      The text usually is from Wikipedia and the tabulated data seems to come from Wikidata.
      - kibwen 8y ago
        Wikipedia's text content is licensed under CC-BY-SA, which means that if Google isn't giving attribution somewhere then they would be in violation of the license.
        dannyw 8y ago
        Google gives attribution when text content is used. For simple bibliographical information like who someone’s spouses is, it is not copyrightable, and no attribution is needed.
hartator 8y ago
Interestingly only one of these parameters has been fixed. You can still use ‘kponly’ to force empty results.
abhij89 8y ago
it's still happening for me in case of https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf, so it seems it may have not been fixed yet? https://imgur.com/a/8UypW5k https://imgur.com/a/8UypW5k
- yorwba 8y ago
  And attaching &kponly to the url also hides the search results for me: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf&kponly= https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf... Maybe the change hasn't been rolled out completely yet? I'm in Germany.
  - abhij89 8y ago
    I am in India. Yeah &kponly seems to be working as well hiding the search results completely.

107 points by m1guelpf 8y ago

Known issue since 2016 https://plus.google.com/+AaronBradley/posts/92wjiusi2YC https://plus.google.com/+AaronBradley/posts/92wjiusi2YC

jacquesm 8y ago
Looks like he managed to put enough indirect pressure on the big G to get this fixed.

to-maruf 8y ago

Seems like google figured it out

pexaizix 8y ago

https://www.wietzebeukema.nl/assets/2019-01-07-knowledge-graph-2.jpg https://www.wietzebeukema.nl/assets/2019-01-07-knowledge-gra... Define "fake results".

okket 8y ago

The example links do not work for me, meaning they show sane results. Is this issue fixed? Or is uBlock interfering? Or is my "Google location" (Europe/Germany) changing the results?

cyborgx7 8y ago
>Update - Two days after the publication of this blog post, Google seems to have fixed the issue, after TechCrunch asked the firm whether it was planning on taking any action. Although no official announcement was made, it looks like the kgmid parameter has been disabled. As a result, the flaw described below is no longer working. Very top of the article.

chillydawg 8y ago

Not gonna lie: I wish google had been a bit slower fixing this. I was looking forward to having some (mostly) harmless fun!

saagarjha 8y ago

> unfortunately Knowledge Graph doesn’t tell you where it got the information from This is really the biggest problem I have with the cards. They don't tell you anything at all about their source, and lead people to believe that Google itself has verified and checked the source of the information, making it very easy to treat them as "facts". A somewhat (possibly overly?) cynical viewpoint is that Google likes to keep it this way, since it makes it seem as if they're the arbiter of that information.

jacquesm 8y ago
Not only that, the legal status of this info is murky at best and a clear case of copyright violation at worst.
- krn 8y ago
  I thought the Knowledge Graph was based on Freebase[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebase
  - blattimwind 8y ago
    The text usually is from Wikipedia and the tabulated data seems to come from Wikidata.
    - kibwen 8y ago
      Wikipedia's text content is licensed under CC-BY-SA, which means that if Google isn't giving attribution somewhere then they would be in violation of the license.
      - dannyw 8y ago
        Google gives attribution when text content is used. For simple bibliographical information like who someone’s spouses is, it is not copyrightable, and no attribution is needed.

hartator 8y ago

Interestingly only one of these parameters has been fixed. You can still use ‘kponly’ to force empty results.

abhij89 8y ago

it's still happening for me in case of https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf, so it seems it may have not been fixed yet? https://imgur.com/a/8UypW5k https://imgur.com/a/8UypW5k

yorwba 8y ago
And attaching &kponly to the url also hides the search results for me: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf&kponly= https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Beatles&kgmid=/m/03j24kf... Maybe the change hasn't been rolled out completely yet? I'm in Germany.
- abhij89 8y ago
  I am in India. Yeah &kponly seems to be working as well hiding the search results completely.