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Google's 'experiment' hiding Australian news just shows its inordinate power

• Freewheelin 6y ago
  Commented in the post linking to the ABC article about it, but I'll post in this thread too, since it's being reported by news outlets somewhat inaccurately. Searching for 'news' in google in Australia absolutely does not return results without the commercial news sites as most headlines may lead people to believe. Directly linking to news _articles_ on those news sites may be hidden, but it's an important distinction that nobody appears to be making. Screenshot of google search for 'news' https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/774775322973437974/799527590159319060/news.png https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/774775322973437974/79...
  • cube00 6y ago
    > Google says it is displaying older or less relevant content to 1% of users. Chances are you are not in the 1% selected for this A/B test.
    • Arnt 6y ago
      Just a nit: There are several, each of which affects 1%. If five there's a 95% chance that he's in none of them ;)
• phillipseamore 6y ago
  It's hard to complain about experiments like this when publishers want to get paid for search results that drive traffic to their sites. Personally I'd welcome a Google Search filter to exclude news sites.
  • im3w1l 6y ago
    People have this outdated idea that Google will reliably search through the entire internet to give the result that matches their query best. This goes against that, and is why they complain.
• renewiltord 6y ago
  > It is “experimenting” with the lone supply of fact-checked, accountable information Australians can access right now What? NewsCorp? Literally nothing of value will be lost. Australians may come out of this better informed.