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Google is under no freedom of information restrictions; it is a business. They can choose to rank mug shot sites high. They can choose to accept or not accept

• MichaelGG 13y ago
  They shouldn't be choosing to rank mug shots highly. They should be following algorithms that return results that people want. On the second part, sure, they could decide mugshot sites are not eligible for AdWords, but it's not great to have Google deciding who can make advertising money. OTOH, they're already doing this so I suppose they could take some sort of ethical stance here.
  • joeevans 13y ago
    I generally agree. It's interesting, though, to think how much they in fact do probably alter results. I'm sure people "want" things that don't appear on the first page, because there'd be a general freak out if they did. I think they probably have more cultural latitude in determining which ads they'll accept than which results they'll display. Another option they have is to simply set the cost of mug shot related ad clicks higher. Since their pricing determinations are somewhat mysterious, it would be harder to critique them for that. Ultimately, it would probably come down to an ethical stance for them, because they would just be making less money as a result of what I would consider to be a more ethical decision. As it is, they are making money off of a system that appears to be wrecking careers.