NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Wall Street Journal vs. Google: An Illustrated Guide
The Wall Street Journal vs. Google: An Illustrated Guide
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000967.html
The "Wall Street Journal," which generally seems to oppose all
proposed government regulations unless they're aimed at Google, has
fired off another tirade ( http://j.mp/KSRcqt ), which prompted a quick
public response from Google's Amit Singhal ( http://j.mp/KDUDlv ).
The focus again is the perceived fairness of search results, and the
continuing crazy clarion call that Google Search results should
somehow be "regulated" to ... well ... actually, what they'd be
regulated to do isn't really clear at all.
The whole point of search is to provide the best, most relevant and
useful results to users, not to try fulfill the impossible quest of
sites to all have top rankings.
Unless value judgments are applied to rankings, you don't have a guide
to usefulness and relevancy, you have what amounts to a phone book.
The concept of the government becoming involved in search results
regulation should strike more fear in the hearts of free speech,
anti-censorship proponents than SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA rolled into one
nightmare bundle.
Some observers continue to insist on conflating Google's organic,
natural search results with paid ads and related paid placements
separate from organic results, with the loudest complainers seeming to
routinely be firms upset about their low natural rankings, often
despite their use of "black hat" SEO techniques that Google explicitly
and wisely uses as signals of low site quality.
What's really fascinating is that when you look empirically at
specific examples, it's obvious that Google's algorithms create fair
and reasonable organic results, and this observation is only enhanced
by comparing these results with Google's competitors.
Let's explore six screenshots, all taken yesterday via Internet
Explorer (which is not my browser of choice), when logged out of all
services (Google, Bing, and Yahoo).
In the first three shots, I simply searched for <maps>. As you can
see, ( http://j.mp/KSRo9b ) Google returns its own map product as the
first natural (organic) result. But before the Google-haters jump in,
note that in shots ( http://j.mp/KSRpKy ) two and ( http://j.mp/KSRuxC )
three, both Bing (a Microsoft service) and Yahoo (now affiliated
with Microsoft) *also* show Google Maps as the first natural result!
No unfair bias there -- everyone seems to agree that Google Maps
deserves to be on top.
Now, there is an oddity on the ( http://j.mp/KSRuxC ) third screenshot
(for Yahoo). Note (see my red arrow) that above that first organic
result (for Google Maps), Yahoo presents a dedicated Yahoo Maps input
box, of a sort that neither Bing nor Google provided for themselves
for the generic <maps> search. Hmm.
How do we know that Yahoo Maps box isn't an organic result? Note that
unlike all the following results, the Yahoo Maps entry at the top does
*not* include a displayed URL (in green text).
Now let's move on to shots four, five, and six. A complaint being
made against Google is that they provide direct answers to some
queries that have specific answers available. This obviously is good
for users, but how do Bing and Yahoo handle such a situation?
We search for <map of cleveland>. Surprise! All three services
return a top result of a specific map from their own service. Google
returns a ( http://j.mp/KSRCNA ) Google Map result, Bing a
( http://j.mp/KSRJbZ ) Bing Maps result, and Yahoo a ( http://j.mp/KSRM7V )
Yahoo result (the Yahoo map says "Nokia" on it, but includes an
embedded Yahoo copyright -- recall that both Yahoo and Nokia
are now affiliated with Microsoft).
Amit is right. The Wall Street Journal is wrong. Case closed.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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