Google
May Be Hurting Users By Manipulating Search Results, Says Study
A
new study could strengthen a European antitrust case against Google.
In
April, the European Union officially filed antitrust charges
against Google,
accusing the search giant of redirecting traffic from competitors and distorting
search results to favor its own services, such as Google Shopping. Google fired back at the
E.U. in a blog post, saying that it has plenty
of competition in the realm of both search and shopping sites, and that
"allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be
wide of the mark."
A study published today, however, could poke holes
in Google's steely defense. Authored by Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor
who coined the term net neutrality, the paper notes that
Google "has increasingly developed and promoted its own content as an
alternative to results from other websites."
Wu's
research used a plug-in developed by reviews site Yelp—one of Google's biggest
rivals—which replaced its native results with the external listings that the
search engine had actually deemed "most relevant". Through A/B
testing, the study presented participants with two different versions of a
local search results page, both of which featured the "Local OneBox,"
which usually displays seven Google+ results pinned to a Google Map. The
version created with the plug-in showed only results from Yelp and other third-party
services in the Local OneBox, while the native Google page featured the
standard Google+ fare.
Wu
found that users were 45% more likely to click on the map results that did not
pull up Google+ pages, which he says indicates that Google is compromising its
own search results. Yelp's public policy vice president Luther Lowe sent Fast
Company a video that further explains the study's methodology:
An
important note: Yelp paid both Wu and his co-author, Harvard Business School
professor Michael Luca, for their work on the study.
Though
Wu has long pledged his support for Google, he told Bloomberg that in this case, the
data just doesn't work in Google's favor:
"I
have great respect and admiration for Google as a company, and feel that 90% of
what they do makes life easier or better. In this case, I am convinced that
Yelp's data is showing a deviation from those principles, and I agreed to write
the paper to make that point known to the world."
The
paper's methodology does not necessarily account for whether or not users who
clicked on the Yelp plug-in's results with more frequency actually preferred
those to Google's native results—which means that Google could still argue that
its results are best meeting user needs. The company has also focused on making
information available within its search results, to reduce the number of times
a person must click to find what they are looking for. But Wu points out that
this doesn't change the fact that Google is unfairly tweaking its search
results, regardless of the outcome for users:
"Given
that general Google search faces limited and in some countries no direct
competition, I think it can get away with weakening or degrading the product,
and suffer little consequence. In fact, in antitrust cases, the ability to do
things that effectively eliminate consumer welfare like offering a degraded
search can be evidence of market or monopoly power."
According to the Wall Street
Journal,
this research was shared with E.U. regulators on Friday. One European antitrust
official told the WSJ that a study like this could "certainly bring
things forward", making their case against Google stronger, despite the
company's repeated denial of such accusations.
By Pavithra
Mohan
http://www.fastcompany.com/3047988/fast-feed/google-may-be-hurting-users-by-manipulating-search-results-says-study?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=3&partner=newsletter&campaign_dat
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