Google Is Allegedly Making Their Search Results Worse On Purpose

Pretty much everyone uses Google as their primary search engine now. But, a new report theorizes that Google is actively making search results worse in order to make money.

The theory was published in WIRED in an opinion piece by Megan Gray, founder of GrayMatters Law and Policy in Washington DC.

The following is the crux of her argument.

There have long been suspicions that the search giant manipulates ad prices. The “10 blue links,” or organic results, which Google has always claimed to be sacrosanct, are allegedly just another vector for Google greediness, camouflaged in the company’s kindergarten colors.

“Google likely alters queries billions of times a day in trillions of different variations. Here’s how it works. Say you search for “children’s clothing.” Google converts it, without your knowledge, to a search for “NIKOLAI-brand kidswear,” making a behind-the-scenes substitution of your actual query with a different query that just happens to generate more money for the company, and will generate results you weren’t searching for at all. It’s not possible for you to opt out of the substitution. If you don’t get the results you want, and you try to refine your query, you are wasting your time. This is a twisted shopping mall you can’t escape.

Why would Google want to do this? First, the generated results to the latter query are more likely to be shopping-oriented, triggering your subsequent behavior much like the candy display at a grocery store’s checkout. Second, that latter query will automatically generate the keyword ads placed on the search engine results page by stores like TJ Maxx, which pay Google every time you click on them. In short, it’s a guaranteed way to line Google’s pockets.

It’s also a guaranteed way to harm everyone except Google. This system reduces search engine quality for users and drives up advertiser expenses. Google can get away with it because these manipulations are imperceptible to the user and advertiser, and the company has effectively captured more than 90 percent market share.”

A lot to unpack here. First, we all know that the search engine is one of the biggest moneymakers for the company, which is publicly traded as Alphabet. That’s why there are sponsored results at the top of our Google searches. But, I think most assume that after those sponsored results, Google is putting forth a good effort to give you the most relevant results.

If you buy her theory, that appears to not be true. Rather, they’re fixing the results not to benefit the consumers, but to make Google more money. That is a pretty big betrayal of the trust of those using the search engine.

And, as she said, it hurts businesses too. Google is artificially driving up advertising costs. If this is proven to be true, I think there will be some pretty ticked off advertisers.

The backdrop to the article is that Google is currently standing trial for antitrust violations.

Google denies that they’re replacing entered search queries with other generated queries.

The truth, like most things, is probably somewhere in between what Google is saying and what the article is saying.