Hard-Coded Google Search Results

benedelman.org

34 points·parano··4 comments

Uh, what? Do you really think Google's special results at the top are "organic"? Of course they aren't, they are trying to put the most useful information at the top of the page. No conspiracy there...

I noticed in all the posted screenshots that while Google does link to itself from time to time, it also links to alternatives. In the health example, it linked to Google Health, but also the Mayo Clinic and WebMD. This is just an example of Google trying to provide the most useful answer to the question you typed in. Not a conspiracy :)

Flagged for senseless Google hate.

Why is this written as a sensationalist exposé when it is plain as day that Google is doing this?

Almost all of these examples are Google serving non-webpage metadata alongside SERPs and are clearly delineated as such. Personally, it doesn't bother me in the least that they use their own databases to serve this metadata rather than agnostically linking to competitors.

I posted a comment not too long ago, implying that Google modifies results when it suits them and I received a lot of downvotes. The comment was snarky, but I've talked to a lot of people that really buy into the "Don't be evil" mantra and think Google's results are never hand edited.

None of these are search results. The search results are in a list in a strictly defined format. These are guesses at meaning that go above them, just like ads go to the side.

http://www.google.com/search?q=2%2B2

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