Check out the results from a Google News search for “google antitrust hearing”:
- Irish Times reports “Senate questioning fails to rattle Google chief.” Why is Irish Times first? This is not a #1 kind of article by any algo standards I’m aware of. It’s flattering to Google, who has offices in Ireland… hmm, wonder which part of the algo that goes with?
- Eweek reports “Schmidt swatted aside most of the verbal attacks like annoying flies at a backyard barbecue” and goes on to describe bitingly how inadvertently funny Al Franken was.
- RedOrbit reports that “Schmidt defends himself boldly against senate hearing.” Did he also rip open his shirt to reveal his rippling muscles while he slayed a dragon?
- Examiner.com reports that “most critics agreed that Schmidt defended Google with a kind of technical nobility.” Shortly after that, he was knighted.
- LA Times – finally, an article that’s just straight reporting.
Hmm. You know, honestly, these just aren’t the results I’m looking for. The L.A. Times one comes close, but I was hoping for some varying opinion pieces. You know, some for Google, but also some against. Isn’t it curious how there’s no real anti-Google sentiment in the top of the SERPs?
But maybe I’m being unfair. Let’s check Bing! I’m sure Bing hates Google, so if they’re no better than Google, they’ll have cooked their own results to show nothing but glee at Google’s predicament and indications that Schmidt came off a fool:
- Huffington Post reports the facts. No apparent slant.
- Boston.com reports on how difficult the government’s case will be to prove. Good article if you’re interested in the legalities – regardless of what outcome you’re hoping for.
- Yahoo reports on a few aspects of the case – some anti-Google, some pro-Google and the rest neutral factoids.
- Kara Swisher, who disclaims that she’s married to a Google executive, liveblogs the whole mess with a lot of pointless commentary about how nice people’s suits look. No obvious slant, or maybe it’s just that I couldn’t finish the whole blithering thing.
- Hot Air has some interesting insights others missed. No noticeable slant.
Bing’s algo managed to leave out any heavily pro-Google articles, but it also didn’t harp on an anti-Google slant. For the most part, this is just what I want from my news: reporting and un-biased insight, and declarations of potential conflicts of interest.
Google swears their results are what consumers want. That’s just not what we’re seeing here. No way, no how, nuh-uh.
