No, Google isn’t blocking news, but there are some strange things afoot courtesy of Mountain View, California. In an abridged piece, Charles Benaiah unpacks what publishers need to know. Ignore the politics, just focus on the ‘why’.
Last night, Bloomberg ran a piece announcing that breaking up Google “is one of the options being considered by the US Justice Department after a landmark court ruling found that the company monopolized the online search market, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.”
The fall out and precise ramifications of the ruling are unclear, and could take many months, if not years. However, the timing coincides with recent anomalies in Google search which could have significant implications for news publishers’ search traffic. Are the two intertwined? Charles Benaiah, author of the Substack Uncharles, attempts to unravel the mystery.
Over to you Charles…
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For days, Google ran a warning when people searched, “Tulsi Gabbard surveilled.” The story was moving too quickly. They didn’t have enough quality sources.
Confused, I reached out to two people I know who know Google like I know how my dad makes tea. One told me, “They do this when news is breaking to avoid misinformation.” Um, OK, but this has been going on for three days. It hardly qualifies as breaking news.
The other person referred me to this link from Google from June 2021 about, “rapidly evolving results.” Which, in a slightly more wordy way, explained that if they can’t find enough reliable sources, they might show you some warning.
This probably doesn’t happen very often. No one I know – including these two Google experts – have seen this in practice.
Google is very smart at interpreting what we mean when we search for something. In fact, it’s baked into their search model. When we ask for, “_[anything]_,” they replace that with something that is: (a) similar and (b) likely to result being able to show results.
Warning served
Every time I’ve googled this particular query (I’m up to five over the last few days), Google has warned me. And, every time, Google has also showed me results for something similar. For days, an article from the Colorado Springs Gazette comes up first. The title is “Tulsi Gabbard details ‘stress’ from life under surveillance.” That would seem to qualify as a source. I have no idea if it’s a “reliable source.” It looks a little sketchy, but it’s been around for 100+ years. You can decide that for yourself.
Ignore politics. Ignore media trust and bias. Focus on the why. Blocking news for the sake of blocking news isn’t in Google’s normal wheelhouse. So why did they do this? What’s in it for them? Is this new?
It’s a good thing to have the Government like you.
So, new? No. Beneficial? Can’t be bad. So, why is Google doing this – now?
Google is in the crosshairs of multiple governmental snags. The DOJ just won a case. The DOJ’s next case looks good. It might be a good time for Google to do someone in some area of Government a little favor. Like say, blocking a story that isn’t going to get a lot of queries. Something that reminds the government that Google is one of the key arbiters of information. That Google can wield power on an immense scale. And, that if you’re government, it can’t be bad to have Google on your side.
Keep watching the Google query space for signings that their relationship is getting cozy or embarrassing. Because it might not be a coincidence.
Update: This morning, that warning is gone. There are no new sources. The only difference seems to be – according to Google’s trends – no one is searching for this topic anymore.
This is an important reminder just how gentle the scales are that keep information in balance. Putting very little pressure in the right spot can tip the scales in impactful ways.
So, it’s worth asking again: Why? Why is Google doing this now?
Charles Benaiah
Charles Benaiah is the CEO of Watzan, a techy company for medical media. When he’s not running a media company, he reads about media, thinks about it, pull out what’s left of his hair dealing with it, and, then, he writes about it over on unCharles. Charles is a member of Media Makers Meet – Mx3 Collectif.
