The (Frightening) Power of Google

This recent article in The New York Times points out a frightening reality about Google searches.  While we might think the most relevant sites related to our search terms are what pop up under the first paid advertising links, in fact, both Google and all companies with a web presence manipulate our search results.  The Times article details how JC Penney manipulated Google search results for everything from women's dresses to Samsonite luggage.  The key to coming up first is having the most external sites linked to you.  The company Penney hired to manage their online presence worked the system and established thousands of dummy links on dead pages back to the JC Penney site.  This is illegal in the land of Google, and Penney is now being punished by the Google search police for these "black hat" methods.

This brings us to the question: who are the Google search police and what do they do?  Yes, they regulate search and keep companies from abusing the consumer by manipulating results like Penney did.  But I have to wonder about the underside of all Google searches--the behind the scenes action.  How are results really determined?  I think I've always assumed my search results were straightforward--the way we get results from a library database.  But Google has an algorithm for search results, and it won't tell anyone what it is.  This leads me back to Manovich's ideas in "The Myth of Interactivity."  When we Google, we're not just transparently getting what we asked for.  We're getting what Google has designed its machine to give us and what companies have managed to accomplish using "white hat" methods to boost their place in search results. I don't mean to sound paranoid here, but we do have to recognize that Google is controlling the information we look at.  Once Penney was fingered for breaking the Google rules, they dropped from #1 on search results for hundreds of key terms to the 70's and 80's.  I have to wonder--what other sites are being buried?