Google Bias… Time For A Conservative Search Engine?
We often fault the main stream media for being overtly liberal concerning both it’s reporting point of reference and it’s editing choices. Sometime the criticism is unwarranted, but sometimes there is substance to it. Yesterday, I wrote about a blogger complaining that Republicans are not talking about jobs or the economy. I wrote this:
It’s not that Republicans are not talking about jobs and the economy… It, well, the same ‘ol thing… The media is not interested in what Republicans have to say about it. So, they report on “The Gay” thing instead! So, if you don’t dig, you think “The Gay” is more important, because that is what the media is focusing on.
Wonder why?
There is little doubt that, when it comes to reporting anything that has to do with Conservatives, mass media will invariably focus on more controversial things. Michelle Bachmann versus gays are big on the media circuit (circus?) right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that shouldn’t be news, but it will be the only news about Backmann. Which is why Rauch doesn’t seem to think Republicans are talking about anything other than gays. And nothing else she does or says will push the gay stuff off the front page, unless it’s learned that she tortures and eat kittens! THAT would certainly push the gay thing out of the way!
There is another bias out there that gets much less attention, and that is the apparent bias toward liberal subject matter built in to the Google search engine. I encountered it while I was gathering information for the previous post. This isn’t the first time I had noticed it. Some time ago, the hosting service for my blog had a major crash. My blog was off line for almost three weeks. Naturally, once I regained access to my blog data, I changed services. When you switch server hosting companies, it takes a while for your blog to show up in a Google inquiry. I would on occasion type my blog name into the Google search engine to see what would come up. When Sonicfrog.net finally did show up, I thought the posts that were listed were interesting. They weren’t based on the most amount of hits to a post or comments that the posts had received, it was based on subject matter. In this case Global Warming.
I’ve written a lot of posts about global warming, few of them flattering, but the three posts that have emerged in the Google search are, if you just read the titles, they are somewhat positively supportive of global warming. Global Warming Fixed! reads one title. The second one from the Google search is Huge Climate Story – Honesty!. The third on the list reads favorably if you leave off the first bit of the title – Failed Meme Alert – Hottest Year Ever! . Even though many of the other 200 sum-odd posts concerning global warming and climate change have had more hits, they don’t come up on a Google search. Those have title such as More Little Deaths For The Hockey Stick, and The Case To Disolve The Corrupt IPCC. One climate post that got many hits and comments is called Why Climate Scientists Should NEVER Be Trusted With The Fate Of The World. Pt 2. I think “More Little Deaths’ garnered the most comments of any post I’ve ever written, except for the one where I got into a huge blargument with Patterico. Patterico is a well known blogger with lots of traffic, yet that doesn’t matter for Google Search. I’ve had a number of posts linked to one of the most highly trafficked bloggers on the web, Instapundit. Yet – that also holds no import in the Google metric.
Which brings me back to something I noticed yesterday…
When you type in the term “Rush Limbaugh Jobs” into the Google News search engine, instead of getting stuff that Rush actually said about the economy and jobs… You get… What Media Matters and other liberals say about Rush Limbaugh’s take on the ATF and his new line of tea! Because, you know, Rush Limbaugh NEVER talks about the sour economy or stuff like that. Here are the result from a regular Google search. Not much better.
My blog-pal Dan at Gay Patriot has chimed in and adds supporting evidence to my observation:
I too have noted Google’s bias with Media Mutters and Talking Points and other leftie sites receiving prominence. When I did a search for where’s the Democratic plan to save Medicare, the top hit I got was the Daily Kos
Which, in turn (some would say “finally”) brings me to the main point of this post. I haven’t checked Yahoo or Bing yet, and they may be more info-neutral, but since Google is by far the most dominant of the search engines out there, if Google is truly favoring left / liberal biases in its search matrics, is it time for Conservatives to launch their own search engine service? I mean, this is why Conservative talk radio and FOX news have been so successful. There was an open niche, a political vacuum, just waiting to be filled! It’s why Daily KOS became so popular from it’s launch during the later part of the Bush years. There was a huge amount of political pressure building on the progressive side that was ready for an outlet, and KOS was a perfect vehicle for that. Is Google creating the same political void that some enterprising Conservatives will no doubt try to fill?
I would hate to see it on the one hand, because I think something like a search engine should be as politically neutral as possible. But, if Google continues on the road it’s on and continues to structure its searches based on things of liberal importance… well… I wouldn’t be surprised if someone will soon fill the gap with a conservative based search engine.
PS. If this happens, I want everyone to remember… It Was My Idea! I Demand Some Monetary Compensation For This!!! 🙂
Journalism, News Critique, Politics / Law Stuff | Sonicfrog July 12, 2011
11 Comments to “Google Bias… Time For A Conservative Search Engine?”
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By MaryM, June 25, 2012 @ 1:29 pm
Right on! I have noticed this, too. Whenever I want to find an article I’ve read by a conservative writer, I’m always given those lefty websites with their take on the matter first. I’m tired of this and hope someone out there with the expertise can come up with a conservative alternate.
By D Thompson, December 23, 2012 @ 2:22 pm
Is ‘Ask.com’ less liberal?..
By Kyle, April 6, 2014 @ 11:55 pm
Ever heard of Duck Duck Go? Also ever heard of Startpage private search engine?
The problem is the Conservatives don’t have enough imagination as most of them are old farts from the Baby Boomer era or earlier so they aren’t adapted to modern technology and allow themselves to be sitting targets.
They are like an open book and the Illuminati which uses Liberals as useful idiots knows this so until this cycle is broken we will continue to have the same old Gay Rights crap shoved down our throats while more important issues like the economy or Medicare will be pushed aside.
We can continue to kick the can down the road but the problems will only get bigger and bigger. The dam will finally burst.
Russia and China have most of the worlds gold and have serious plans to dump the dollar system all together which will have serious repercussions worldwide.
One thing to keep an eye on is the Baltic Sea Trade Index. Just before the 2008 crash the index went down early that summer and stayed down as goods ships were being sold off.
By Kyle, April 6, 2014 @ 11:57 pm
We need Conservatives to take programming so they can fill in the niche instead of *hating* computers and technology which only allows this problem to continue to escalate further and Americans become more and more polarized.
This country is asking for an invasion from China but it will be a non violent kind where land and property is taken over quietly and our jobs taken away and we all live like in the book 1984 or Farenheit 451
By denise brooks, March 14, 2015 @ 3:33 pm
I just experienced this bias as well. I was searching for articles regarding the misinformation that abortion providers give to women. The majority of articles referred to the misinformation surrounding crisis pregnancy centers. Apparently, The owner of Google is a die-hard Liberal. It all makes sense now!
By Sue Clark, December 8, 2015 @ 5:58 pm
I actually looked up a conservative search engine because I am exhausted by digging around in google or bing searches for answers to my questions…so even tho u wrote this back in a few years it is still relevant and still very true!!! thanks!
By Manfred, August 13, 2016 @ 11:38 pm
On the nail.
We were promised transparency and ‘change’ and we got it. The Progressive bias throughout current government and society, throughout the MSM and search engines like Google et al., the twattersphere and the chatterati is all so transparent it actually informs one of where and when not to read or to listen. Thankfully the Cultural Marxists betray themselves at every turn, inevitably so as their belief comes with a full blown deification complex. People everywhere grow weary of being propaganderized that they are powerless victims.
By SortingHat, December 12, 2016 @ 10:58 am
That would definitely push the gay issues out of the way if somebody was caught torturing kittens.
Are Liberals more biased towards dogs or cats? And does it depend on being female liberal or male liberal which animal they go after?
By Leon Vickerman, June 7, 2017 @ 11:31 pm
It’s ok the United States is so messed up now. Liberals run the colleges and are children will run the world. I won’t worry.
I will be gone (Thank God) the young ones will pay for it.
Hope liberals will be glad they screwed the country up. They finished obamas job.
By Snake, June 30, 2018 @ 3:29 pm
“We need a conservative search engine…”
“I looked on Google and couldn’t find XXX, proving liberal bias’
No, it proves that you’re all a bunch of IDIOTS!!!!
Can’t find some type of “proof” for your hair-brained beliefs on Google? Maybe because the proof doesn’t exist? It’s called “confirmation bias”: you’re actually trying to make SURE the results you find come out the way you expected rather than accept the truth that you find through research.
So now you morons wants a search engine that caters to your snowflake preconceived notions rather than return you the truth, regardless if that truth is what you thought you wanted…or not.
That’s why you can’t deal with modern society, computers, technology and other aspects of modern life, including that gay rights thing you all are ranting about here: you can’t deal with the truth. So you make your own up as you go and expect the rest of the world to honor your ignorance.
And so, the idea of a conservative BIASED search engine is born.
Who needs the truth when we have our BELIEFS??!!
By TD, August 28, 2020 @ 1:17 pm
Oh, yeah, “Snake”?
“The truth”, as you preach it, is a reflection of your own beliefs, not an unbiased representation of reality, without liberal, Left-wing, “do it as we do in Portland and Seattle” bullshit.
Go slither back under your slime-infested rock.