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Discovery, a moderator at Search Engine Watch Forums asks if Google is using their political bias to show pro Obama search results versus negative Bush search results. Let me go on record here and say, I do not think Google is doing this, but many people do, this is why I am covering it.
His argument starts by saying that we know Google and their CEO are major supporters of Obama. This is no secret and we know we were concerned that this support would show a bias in Google. That being said, Discover shows two search results, but for misspellings of each President's name.
First, a search result for Barack Aboma, clearly misspelling the last name. Here are the positive or neutral results for this search term in Google. Plus they have a spelling correction at the top:
Second, a search result for George Busch, misspelling the last name as well. Here are negative results for this search term in Google. Plus it is missing a spelling suggestion:
Discovery wonders why Bush has such negative results while Obama has such positive results? Well, I think the clear answer is that many people in the US love Obama, while many people really dislike Bush. The search results show it, and so do the polls. But is there more going on?
Discovery puts it this way:
In history most powerful entities in a country have always been the media outlets. If you control the media or the main point of communications with the public you have a great deal of power. You can control mass opinion and behavior. If Google is the media source of the new age, can tinkering like this be their downfall?
I'll leave it at that and let the discussion continue at Search Engine Watch Forums.
