Google's search engine not as good as its competitors for news, research finds
www.theguardian.com
Monash University research finds Bing and Ecosia delivered substantially more professionally produced news in the top 50 results compared with Google

The director of the Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Associate Professor David Holmes, said the results demonstrated the importance of news media to search engines, with the top search terms clearly reflecting that people were trying to learn more about current affairs topics. “It is in the interests of search engines to show news sites because that brings users who are in search of trusted and useful quality content,” he said. “These results suggest that Google’s competitors are well able to deliver that kind of professional content.”

Don’t be fearful of change, sometimes you end up even better off. So experiment a little.

See https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/03/googles-search-engine-not-as-good-as-its-competitors-for-news-research-finds

#technology #search #news

  • Halce
    5·
    4 years ago

    I can’t shake off the feeling that this ‘‘study’’ was paid for by someone, who wants to push google to de-rank non-mainstream investigative websites and blogs even further. But at least it reveals, that Bing was doing that more so already, which I didn’t necessarily expect…

    • GadgeteerZAOP
      1·
      4 years ago

      Yes real pity that it was not actually published as I also find no reference to the study, just the quotes given by the professor.

      Google stood out amongst all others but what I suspecting is that other search engines are getting better. Ecosia may have an edge too on this topic as that is something they support.

      But I think it also shows that we got so used to using Google we assume everything will stop working without it. The shiny new parts of Google seem a bit tarnished nowadays and I suspect they are not innovating as much. What with union issues now etc, Google is not the Google it once was when it started up ;-)

        • GadgeteerZAOP
          3·
          4 years ago

          I have no idea if they have their own algorithm but they donate money from searches to non-profits for planting trees - so it is relevant to them.

            • GadgeteerZAOP
              1·
              4 years ago

              The pity is we don’t know much about the study as it was not published. A good study would have likely tested three or more catagories of news. The study originates from an environmental organisation hence why that topic was probably chosen as they know something about the quality of that news.