Google, manipulation, information

Let's try a little experiment. Go to the Google search page and type in the letters c-l-i-m-a-t-e-g-a-t-e noting how many letters you have typed in when the site's auto-suggest function displays climategate as an option. (Google.com.au does not auto-suggest climategate, so the whole word must be typed in. This despite a climategate search producing over 31 million results. And it does seem a bit odd that Google auto-suggests "climate guatemala" and "climate guatemala city", both with far fewer results, even after typing in "climategate".)

Now open a bing search page and do the same. Here in Australia one need enter only the first two letters of climategate to be offered climate-gate as the auto-suggest option. Also, bing shows over 57 million results.

What's the deal; is Google trying to steer internet users away from the CRU emails brouhaha? Is Google to be trusted? Is it perhaps time to switch to a search alternative?

Sir Francis Bacon rightly posited that "Knowledge is power." Now since knowledge is dependent on access to information Goggle is very powerful indeed, controlling as it does million of internet users' access to information. This situation is akin to the bad old days when the "church" effectively controlled the flow of information with the illiterate masses supplied information deemed appropriate by an educated clergy.

You would do well to bear this in mind if you, like most internet users, rely on Google as your search tool.

Via: Talking About The Weather