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Daily Mail Owner Sues Google Over Search Results (bbc.com) 73

Posted by BeauHD from the called-out dept.
The owner of the Daily Mail newspaper and MailOnline website is suing Google over allegations the search engine manipulates search results. The BBC reports: Associated Newspapers accuses Google of having too much control over online advertising and of downgrading links to its stories, favoring other outlets. It alleges Google "punishes" publishers in its rankings if they don't sell enough advertising space in its marketplace. Google called the claims "meritless."

Associated Newspapers' concerns stem from its assessment that its coverage of the Royal Family in 2021 has been downplayed in search results. For example, it claims that British users searching for broadcaster Piers Morgan's comments on the Duchess of Sussex following an interview with Oprah Winfrey were more likely to see articles about Morgan produced by smaller, regional outlets. That is despite the Daily Mail writing multiple stories a day about his comments around that time and employing him as a columnist. In response, a Google spokesperson said: "The Daily Mail's claims are completely inaccurate. The use of our ad tech tools has no bearing on how a publisher's website ranks in Google search. More generally, we compete in a crowded and competitive ad tech space where publishers have and exercise multiple options. The Daily Mail itself authorizes dozens of ad tech companies to sell and manage their ad space, including Amazon, Verizon and more. We will defend ourselves against these meritless claims."
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Daily Mail Owner Sues Google Over Search Results More

Daily Mail Owner Sues Google Over Search Results

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  • The owner, Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere might have lost connection to the real world.

    • Are you really going to tell me that all those ads on searh and YT for Chrome, and other google products like pixels, chromecast etc are paid for with real money just like other competitors ?
      • In a manner of speaking, yes. If Google choose to put an advert for this Pixel in a ad spot that they could charge $1m for, then Google are costing themselves $1m by doing so due to a lost sale. They may not be taking money out of their pocket, shifting it to the other hand and putting it back in their pocket, but they are paying for putting their advert up instead of a competitors. It just so happens that advertising their own Pixel instead of a Samsung phone makes then more money in the long run because p
        • > They may not be taking money out of their pocket, shifting it to the other hand and putting it back in their pocket, but they are paying for putting their advert up instead of a competitors.
          YOu are talking bullshit here, pretend lost sale is not the same as a real sale with real money. From a competition viewpoint, this is clearly a double standard.
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • > No he's right. He's pointing out that there is a lost sale, because otherwise that ad space would have gone to a competitor.

              No he is wrong because for tax purposes you cannot write this situation off as a tax loss.
              You are also forgetting there might very well be times when theres no ad to sell for the current slot so they default to showing some google ad for a google product.

  • Only heard of the daily mail in passing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fibonacci8 ( 260615 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2021 @06:59PM (#61298934)
    Isn't this like the Onion complaining they're not being prioritized as highly as other news sources, despite the quantity of news they produce?

  • ..on a US-based search engine. Real shocker there. If they were more popular with US readers, they'd rank higher in the results - that’s how “pagerank” works.

    • Do you honestly believe in that pagerank bullshit today ?

      Except for link farms who exactly links to news papers ?
      Chicken and eg problem, how exactly do you build up links to a new news article if it just came out ?

      • Have you looked at the URLs Google provides in their search results? They’re all redirects back through Google, so they know what is getting clicked on. If Daily Mail was more popular, they’d be ranked higher.

        • i agree they know what users click on, but my point is how they create those result to begin with. Chicken and egg
        • Your statement that the hyperlinks in pages of Google Search results were redirects struck me as interesting.

          I went and checked...

          Using the term, "best value smart tv" as something likely to generate a lot of advertising interest, I looked at the results.

          For example, near the top of the page I get a hyperlink for which the human-readable part says, "Best TV 2021: smart TVs really worth buying | TechRadar". If I then right-click and "copy URL" for the link, then paste that into my xed Text Editor, I
  • Doesn't get good page ranks, not surprising that the Daily Mail wouldn't be particularly high in search results.
    • Who determines what is "low quality"? Google?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lenski ( 96498 )

        Though Google is not above manipulation, I see it as having quite a bit to do with readers who do not click through Daily Mail links. Their stories are bullshit and anyone with a half a working neuron doesn't bother with them.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luthair ( 847766 )

        Initially they tried letting the websites give their own rating but it all came back marked Excellent. Obviously its Google, if you don't like how they rank it don't fucking use it - they have competitors.

        As the other poster pointed out they derive these ratings from the links people choose and from other indicators like pogo sticking in and out of results. They also compare the quality of the content of the page, and ultimately customize them on based on the user.

    • Also, "That is despite the Daily Mail writing multiple stories a day about his comments".

      If you publish multiple stories about a topic, I would assume the quality of these (and ranking) is lower. It is in fact trying to spam with articles hoping to get more clicks and ad revenue.

  • The use of our ad tech tools has no bearing on how a publisher's website ranks

    Probably true. But the ranking is modified by non-ad tech tools as well. It is clear that Google manipulates search results for political purposes, not just for ad purposes.

    • Bullshit, page ranking is very much based on manipulations by google staff. Take sports, its obvious someone has found all the websites for say La Liga and sucks them down into their table / grid format for display.

  • Trashy is as trashy does (Score:3, Insightful)

    by drew_92123 ( 213321 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2021 @07:12PM (#61298982)

    and it doesn't get much more trashy than the daily mail

    • While I may not agree with Google's business practices I am pretty sure that not being able to find content by the Daily Mail, and especially content about Piers Morgan and Royal gossip, is no great loss to the world.

      • I second that.

        The DM is focused on what Murdoch might've done, with a slide of Kardashians and boobies on the side. They rescued poor Piers Morgan after he felt cancelled, and gosh, had to walk off because his erudite feathers where somehow ruffled. Golly. IMHO, he's not quite the bonehead that Tucker Carlson is, but sure does enjoy his lofty throne.

        That people rapidly scrolled by their sycophantic coverage of All Things Royal (oh, those dirty deserters!) and the T&A contests (Liz Hurley Boobies Today A

      • Yes, please give us more content that feeds our confirmation bias. Don't worry, we won't complain. We :heart: our biases, it's only yours we don't like.

        Doesn't sound so enticing when read that way, I think.

  • What is the political agenda associated with this suit? Everything occurring at any Murdoch's "news" organizations always has a political angle. It's not a question of if there is a political goal, but what the political goal really is. Politics could easily be the real driving factor, not monetary considerations.
    • Murdoch (=NewsCorp) doesn't own the Daily Mail, it's owned by Daily Mail and General Trust (run by Viscount Rothermere). Your point still stands but be precise about facts like this please (if nothing else to differentiate form murdoch/rothermere publications)
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • The article states that the Daily Mail was able to use "online advertising techniques" to "divert traffic away from Google".

    This makes no sense. How can the Daily Mail divert advertising away from Google if Google is the search engine directing traffic to their site.

    I'm sure there's a plausible explanation, but the article is too vague.

    • I believe this is a reference to the practice Google has of redirecting all search links through its own domain first.

  • That said... (Score:3)

    by LenKagetsu ( 6196102 ) on Thursday April 22, 2021 @02:01AM (#61299734)

    The paper does rank highly if you search "What paper was owned by nazis"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      This is barely even a joke. The Daily Mail supported the British Fascists and the Nazis before WW2 broke out, and it's opinions haven't changed all that much since.

  • Fuck it with a chainsaw.
    Yes, "it". The Murdoch is an "it".

    (Disclaimer: i don't condone harm in any way. But I don't condone losing resources to saving harmful assholes t hat happened to sit on somebody else's chainsaw either.)

  • If you have half a brain, you'd have seen previous poisonous insane headlines from the newspaper, and skip that search result.

    Google reflects popularity of choices.

    They made the choice to be divisive and explode with fury when their advertising suffer.

    The Daily Wail has never been good with "consequences".

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