
Google offers clearer search labels after EU probe - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22293238
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KwanEsq
>Microsoft-backed lobby group Initiative for a Competitive [Online]
Marketplace

I hadn't heard of that before. It is… amusing, to say the least.

~~~
deepblueocean
Nearly all the anti-Google groups that complain to competition authorities in
any country are funded (at least in part, generally almost entirely) by
Microsoft. The strategy seems to be "if we faced huge costs dealing with
regulatory oversight, so should they."

~~~
fakeer
Usually the case is - if an organization A is opposing or campaigning against
an organization B then A is mostly likely to be funded by {C} which is an
organization or a group of organizations opposed to A in a financial,
philosophical or social way.

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dbrian
Can someone explain the EU's reasoning here? If Google promotes it's own
services or even mixes ads with with search results, how is it "unfair" or in
this case illegal?

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yew
Does Google actually promote links to their own services? (Outside of marked
advertisements, I mean.) The article isn't totally clear on what 'ranking
policy' refers to, exactly.

I know they have the ability to specially promote 'social' content that they
think is relevant, and presumably that's tightly coupled to their services
(but also supports Twitter and Facebook, as far as I know). Is there something
else going on here?

~~~
onemorepassword
Try finding a video that isn't on YouTube without specifying the property in
the search.

~~~
jmillikin
Seems to work fine with a test search for [gangnam style]; the results page
shows five videos, and only one is from YouTube:
<http://i.imgur.com/zv0TsRH.png>

~~~
onemorepassword
Now do a video search. Note the difference.

~~~
jmillikin
The top few are PSY's official channel and official videos, followed by videos
on dailymotion, mtviggy, and jibjab. Paging through, I'd say about half of the
results are from YouTube, mostly "how to dance gangnam style" home videos.

I don't see anything obviously wrong with these results.

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OGinparadise
I have to move my laptop screen to see what is an ad and what is not. Forget
about Google that tested this to death to confuse users, but not even FTC sees
this as a problem. That should be illegal, ads should be clearly and
unambiguously separated from content. Kudos to EU.

That makes me not trust a thing from Google, especially when they can make a
buck. They even turned Shopping in 100% ads, without promptly disclosing it
(you have to click on a tiny thing on the page to read that Google is listing
results based on payment to Google)

Same with other Google content. Their claim to fame was impartiality but now
the pages are 95%+ Google properties and ads. People, and I mean average Joe
and Jane, should be updated on the change.

~~~
jmillikin

      > I have to move my laptop screen to see what is an ad
      > and what is not.
    

Do you have a screenshot? When I do a search, even for very ad-heavy queries
such as [credit card], the ads are still clearly marked with colored
backgrounds and notes like "Ads related to credit card".

    
    
      > They even turned Shopping in 100% ads, without promptly
      > disclosing it (you have to click on a tiny thing on the
      > page to read that Google is listing results based on
      > payment to Google)
    

In shopping, at the bottom of the page is a notice that "Google is compensated
by these merchants. Payment is one of several factors used to rank these
results." It appears to be about the same font size as the body text in ad
blocks.

~~~
DanBC
> _Do you have a screenshot?_

His screenshot on your screen will just show you what you always see. It's not
going to show you what his screen displays.

EDIT: Here are some poor camera phone photos. The ads are clearly marked as
ads, but at a normal viewing angle the background is almost invisible. This is
on an uncalibrated old Lenovo thinkpad monitor.

(<http://imgur.com/a/BKY4w#qcXWJdc>)

Google should assume that people have shitty monitors and have no idea about
calibration and make ads very clear. This is a complaint that was made when
Google first started putting ads at the top of search.

Of course, they're free to not do that and carry on as they are, but they're
likely to find regulatory interference increases in the EU.

~~~
jmillikin

      > His screenshot on your screen will just show you what
      > you always see. It's not going to show you what his
      > screen displays.
    

If he has an incorrectly-configured video driver or a program that modifies
color temperature (such as f.lux), his screenshot would show it.

