
Had a debate with Google engineer and the page was removed from Google. Related? - volument
The page with the commenting thread is here:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;volument.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;sendbeacon-is-broken<p>Yesterday, the page was the first result in Google search with &quot;sendbeacon is broken&quot;. Now it&#x27;s completely gone from the Google index.<p>Still first on bing.com and duckduckgo.com<p>How is this possible? Really wish someone can answer this. This sounds a bit scary.<p>Thanks!
======
aphextim
>One former contractor the WSJ spoke with described down-voting any search
results that read like a "how-to manual" for queries relating to suicide until
the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline came up as the top result. According
to the contractor, Google soon after put out a message to the contracting firm
that the Lifeline should be marked as the top result for all searches relating
to suicide so that the company algorithms would adjust to consider it the top
result.

>Or in another instance, sources told the WSJ, employees made a conscious
choice for how to handle anti-vax messaging:

>One of the first hot-button issues surfaced in 2015, according to people
familiar with the matter, when some employees complained that a search for
“how do vaccines cause autism” delivered misinformation through sites that
oppose vaccinations.

At least one employee defended the result, writing that Google should “let the
algorithms decide” what shows up, according to one person familiar with the
matter. Instead, the people said, Google made a change so that the first
result is a site called howdovaccinescauseautism.com—which states on its home
page in large black letters, “They f—ing don’t.” (The phrase has become a meme
within Google.)

[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/google-search-
re...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/google-search-results-have-
more-human-help-than-you-think-report-finds/)

tl:dr - Human oversight / manipulation.

~~~
eindiran
I think this is the WSJ article mentioned there:

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-interferes-with-
its-...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-interferes-with-its-search-
algorithms-and-changes-your-results-11573823753)

------
rasz
"This method is for analytics ... before the document is unloaded"

so nothing a user should ever care about. Thank you for bringing this to my
attention, another garbage to stub out in my userjs, navigator.sendBeacon =
undefined; bam!

------
username90
I see your page and this thread when searching on Google, it is probably some
hickup in their algorithm.

~~~
volument
I also see this thread under Hacker News, but not the article on volument.com,
which was first yesterday with "sendBeacon is broken".

~~~
tetromino_
Try searching in an incognito window; it might be just an issue with your
personalized search results.

------
zepto
Related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21838234](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21838234)

------
asjw
A friend of mine had a discussion with Matthew Garret (Google) here on HN and
his account was banned without a warning

Related?

~~~
boring_twenties
No idea if it's related or not but it's certainly terrifying.

I guess instead of a polite "no, thank you" I'll stop responding to Google
recruiters altogether, for the safety of my Google account.

