Google accused of different search standards for Romney, Obama

Google’s search algorithm for those looking for information on Mitt Romney is fundamentally different than those who are more interested in Barack Obama, according to a report published in the Wall Street Journal.

If you do a search for “Obama,” you will receive a specific set of results. The same thing is true is you do a search for “Romney.” However, if you start searching for more advanced issues, like healthcare of foreign policy, your results will start to get a little more interesting.

According to the report, users whose search history include a penchant for googling Obama will get search results from other topics that are specifically tied to him. So if your search history shows you are more interested in Obama, a search for healthcare will be dominated with Obama’s plans but you might be left diving pretty deep to find Romney’s stance on the issue.

Of course, Google does this with a lot of different topics. It uses your search history to create dynamic results that will be more relevant to you. The only problem is that it does not seem to have the same effect for those who are more interested in Romney.

In other words, if you want to learn more about Romney, Google will show you material about both Obama and Romney, but if you seem to be more interested in Obama, Google will remember that and show you material that is mostly just about Obama. Of course, Obama’s search results are not all squeaky clean, but the point is that they’re mostly about Obama. The search results are either good or bad, but not comparative. With Romney people, it’s a very different story.

Google told the Wall Street Journal that the distinction exists because Obama is just a more popular search topic than Romney.

via Wall Street Journal