Search neutrality

Search neutrality is a principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial and based solely on relevance.[1] This means that when a user queries a search engine, the engine should return the most relevant results found in the provider's domain (those sites which the engine has knowledge of), without manipulating the order of the results (except to rank them by relevance), excluding results, or in any other way manipulating the results to a certain bias.

Search neutrality is related to network neutrality in that they both aim to keep any one organization from limiting or altering a user's access to services on the Internet. Search neutrality aims to keep the organic search results (results returned because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to results sponsored by advertising) of a search engine free from any manipulation, while network neutrality aims to keep those who provide and govern access to the Internet from limiting the availability of resources to access any given content.

Background

Search neutrality became a concern after search engines, most notably Google, were accused of search bias.[2] Competitors and companies claim search engines systematically favor some sites (and some kind of sites) over others in their lists of results, disrupting the objective results users believe they are getting.[3] The call for search neutrality goes beyond traditional search engines. Sites like Amazon.com and Facebook are also accused of skewing results.[4] Amazon’s search results are influenced by companies that pay to rank higher in their search results while Facebook filters their newsfeed lists to conduct social experiments.[4]

"Vertical search" spam penalties

In order to find information on the Web, most users make use of search engines, which crawl the web, index it and show a list of results ordered by relevance. The use of search engines to access information through the web has become a key factor for online businesses companies, which depend on the flow of users visiting their pages.[5] One of these companies is Foundem. Foundem provides a "vertical search" service to compare products available on online markets for the U.K. Many people see these "vertical search" sites as spam.[6] Beginning in 2006 and for three and a half years following, Foundem’s traffic and business dropped significantly due to a “penalty” applied by Google.[7] Adam Raff, co-founder of Foundem, first coined the term search neutrality in December 2009 in his op-ed piece in The New York Times after Google removed the “penalty” from Foundem.[1] Foundem launched SearchNeutrality.org, a website dedicated to promote investigations against Google, in the same year. Most of Foundem’s accusations claim that Google applies penalties to other vertical search engines just because they represent competition.[8] Foundem is backed by a Microsoft proxy group, the 'Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplace'.[9]

The Foundem’s case chronology

The following table details Foundem's chronology of events as found on their website:[10]

Date Event
June 2006 Foundem’s Google search penalty begins. Foundem starts an arduous campaign to have the penalty lifted.
August 2006 Foundem’s AdWord penalty begins. Foundem starts an arduous campaign to have the penalty lifted.
August 2007 Teleconference with Google AdWords Quality Team representative.
September 2007 Foundem is “whitelisted” for AdWords (i.e. Google manually grants Foundem immunity from its AdWords penalty).
January 2009 Foundem starts “public” campaign to raise awareness of this new breed of penalty and manual whitelisting.
April 2009 First meeting with ICOMP.
October 2009 Teleconference with Google Search Quality Team representative, beginning a detailed dialogue between Foundem and Google.
December 2009 Foundem is “whitelisted” for Google natural search (i.e. Google manually grants Foundem immunity from its search penalty).

Other cases

Google's large market share (85%) has made them a target for search neutrality litigation via antitrust laws.[11] In February 2010, Google released an article on the Google Public Policy blog expressing their concern for fair competition, when other companies at the UK joined Foundem's cause (eJustice.fr, and Microsoft's Ciao! from Bing) also claiming being unfairly penalized by Google.[8]

The FTC’s Investigation into Allegations of Search Bias

After two years of looking into claims that Google “manipulated its search algorithms to harm vertical websites and unfairly promote its own competing vertical properties,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously to end the antitrust portion of its investigation without filing a formal complaint against Google.[12] The FTC concluded that Google’s “practice of favoring its own content in the presentation of search results” did not violate U.S. antitrust laws.[2] The FTC further determined that even though competitors might be negatively impacted by Google's changing algorithms, Google did not change its algorithms to hurt competitors, but as a product improvement to benefit consumers.[2]

Arguments

There are a number of arguments for and against search neutrality.

Pros

Cons

Related issues

Google’s "Universal Search" system[17] has been identified as one of the least neutral search engine practices, and following the implementation of Universal Search websites, such as MapQuest, the company experienced a massive decline in web traffic. This decline has been attributed to Google linking to its own services rather than the services offered at external websites.[18][19] Despite these claims, Google actually displays Google content on the first page, while rival search engines do not considerably less often than Microsoft's Bing which displays Microsoft content when rivals do not. Bing displays Microsoft content in first place more than twice as often as Google shows Google content in first place. This indicates that as far as there is any 'bias', Google is less biased than its principal competitor.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 "Search, but You May Not Find". The New York Times. 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Lao, Marina (July 2013). ""Neutral" Search As A Basis for Antitrust Action?" (PDF). Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Occasional Paper Series: 1–12. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. Herman, Tavani (2014). Zalta, Edward N., ed. "Search Engines and Ethics". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 Shavin, Naomi. "Are Google and Amazon the next threat to net neutrality?". Forbes.com. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  5. "Search Engine Marketing". Marketing Today. 2005. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  6. Cade Metz (1 September 2011). "Antitrust nemesis accuses Google of 'WMD program'". The Register. The Register. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  7. "Foundem’s Google Story". www.searchneutrality.org. 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  8. 1 2 "Committed to competing fairly". Google. 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  9. Nancy Gohring (4 September 2010). "Texas Conducting Antitrust Review of Google". PC World. IDG Consumer and SMB. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  10. "The Chronology". www.searchneutrality.org. 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  11. "Background to EU Formal Investigation". foundem. November 30, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
  12. "Google Agrees to Change Its Business Practices to Resolve FTC Competition Concerns In the Markets for Devices Like Smart Phones, Games and Tablets, and in Online Search". FTC.gov. Federal Trade Commission. July 3, 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  13. 1 2 "Search Neutrality as Disclosure and Auditing". Concurring Opinions. February 19, 2011. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  14. "Search, but You May Not Find". Bucknell.edu. December 27, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Grimmelmann, James (2010). "Some Skepticism About Search Neutrality". The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet. TechFreedom.
  16. Parramore, Lynn (October 10, 2010). "The Filter Bubble". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 20, 2011. Since Dec. 4, 2009, Google has been personalized for everyone. So when I had two friends this spring Google "BP," one of them got a set of links that was about investment opportunities in BP. The other one got information about the oil spill....
  17. Danny Sullivan (16 May 2007). "Google 2.0: Google Universal Search". Search Engine Land. Third Door Media, Inc. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  18. "Google Begins Move to Universal Search". Google. May 17, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
  19. "Google Maps Gaining On Market Leader Mapquest". Search Engine Land. January 10, 2008. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
  20. Joshua D. Wright (3 November 2011). "Defining and Measuring Search Bias: Some Preliminary Evidence" (PDF). Defining and Measuring Search Bias: Some Preliminary Evidence. International Center for Law and Economics. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
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