Tab Atkins Jr. makes case that Google employees can manipulate search results

Short version: Brad Wardell notices article about Brad Wardell shows up inexplicably in search results for “Brad Wardell”. Innocent enough on its own, right? Wrong. The author also links to a Daily Caller article about… the same search results! And before you dismiss The Daily Caller, guess who they interviewed to confirm the story? That’s right: Brad Wardell himself. Who would know better about Atkins’s vile manipulation than its very victim? Damning stuff.

Google is obviously hiding something.

Shall we bust out our Jump To Conclusions mat here? This is pretty weak.

How exactly is this making the case? A more likely explanation is words like "douchebag" in the title are weighted lower in Bing and Yahoo.

Linked post is http://www.xanthir.com/b4ZT0

The author really needs to remove the chip on his shoulder before making this kind of accusation, I am not a fan of google and am staunchly in support of Damore and his ability to question hiring practice. But this article is borderline conspiracy theory peddling.

Is it possible that search results can be manipulated, it's also possible that the engineer knows the algorithm and is aggressively optimising their site.

But the derogatory tone of the article completely detracts from this message, it is very easy for people who should be paying attention to issues like this (if they were to be politically orchestrated) to feel defensive and attacked.