Comment by GCA10 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GCA10 | Hacker News Reader

Before we get too deep in arguing about supposed favoritism by Google, let's back up and look at the types of search terms that were entered in this study. Just about all of them relate to the sorts of Washington-focused headline news that's primarily covered by "a small number of major news outlets."

Searching for "Rex Tillerson" is the perfect example. (Remember him?)

Typical news searchers are looking for a much wider swath of news than just the latest on the former U.S. Secretary of State. In my own experience, that includes local news (what were all those police cars doing last night?) and lots of sports news, business/tech/entertainment news, scientific news, etc. Those articles come from a much wider assortment of news outlets, and I think Google does a decent job of finding them.

There's a limit to how many news organizations can generate meaningful coverage about Rex Tillerson. I'm at peace with the idea that Google has found most of the ones that matter.

You'd be at peace if Google favored news and narratives that overlap with your world view. Hypothetically, how'd you feel if 65% of those articles were from Fox news and the greater Murdoch empire?

I wish they simply skipped narrative driven, opinion filth and stayed with factual reporting from AP, Reuters, NPR, ...

In the last 5 years, NYT, WaPo,.. have wholly embraced narrative driven opinions instead of sticking with plain news, because anger sells

I would add BBC to that list.

65% of articles in my Google News (not logged in) are from Fox News and/or Washington Examiner.

I think geography affects search results a lot. I'm in a blue city, but red state.

Are you positive about that? I just tried to VPN from a few different locations in the US (Texas, Georgia and Seattle) with a fresh private browsing session each, all of the headlines appear the same and doesn't change by region.

I'm not positive about that. All I can tell you is that I never see WSJ, but I often see Fox News, WaPo, Politico, and Washington Examiner. The rest of the sources are a mixed bag.

I've been hitting Google News without a logged-in session (but with my real IP address) multiple times a day for 5+ years.

I noticed the increase in Fox News as a source around the time conservatives were complaining about censorship a year or two ago. Interestingly, though, Fox News is rarely the source for a major political news story -- it's often their fluff pieces that hit my feed.

The data presented in the article is the exact opposite of your claim. If you'd like to refute the data, please cite a better source than your personal anecdote.

I wasn't refuting the data. I was saying that my anecdote is an exception, and I have a theory about why.

The article's data was far from closing the book on this topic.

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