In an apparent about-face from the long-touted motto of “Don’t be Evil”, Google has started editorializing their search results. Well maybe they started downgrading certain sites or pages much earlier, but the example of “Natural News” seems the most blatent so far. Another instance I’m aware of is that certain pages of the site Rune Soup dealing with Hilary Clinton were downgraded in Google search results, apparently because someone didn’t like the message that was being posted. The site author responded by shifting to a subscription-model newsletter “The All Red Line” for sharing his parapolitical views, so as not to get more pages of his site downgraded in Google search results. Here’s an excerpt of what blogger Jon Rappoport wrote about the Natural News blacklisting:
“As many of you know by now, Google deleted Natural News, owned by Mike Adams, from its listings.
When you type in “Natural News,” you don’t get “naturalnews.com,” you get “natural.news” instead — a different and tiny site also owned by Mike Adams.
Various people have speculated about Google’s reasons. All Google has to do is print an explanation. Where is it? Continue reading