A noted Google-watcher has assembled a convincing argument that the site's search results highly favor Google-owned services, despite repeated company claims that they are algorithmically generated and never manipulated.
Harvard professor Ben Edelman and colleague Benjamin Lockwood found that Google's algorithm links to Gmail, YouTube, and other house brands three times more often than other search engines.
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It seems that the reporter didn't adequately investigate the background of the "noted Google-watchers." An update includes a statement from Google saying that Edelman is a "longtime paid consultant for Microsoft," but there's no mention of that background in the body of the article. It also doesn't reflect a very nuanced understanding of the power of algorithms; Google's results may be tuned by algorithms, but that does NOT necessarily mean that their own results aren't treated preferentially, thus that's not a clear enough articulation of their position by the reporter.
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