A new study has added to the mounting evidence that Google is skewing search results in favor of content generated by the search engine.
Despite the company's efforts and pronouncements of wanting to promote honesty in search rankings, news of skewed results in the recent months have continued to mount.
The study, conducted by Harvard professor Michael Luca, Columbia Law School's Tim Wu, and the research team Yelp, proves Google's search bias. The group made an experiment wherein over 2,600 internet users were presented with two versions of top search results.
The first included top searches suggested by and included Google's One Box. The second featured results that are "organic" according to the researchers. Users were found to be 45 percent more likely to click on the second version of the search.
Google One Box is located on top of the search results page. It is a set of links that Google claims to top search rankings.
The results show that users find organic links more useful than the ones from One Box. They would most likely go unnoticed if they are not on top of the page.
"The easy and widely disseminated argument that Google's universal search always serves users and merchants is demonstrably false. Instead, in the largest category of search (local intent-based), Google appears to be strategically deploying universal search in a way that degrades the product so as to slow and exclude challengers to its dominant search paradigm." the researchers cited.
Google defends One Box claiming that it makes browsing easier for users.
Over the recent months, Google has actively shown efforts in developing honest search rankings.
March this year, the search engine has begun developing a system that determines the factuality of web contents. The company claimed that it wants to rank websites based on facts.
Alongside these efforts is the increasing number of accusations about Google skewing results. A few years back, similar issues about the search giant was investigated by the Federal Trade Comission.
