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A comment on Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news outlets. Parent comment

Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by petra on Monday May 13, 2019 @02:48PM (#19902504)
>> And it so turns out that finding and surfacing the best content aligns well with the number of people who link to that content,

It's like saying Burger King offers "the best" food, because it's popular.

And there's not really a reason(besides a little bit of money) for Google, The global monopoly, to insist on doing that. It's not that hard to have an easy option for quality content.

For example: Google's forum search, which was cancelled.

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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by p1necone on Monday May 13, 2019 @04:17PM (#19903491)
This argument might fly better if people were posting actually good but small news sources as examples. Lets not pretend that Breitbart or Infowars have any sort of integrity here.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by petra on Monday May 13, 2019 @04:29PM (#19903606)
For news stories that are posted on high quality forums(like hn or /r/science), offering a forum link seems like good value.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by untog on Monday May 13, 2019 @04:47PM (#19903787)
> It's like saying Burger King offers "the best" food, because it's popular.

Not really; no-one goes to Burger King because they think they are getting the "best" food. They think they are getting convenient, affordable and quick food. You certainly could argue that Burger King is enormously popular because it is very good at offering those three attributes.

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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by crumblingbreads on Monday May 13, 2019 @03:34PM (#19903067)
Depend on how you define "best". For me it's value, and Burger king is up there.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by kristianc on Monday May 13, 2019 @03:49PM (#19903213)
I'm reminded of what Rory Sutherland once said about McDonalds: the one guarantee that you get with McDs is that it isn't going to make you ill.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by jacquesm on Monday May 13, 2019 @03:57PM (#19903289)
The one thing I can guarantee you is that McD's makes me ill. Every bloody time I ate there, mostly on the road in the US where there is nothing else for a long way around. Only the fries are safe.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by drdeca on Monday May 13, 2019 @04:18PM (#19903499)
Well, at least everyone agrees that it is _consistent_.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by daurnimator on Monday May 13, 2019 @11:42PM (#19906606)
Not always :( the maccas on the freeway stop near me has horrible chicken nuggets, while the one in the local shopping centre has good ones.
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by chrshawkes on Monday May 13, 2019 @04:55PM (#19903869)
who has not had the bubble guts a time or two from Mickey D's?
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Re:Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major news... by ratata on Monday May 13, 2019 @04:19PM (#19903516)
The analogy doesn't work because all the content on google is free to users. I would argue that in a world where 5-star restaurants cost the same as Burger King, they would experience more demand than Burger King.
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