Google Search

Main article: Search engine

2024: Thousands of pages with diagrams of the Google search algorithm have been posted on the Internet

At the end of May 2024, it became known about a large-scale leak of secret internal documentation Google containing schemes and information on the principles of the company's search algorithm. The disclosed data, according to some experts, may indicate that Google has been hiding the truth about the functioning of its search engine for years.

In total, the leak contains approximately 2,500 pages of information. This, in particular, is information about how the Google search engine analyzes and ranks sites in the output. As noted by search engine optimization (SEO) expert Rand Fishkin, the documents also describe the software interface (API) of the Google search platform.

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However, some details in leaked documents online cast doubt on the integrity of Google's public statements about how its search algorithms work. Company representatives have repeatedly stated that the search engine does not use Chrome browser data to rank pages. But the information contained in the documents suggests otherwise. For example, Chrome is mentioned in the section on how a list of additional links in search results is formed.

Another question is what role, if any, the E-E-A-T (Experience, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) indicator plays in shaping the page rating. This assessment determines the reliability of the information sources. The E-E-A-T standards are included in the recommendations for search results quality evaluators. Google officials have previously said E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor. But leaked documents indicate that Google tracks content authorship attributes on pages, which can affect E-E-A-T metrics. Google itself does not comment on the leak at the end of May 2024.^[1]

2023: Google paid $26.3 billion to OS manufacturers in a year to make its search engine the default in smartphones and computers

At the end of October 2023, it became known that Google, part of the Alphabet holding, is spending tens of billions of dollars to ensure that its search engine is used by default on personal computers and smartphones. In 2021 alone, $26.3 billion was allocated for the corresponding purposes.

One of its top managers, Prabhakar Raghavan, spoke about Google's costs of promoting its own search engine during antitrust proceedings against the company. According to him, advertising for the Google search engine provided $146.4 billion in revenue in 2021. At the same time, Raghavan said that Google's investment in promoting its search engine has become the company's largest expense.

Google spends tens of billions of dollars to ensure its search engine is used by default on personal computers and smartphones

As of the end of October 2023, it does not indicate exactly how much Google pays a particular company to promote its search engine. But it is noted that one of Google's main partners in this market is Apple. It was previously said that Google pays Apple at least $18 billion a year for its search to be used by default on iPhone smartphones. The information that Google pays Apple billions of dollars a year for the corporation's search engine to be the default in the iPhone was confirmed by Apple top manager Eddie Cue during a meeting as part of the antitrust process between the US Department of Justice and Google.

Google pays billions of dollars annually to other companies to secure default status for its search engine. Such partners include technology manufacturers Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung, telecom operators AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, browser developers Mozilla, Opera and UCWeb, etc., the US Department of Justice said in a statement.[2]

2022

Obligation to delete search results when requested from Europeans

On December 8, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that IT giant Google must delete data from search results in its systems if users can prove that the displayed results contain inaccuracies.

The case stems from a complaint filed in Germany's highest court by two managers of a group of investment companies who asked Google to remove the search results by name. It was about criticizing some investment models. At the same time, neither the managers nor the defendant companies were identified. Participants in the proceedings also asked Google to remove thumbnails (icons) of their photos that appeared when searching for images without any specific context.

Google ordered to delete search results when requested from Europeans

However, Google Corporation refused the requirements due to the lack of specifics in the case. In its decision, the IT company said it had no confidence in the reliability of the information. Google said that the links and sketches in this particular case are no longer available through web search and image search. The court disagreed, saying that if someone presented sufficient evidence to prove the "manifest unreliability" of the information, the search engine should satisfy the request to remove such information. Google has removed an estimated 5.25 million links since work began on "right to forget" requests in 2014.

We hope this will encourage Google and similar big tech companies to invest in a fairly trained and well-employed workforce capable of handling such requests, rather than outsourcing important content curation work to low-wage workers or irresponsible algorithms, experts say.[3]

Launch Ad Preference Management Tool

Google is launching a tool to manage advertising preferences - My Ad Center. This became known on May 12, 2022.

With its help, users will be able to choose brands and topics of interest to them, sources of information, as well as respond to ads.

Thanks to My Ad Center, users will be able to choose their own topics and brands of interest, as well as limit or even completely prohibit ads of certain topics on Search, for YouTube and Google Discover.

File:Customise sensitive categories.jpg

Additionally, you can control which data sources Google will use to personalize ads, Search and YouTube recommendations, as well as flexibly configure your own advertising preferences using reactions - ads can be liked or blocked Google^[4].

File:Controls within an ad 709x1536.jpg

Testing a redesigned start page

On February 21, 2022, it became known that Google was testing a redesigned start page of its eponymous search engine.

According to Ars Technica, the experimental design version of the google.com for desktop computers includes a whole line of various widget cards located at the very bottom of the home page. According to the publication, a limited number of users with a Google account received preliminary access to the updated version of the design, without reference to a specific device.

The interface will be widespread, it will be the largest update to the start page in the entire existence of the Google search engine. Of the latest significant changes, it should be noted that in October 2021 there was an opportunity to choose a dark theme.

Conceptually, this panel is similar to Google Discover - a personalized feed that news has been present browser Google Chrome in mobile since operating systems iOS Android 2018. However, unlike Discover, the functionality of the search engine interface element is not limited to issuing a selection of current news.

Widget cards can display information about the current weather outside the window (temperature and precipitation) and a three-day meteorological forecast (when hovering over the cursor), popular searches (when hovering over the cursor - the number of searches for which Google sent users to this page; page title; thumbnail of the associated image).

In addition, in the pictures of the Google start page published by the source, you can see the recommendations of films and TV series ("what to see"), stock exchange summaries (with charts of quotations when hovering the cursor), the latest news and information about local events, for example, concerts (with date).

By clicking the left mouse button on the card of interest, the user can "reveal" it, go to the page associated with it or open Google search results by keywords associated with the widget. You can hide the contents of the panel by selecting the Hide content radio button.

The number of cards displayed on the screen depends on the current size of the browser window, there is no widget ribbon scrolling. When it is formed, Google uses information about the user's location and "previous activity." What exactly Google means by activity is not specified. Probably, the history of searches for a particular user stored in a Google account is taken into account.

One of the reasons why the Google search engine was able to gain popularity at the dawn of the development of the World Wide Web was the design of the main page. It was simple and concise, which the then competitors in the face of, for example, Yahoo and Alta Vista could not boast of. These search engines tried to fully use all the space available on the screen using advertising and a rubricator.

According to the data, Statcounter as of January 2022, the Google search engine remains the leader - its market share is 91.9%. Bing Corporations (Microsoft 2.88%), (1.51%), Yahoo! domestic "" and follow with a large lag.Yandex Chinese Baidu

A significant part of Google users rarely have the ability to watch the home page google.com. In particular, this applies to users of the Chrome browser, in which the Google search engine is the default tool. It is enough for the user to enter a search query in the address bar or open an empty tab, where the Web search function and a set of shortcuts to frequently visited sites are also available. According to Stacey, Chrome's share of the browser market reached 65.38% in January 2022^[5].

2021

Google moves to endless feed of search results

In mid-October 2021, Google began making it easier to scroll through search results by automatically downloading new results as it nears the end of the page. Previously, when the user reached the end of the search results page, there was a large button at the bottom that offered him to see more, and it could be pressed to see more results. With continuous loading of results, the user will be able to simply continue scrolling the page to see more results in the search engine.

Continuous scrolling does have some advantages over paging, as it's much easier to see more results quickly unless you need to consciously make a choice to press the button to watch more. However, some users believe that when they reached the end of the Google search page, the user himself thought about whether he had learned enough or wanted to continue searching for information further. With continuous scrolling, it will be more difficult for them to break away from the page, which users already encounter when using social networks with endless download tape.

Google moves to endless feed of search results

Continuous scrolling began to be implemented on October 14, 2021 for most English-language searches on mobile devices in the United States. This follows from Google's official blog post. In January 2021, the company launched an updated design for mobile search results. The update was intended to simplify the perception of content on the Search Results Page (SERP) and improve the user experience. We also note that Google tested endless scrolling in mobile output without a button, see again in 2019, and in February 2021 experimented in desktop search with this function.

Google says this will make the work smoother and more intuitive, which is broadly consistent with other channels on mobile devices. The company also notes that most people who need more information typically view up to four pages of search results and no more.^[6]

Google removed hundreds of thousands of links from search results at the request of Roskomnadzor

On July 22, 2021, it became known that over the past two years, Google has removed several hundred thousand links from the Russian search service, within half a million. According to the TorrentFreak portal, such an impressive scale of work done is a consequence of very close cooperation with the Russian regulator - Roskomnadzor.

According to the portal, Roskomnadzor monthly sends Google requests to remove tens of thousands of URL links from search results. All this is done within the framework of the requirement to comply with the law "on the fight against VPN" and anonymizers, valid since 2017.

Following the letter of Russian law, Google not only cleans up its search results from "prohibited" sites, but also does not disclose which sites fell out of favor, and which Russians will have to look for on other, less loyal search engines. However, Google has the right to report on the scale of Roskomnadzor's activities regarding the difficulty for Russians in finding the resources they need.

As an example, TorrentFreak cited one of Google's many reports of cooperation with Roskomnadzor. It says that the Internet giant received a demand from Roskomnadzor to remove over 340 links from search results in Russia. The date of receipt of this requirement has not been set.

One of the numerous requests of Roskomnadzor

Roskomnadzor argued its unwillingness to see these 340 resources in the issuance of the current law in Russia 276-FZ "On Amendments to the Federal Law" On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection, "also known as the" VPN Law. " Google's message explicitly says that the company cannot provide a list of these sites "due to the peculiarities of Russian law."

At the end of June 2021, Google was leading in the list of the most popular search services among Russians, although its market share is gradually falling. According to StatCounter statistics, since April 2021, it has decreased from 54.15% to 50.85%. The main competition for it is Yandex, which is noted twice in the StatCounter rating for unknown reasons. The total share of the Russian search engine is 46.96%.

TorrentFreak writes that before the "VPN law" came into force, Google also received instructions from Roskomnadzor to remove "objectionable" links from its issuance. However, then such "requests" concerned only a few dozen references per month.

Surge in the number of requests from the authorities to remove links from the issuance - clearly

For comparison, in the second half of 2020 alone, Google removed about 200 thousand links. Even if we assume that every month the number of URLs that were on the "black list" was the same, then this is about 33.3 thousand monthly.

Russians lose interest in Google search engine

There were several reasons for blocking such links in Google's issuance, including "slander" and "national security." However, according to TorrentFreak, only some URLs received such markups. The total mass, about 162 thousand, was removed due to "other," without explaining what is included in this concept^[7]

The Chinese have created a highly effective AI censor

AI-based tool can detect 'harmful' information online with unprecedented accuracy

Two years ago, Google introduced a new search algorithm BERT for better processing queries in different languages. With the help of a neural network, the algorithm analyzes not individual words, but sentences in their entirety, which significantly improves the relevance of the output. It turned out that on the basis of BERT it is possible to create an extremely effective AI censor, which was used by Chinese developers.

It allows you to find censored texts with an accuracy of 91%, researchers say. At the same time, for example, searching by keywords gives an accuracy of 70%, and for a neural network trained by people - 80%.

The Google BERT algorithm open source with cannot analyze texts longer than 512 words. To circumvent this limitation, developers from Shenyang Ligong University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an algorithm for breaking down large texts into available for analysis using BERT and a technology for subsequent assembly of texts to the original volume. It turned out a solution that can even look for subtext hidden between the lines.

The internet in China is under strict government control. The sites of Google, Facebook, Twitter, foreign news agencies are blocked here, and on those sites that are allowed, a large percentage of information is censored. Topics banned in the Chinese Internet space include pornography, drug abuse, weapons and terrorism. It is also impossible to criticize the Communist Party and its top^[8].

Main article: Censorship (control) on the Internet. China experience

2019

Google unveils largest search results update in five years

Google introduced in December 2019 the largest update of Google Search algorithms in five years in the last five years. The pre-training technology for processing text in natural language BERT is now available in Russian. It analyzes not individual words, but queries in their entirety, allowing you to better understand the context of queries and more accurately find the answer for them^[9].

The BERT natural language text processing system was first introduced in 2018. Machine learning has made it possible to significantly improve the understanding of search queries - now Search systems analyze not individual keywords, but phrases in their entirety and the general context of queries. Implementation of BERT in Search in English began in October 2019. From this month, the technology will start working for search queries in Russian.

Last year, a technology for preliminary training in natural language text processing (NLP), developed on the basis of neural networks called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), was introduced in the public domain. With its help, everyone can teach their own modern question and answer system.

This breakthrough was due to the study of transformers - models that process words not as a sequence of disparate language units, but take into account the interaction of words with each other in the sentence. Therefore, BERT models can handle not only individual words, but also understand the context in which they are used. This is especially important for understanding the true meaning of search queries.

Some models that can be created with BERT are so complex that the equipment at their disposal could not cope with them. Therefore, the company began to use tensor processors (TPU), with which you can quickly find more up-to-date information for the user. If we talk about standard descriptions, then BERT helps Google Search better understand every tenth English-language request in the United States.

Basically, Google Search will become more effective for long and conversational queries, as well as queries with pretexts. Now the search engine will better understand the context and show the corresponding results, which means you can use more natural queries.

To make Google Search more convenient to use, BERT is used not only for English, but also for other languages, including Russian. Systems are good because they can apply the principles taught in one language to others.

Google manipulates search algorithms to please big business

On November 19, 2019, it became known that Google is manipulating search algorithms in order to change search results at its discretion to please large businesses, as well as smooth out the severity of public discussions. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal according to the results of its own investigation. The company's practices stand in stark contrast to its constant claims that search algorithms are objective and human interference in their work is not tolerated.

The Wall Street Journal concluded that after the presidential election USA in 2016, this mechanism began to work more actively. In 2018, the company made more than 3.2 thousand changes to the algorithms, although in 2017 there were 2.4 thousand, and in 2010 - only 500. The burden on engineers is growing, as as of November 2019, approximately 15% of searches are words or combinations of words that the company has not met before.

According to the results of more than 100 interviews and its own testing, The Wall Street Journal claims that Google's search results are changing to please large businesses to the detriment of smaller enterprises. In at least one case, Google's advertiser, eBay, was affected. Also, the search engine Google promotes large sites such as Amazon and Facebook.

Google engineers regularly make changes to various information that the user sees - favorite snippets, a knowledge graph, auto-filling a search string and news search results. All this data is not subject to restrictions on manual intervention, which affect the general array of search results.

Despite assurances to the contrary, Google maintains a "black list" of sites, and here we mean not spam sites or resources that violate the law. Testifying before Congress, the company assured that it did not have a "black list."

The autocomplete mechanism of a query line is modified so as not to offer users sharp and provocative filling options when it comes to controversial topics such as abortion or immigration.

Google executives and employees, including co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, did not agree on how far interference with search results should go. Employees may therefore require changes to specific search results, including on topics such as vaccinations and autism.

As of November 2019, Google employs more than 10 thousand low-paid contract workers who evaluate search results. Google says they only assess the quality of the algorithms, but in fact the company gives them guidance on the order in which the results should be arranged.

Journalists compared the work of Google algorithms with the work of Microsoft's Bing search engine and the DuckDuckGo search engine, which focuses on protecting privacy. The latter collects data from the systems of other companies, in particular, Yahoo. The comparison showed Google offering a different list of query string autocomplete options and other organic search results.

For example, if a user dials "Donald Trump," Google's search engine offers more harmless and predictable autocomplete options than other systems. So, too, do other US presidential candidates. If you enter "immigrants it" or "abortion it" on Google, the autocomplete options will be less provocative than in other search engines^[10].

Ability to select the default search engine in Europe

In early August 2019, Google announced that users of Android devices in Europe will be able to choose the default search engine. Previously, the Google Search service was a non-alternative option.

During the initial configuration of a new Android smartphone or tablet, which are purchased in Europe, a window will be displayed with a list of four search engines to select one of them for use by default. The innovation will come into force in early 2020.

Google allows Android users in Europe to choose default search engine

Three places in the list of search engines selected for use by default will be auctioned off in each country. One of the four places will be assigned to Google Search.

The winners of the auction will be determined on the basis of the amount (not lower than the minimum) that they are willing to pay Google for inclusion in the search engine selection list. If in some region there are no three applicants, then the company will include services in the list in a random order among the auction participants.

Ecosia (developing its own search engine) called Google's actions a desire to get a new source of income that "corresponds to the letter of EU law, but not to its spirit."

The German company Cliqz (browser developer) criticized the innovation from Google, since it involves the choice of "not the most secure and innovative" search engine, but the service that has the most money.

As for Russia, here Google already offers the right to choose after the company entered into  a commercial agreement with Yandex , according to which Android phones offer users to decide for themselves whose search they want to establish. In new smartphones, at the first launch, it will be possible to choose whether the widget fixed at the top of the main screen of the system should be searched through Google or Yandex. Other Russian search engines will also be able to join this agreement^[11]

Google is training its AI to prevent a repeat of the "Trump situation"

On June 25, 2019, it became known that Google it was working to prevent USA a repetition of the "situation with" in the presidential elections in 2020, Trump which developed in 2016. This was announced in a private conversation by the head of the responsible innovation department at Google Jen Gennai. As you know, after the 2016 elections, a number of scandals erupted in the United States related to the spread of fake news during the pre-election period and other attempts to influence the consciousness of voters through large Internet platforms. More. here

2018

Cryptocurrency advertising ban lifted

In September 2018, it became known about the lifting of Google's ban on advertising cryptocurrencies after Facebook. On this news, the bitcoin rate increased by more than 10%.

In October 2018, we will update Google's advertising rules for financial products and services: advertising of cryptocurrency exchange services  in the USA  and Japan will be allowed, the company's updated rules for financial products and services say.

Google and Facebook stop blocking cryptocurrency ads

The company said that advertisers will need to be certified by Google for the country where their ads will be shown. It will be possible to apply for certification in October after updating the rules.

The corporation did not specify the criteria for selecting ads and other details of the certification process. By September 26, 2018, the company has rules for "certification of financial products whose advertising is allowed with restrictions." The main requirement for such announcements is the permission of the local regulator and compliance with legal rules.

Earlier, Facebook decided to re-allow advertising of cryptocurrencies, while maintaining the ban on advertising ICOs and binary options. Advertisers who want to advertise cryptocurrencies on Facebook will have to apply, after which the social network will decide whether to publish their ads.^[12]

On September 25, 2018, representatives of more than 45 Wall Street companies and cryptocurrency projects participated in a round table at the US Congress in Washington to discuss the regulation of digital currencies and ICOs.

The purpose of the meeting was to create a register of problems regarding the definition of ICO tokens, as well as the formation of a regulatory framework for the crypto industry. Roundtable participants proposed principles of regulatory compliance and consumer protection that could determine the basic approach to regulation.

Priority to mobile versions of sites in the search engine

At the end of March 2018, Google announced an increase in the priority of mobile versions of sites in search results after a year and a half of testing.

Google search engine algorithms began to primarily assess the relevance of mobile versions of pages, and in their absence , desktop ones. As explained in the company, this is done due to the fact that more and more people use smartphones and tablets to search for information on the Internet.

Google gave priority to mobile versions of sites in the search engine

Google emphasizes that versions of sites for personal computers will still be indexed and ranked in search. If the content of such a resource turns out to be more relevant to the user's request, the search engine will show it higher in the search results, despite the declared priority of mobile projects.

Moreover, on desktops and laptops, sites selected by Google for primary indexing will not have an advantage over other mobile or desktop sites.

Indexing with priority to mobile devices will allow their users to find what they are looking for faster... We still have one index that we use to rank search results. There is no mobile index that is separate from the main one, "said Fan Zhang, a software engineer at Google.

Google launched an experiment to give priority to mobile versions of websites in late 2016. Then the company noted that the testing of the new search engine is due to the fact that there are some elements in desktop sites that are not in mobile versions. If a smartphone user clicks on Google search results and does not get what he wanted, it upsets him, Google explained.

Back in late December 2017, Google began moving some sites to mobile priority indexing. It also became known that from July 2018, the company will take into account the speed of page loading when ranking sites  in mobile search.^[13]

Cryptocurrency and ICO advertising ban

On March 14, 2018, Google announced a ban on advertising cryptocurrencies and initial token placements (ICOs). The restrictions, which also cover cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets and trade advice, will take effect in June.

Such changes, as noted by Google, will be part of broader measures taken by the organization to counter the sale of "a new type of high-risk financial products." 

Google to ban ads for cryptocurrencies and binary options

This year, we updated several policy items regarding advertising of unregulated or speculative financial products such as binary options, cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange markets and contracts for difference,  Google said in a blog post.

Some of the products for which the corporation imposes a ban on advertising may be advertised by Google after certification by the company. However, so far this will only be available in certain countries. But, according to the company, there is no certification option for cryptocurrencies.

As noted by Bloomberg on March 14, 2018, when searching for a "binary option" and "buy bitcoin" in English, Google issues four advertisements. When searching in Russian, four advertising results appear only when requesting the purchase of cryptocurrency.

Earlier, a ban on advertising cryptocurrencies was introduced by the social network Facebook, but those wishing to advertise found loopholes, for example, began to incorrectly write the word bitcoin. Google said the company will try to incorporate that Facebook experience into its policies and prevent circumvention of bans.

Bloomberg observers believe that banning cryptocurrency and ICO advertising will not have a serious impact on Google's advertising revenues.

In 2017, Google removed more than 3.2 billion ads from the platform for various reasons, almost twice as many as a year earlier.^[14]

2017: Development of the "Russian propaganda" filtering algorithm

Google is working to create an algorithm for filtering news containing Russian propaganda. This was announced in November 2017 by the head of Alphabet holding Eric Schmidt, naming the sites of the Russia Today TV channel and Sputnik as the main sources of propaganda. Read more here.

2012: Search engine No. 1 in the United States with a share of 67 %

According to ComScore as of November 2012, ^[15] Engine _ Rankings, Google is the first most popular search engine in the United States (67%).

2010:164 million monthly visitors per google.com

In February 2010, 164.188 million unique visitors entered the google.com.

See also

• Yandex.Search
• Search for Mail.ru
• Search engine
• Baidu
• Panguso.com (Chinese Internet search engine)
• Satellite Search Portal
• Internet search in Russia
• Internet Search (Global Market)

Notes