Is Google the extremely reliable source of information it is deemed to be?

“Get a second opinion, and then decide”

As with Democratic processes in general,the workings of Google and their search result placements are not born in entirety out of a true democracy (or the voice of ze people). Companies can/do rent the top slot for relevant search results for limited periods of time. So the top result for many searches may not be the one that most people rely on but rather the one that is paid for the most.

Add to that, the fact that while certain philosophies dub ‘truth’ as ideas most people will buy, truth by definition ‘is what actually is’ or an ontological reality and not what is perceived to be true by most people; then conclusively we are made to understand that the scientific approach to finding reliable/credible data is to be skeptical and derive truth from a variety of resources.

“Contrary to Google’s assertions, the AdSense “Ads by Google” are not unobtrusive and do not appear to enhance the content page. Additionally, contrary to Google’s assertions, AdSense is not an unequivocally “fast and easy way” to earn money”- [[http://www.zdnet.com/blog/micro-markets/google-dependency-is-risky-business/883]]

“COMPETITIVE RISK
Google acknowledges “there may be situations in which you don’t want to display particular advertisements -­ for example, you may wish to block ads leading to competitors’ sites” and offers a “Competitive Ad Filter”
“PROPRIETY RISK For all of Google’s talk of “quality,” the Google bottom line is that higher cost-per-click bids win the privilege of buying ads from Google.”

“BUSINESS MODEL RISK:
We do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.”

In sum, Google directs people to (A) It’s own business (B)Information that is paid for the most and is not necessarily the most reliable. (C) ‘World truths’ rather than truths that should be intelligently arrived upon visa critical thinking, that is Google has turned the vast majority of internet users into sheep.

“Every company and every individual in the world is a Google target.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt :

We are in the search business, so we need all of the information…We’re also in the advertising business, and we’d like to provide advertising services to people who have their own proprietary content. So depending on where we are in that spectrum, we either do an advertising deal or a content deal or a hybrid deal. But ultimately our goal at Google is to have the strongest advertising network and all the world’s information, that’s part of our mission.

Google wants all of “the world’s information” (including individuals’ personal information), it wants to sell advertising to all of the world and it wants to distribute its advertising throughout all of the world.

Is the Google world circle a virtuous one?”

This means that even though I personally don’t the Daily Mail newspaper is most credible source of information on anything, I’m clicking on it’s links because they are top Google results for anything I search for. restricted academic Journals accessible only via Student portals/Moodles/JSTOR are harder for me to use as references because they are not globally/universally accessible even though many(Le controversial Lancet, included) are far better information resources than top Google results.

Now I would prefer to get my science news largely from ‘The New Scientist” or “The Scientific American” because even they are magazines they are ‘science’ mags and they have less scientific errors than say a health-related article in say, ‘Newsweek’ or other non-scientific equivalents. Just as I personally would prefer getting my Economics/Finance info from the Economist or Bloomberg or the LSE(London School of Economics)/UC(University of Chicago) websites, but are articles in these mags or from these universities ever Top Google results for Econ-related issues? Google gives leeway to unreliable authorities in many subject areas to dictate what we perceive as the today’s reality. Spam on miracle cures falsely reported to be sponsored by celebrities is all over Google. Children are constantly being exposed to less credible more expensive advertising and their impressionable minds are less likely to question internet bunkum. That is not to say that nothing in the Google sphere is reliable but that blindly trusting everything Google is dangerous territory for all of us especially children.