Google search algorithm controversy has Vermont players, ramifications

I am vaguely aware that an algorithm is an important part of trigonometry, the high school course I dropped a week into the semester, thus ending my unimpressive career as a math scholar. And I am just tech-savvy enough to know that search engines use algorithms to answer “googles.”

Yesterday I listened to a discussion led by FairSearch.org, an organization of small-to-middling internet based companies committed to, well, fair searches on the internet. It seems there is a controversy stirring about search engine fairness or the possible lack of it by Google, the big boy on the block. Somewhat to my surprise there are three major Vermont public figures involved, or at least connected. Who wins and who loses may seriously affect many web-based Vermont businesses and media.

Fairsearch is concerned about Google’s new search algorithm. In short, this algorithm responds to your search with an answer that is very likely to send you immediately to a website owned by a Google partner, very possibly another internet giant. For example: let’s say you are goofing off at your Manhattan office desk and ask your computer search engine to find “Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge, Vermont.” Does the search engine rush to tell you about a B&B opened recently on Main Street by a friend of mine? Maybe, but it is more likely to send you to a big national or international website that just happens to be a Google partner. The algorithm is making you work harder to find the Little Guy’s website. You can still “get there from here.” It just takes longer.

According to Fairsearch, this is all about big corporate power and control. On the face it, this is bad business for small Vermont businesses – the same folks who buy community newspaper advertising. As their marketing partners, Vermont newspaper publishers want to encourage policies that highlight them. In the old-fashioned newspaper terms that I understand, Google has given a few select advertisers a constant, preferred position on the Front Page. By comparison, smaller internet-dependent businesses are relegated to the gutter. On the left hand side. On page 10.  

According to Fairsearch, a committee chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy is investigating the situation. Attorney General William Sorrell will chair a panel discussion of this (and other) issues in Chicago next week. At the very least, these meetings should yield information. So, too, might some reportorial Q & A with Matte Dunne, a former Windsor County state senator and candidate for governor who works as a marketing executive for Google. During his campaign, he talked about being on the cutting edge of internet communications. His perspective might be helpful and interesting.

The Wall Street Journal has a story on this; if you have access, “Sites Rotool for Google Effect” is at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576236983790385202.html. Or, you can reach Vermont's Fairsearch team at 802-223-9160.