How Google Search Sold Out
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2020
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
In the early days of internet search engines, Google set itself apart by providing a simple service. A list of links, inviting you to explore the websites that best matched your query. It was a portal to the rest of the internet. But over the last two decades, that mission has changed.
Does Google search still take you to the best result for your query? Or does it point users back to its own suite of products?
Guest:
Adrianne Jeffries, investigative journalist at The Markup.
Host
Celeste Headlee
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The subcommittee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess at any... |
| 0:09.9 | A few weeks back, the heads of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google appeared before a House Judiciary |
| 0:15.7 | Subcommittee on antitrust law. They were there to testify about the power wielded by their |
| 0:20.7 | respective companies |
| 0:21.6 | in relation to their competition. It was the first time that the CEOs of these giant tech |
| 0:27.6 | companies appeared together before Congress. And Congress had a lot of questions. The hearing took five |
| 0:34.0 | hours. So are you saying that these people aren't being truthful? |
| 0:38.3 | Google's response was to threaten to delist Yelp entirely. |
| 0:41.6 | Do you think they would choose to stay in a relationship that is characterized by bullying, |
| 0:46.8 | fear, and panic? |
| 0:50.3 | Towards the end of the hearing, Representative Pramila Jayapal directed a question to Sundar Pachai, Google's CEO. |
| 0:57.5 | She wanted to know if Google Search was prioritizing Google-owned products over their competitors. |
| 1:03.1 | Is Google-owned companies? Is Google steering advertising revenue to Google Search? |
| 1:08.1 | Congressman, users come to Google Search. It is that traffic, and that's where our source of revenue comes from. |
| 1:15.6 | So we are focused on providing users the information they are looking for. |
| 1:20.0 | We work hard to earn. |
| 1:21.1 | That answer didn't exactly make headlines. |
| 1:24.3 | But Chai didn't even finish before Representative Jai Paul asked her next question. |
| 1:28.7 | But that rushed, seemingly innocuous answer, we are focused on providing users the information |
| 1:34.9 | they are looking for, marks a fundamental shift in the way Google thinks about what it is and what it does. |
| 1:42.8 | They've made statements like this publicly where they believe their mission is to help users find |
| 1:49.8 | information, and that is different from helping users navigate the web. |
... |
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