"Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what
appears in its search results. It's a historic statement – and nobody
has yet grasped its significance.
Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its
search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer
algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we read:
The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got
some people excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as
the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to
encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm "relies on the
uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure
as an indicator of an individual page's value. "
That Google was impartial was one of the articles of faith. For if
Google was applying subjective human judgment directly on the process,
it would be akin to the voting machines being rigged."
Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/12/googlewashing_revisited/
