Think for a moment about how much trust we put into Internet search engines like Google. They are our springboards to the otherwise nearly impenetrable expanse of information available online.
That’s why it’s a bit disturbing that a single company — JCPenney — manipulated the largest search engine in the world for months on end without Google noticing. When The New York Times saw the department store showing as the top Google search result for everything from bedding to dresses, they brought in an expert who explained the devious means companies use to attain higher results.
JCPenney planted links in abandoned sites to boost its standings— and it worked, to Google’s dismay. The search engine has since tried to correct the problem manually, but the damage to our trust is done. With as enormous a place to patrol as the Internet, how are search engines supposed to stop people from breaking the rules and falsifying the results? The simple answer is that they can’t: People always will find a way around the guidelines.
That leaves us, the searchers, questioning the order in which results are presented to us. We’re left wondering if the top result is really the most popular website for a given term or if its placement comes as a result of some string-pulling. If nothing else, the problem proves once again that we’re making the rules up as we go with the Internet.
