Internet search giant Google is under fire over the issue of burying search results of its competitors, an issue Google claims is caused by a bug.
The problem began over the weekend when executives of the travel website TripAdvisor and of the business directory and review site Yelp first noticed that local search results over at Google prioritize Google's own local search results while theirs are buried further underneath, something that was not the case before.
A report in Re/code further illustrated the extent of the issue, sharing an internal research conducted by Yelp showing that around a third of navigational searches on Google for "Yelp" and an accompanying term were directed away from Yelp towards Google's own local search results.
Google however denied such allegations of dirty tactics against its rivals. In a statement released on Sunday, Google says the issues was caused by a bug brought about by a recent "code push."
Yelp and TripAdvisor, however, were not impressed with Google's explanation. TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer aired his skepticism on Twitter, tweeting, "Gimme a break, @google. Search for 'tripadvisor hilton' puts the tripadvisor link so far down you can't see it,"
Yelp and TripAdvisor's issues with Google and its search platform come at an interesting time for these companies. Google is currently facing an investigation in the European Union over similar allegations of pushing its own products and edging out competitors in its search engines while Yelp and TripAdvisor are among the complainants in the said investigation.
The Guardian also reports that Yelp long been pushing for the US to take action against Google's purported unethical practices. In a strongly worded dossier, Yelp argued that the company "appears to be strategically deploying universal search in a way that degrades the product so as to slow and exclude challengers to its dominant search paradigm."
For the meantime, Google on Thursday has reported that the bug has now been fixed. The said fix has been confirmed by independent outlets.
Join the Conversation