We're getting the same old line in Old Line State search

It's possible I may go to Ocean City, Maryland, soon - so last night I went on Google to search for some visitor information.

Last week, I blogged about how Google search results have begun favoring media clickbait much more than before. My Ocean City search proves it. The first 28 sites - I repeat, 28 - that came up were articles by established media sources. No independent blogs or sites whatsoever. At least one of the 28 was so clearly laden with propagandistic conjecture in its headline that it would have been worthless in any context.

When I do a Google search, I have a right to expect a diversity of viewpoints - not a compilation of media elites' propaganda.

Ironically, one of few stories I've found that even touches on Google's increasing favoritism towards established media is in the Wall Street Journal, which ran a piece last November about it. The article reported that Google had a blog post reading, "We do not use human curation to collect or arrange the results on a page." But the piece says that's not quite true. It says Google had indeed been gaming its search results in response to pressure from various parties. Some changes were found to favor large businesses over smaller ones. Google even favors major websites like Amazon and Facebook.

Google was also found to have been keeping a blacklist that omitted some sites from searches - despite denying doing so.

Many of Google's changes to its search algorithms unambiguously favor the political right. Some on the right dispute this, but we can agree that Google certainly favors the authoritarian elitism that defines the established media - which no real leftist supports. Whatever the weather, these findings bolster the view that Google should be prohibited from arbitrarily manipulating search results. It's doubly true when you consider that these media outlets often report false information to appease the dictatorship in China where they have investments.

Meanwhile, Snap Map shows people in Ocean City are having a good time right now! They're gathering on the beach, the boardwalk, and in bars like it's an ordinary September! If it isn't still like this when I go there, it's only because some functionary was deranged enough to reject thousands of years of epidemiological science.