Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Channel » SEO » Google: Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause

Google: Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause

Google's communications team and Matt Cutts come out to call the allegations that Google altered their search suggestions in favor of Hillary Clinton false.

Barry Schwartz on June 10, 2016 at 3:49 pm

google-politics-elections-usa3-ss-1920

Google has denied claims surfacing today that the company manipulated its autocomplete search suggestions in favor of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Google’s communications team issued this statement today:

“Google Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how Autocomplete works. Our Autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a person’s name. More generally, our autocomplete predictions are produced based on a number of factors including the popularity of search terms.”

The company later posted about the issue on its blog.

This is in response to a video from SourceFed that claims Google has altered the autocomplete suggestions to make Hillary Clinton look better.

The Google statement comes about an hour after Matt Cutts, the former head of search spam at Google, who is currently still on leave from the company, posted a series of nine tweets calling the video’s claims false.

Here are those tweets:

1/ @SourceFed claims “Google has been actively altering search recommendations in favor of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.” That’s simply false.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

2/ Their two anecdotes: [hillary clinton in] didn’t suggest [hillary clinton indictment] & [hillary clinton cri] didn’t suggest crimes.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

3/ It turns out that lots of people searching for negative things about HRC search for [hillary X], not [hillary clinton X]

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

4/ Here’s some live screenshot examples, including [hillary in] returning [hillary indictment] as first suggestion. pic.twitter.com/VEn3A4ef5y

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

5/ And here’s some more examples of Autocomplete returning negative suggestions for HRC, including “criminal email” pic.twitter.com/5oczWWvmmU

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

6/ See https://t.co/5avsTVn4ab for a smart write-up about how/why Google Autocomplete appears to avoid “crimes” for all, not just HRC.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

7/ Also see https://t.co/fLdlJ19BmX for another good take.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

8/ P.S. @mattlieberman I asked Google’s search PR. They couldn’t find a record of you reaching out to Google before publishing your video?

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

9/ @mattlieberman this is a super-technical area. Why make a long video of these claims without doing deeper research? It’s just not true.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 10, 2016

Last week, Google denied favoring any candidate after other accusations of favoring Hillary Clinton. See our story about that: Google says it’s not deliberately filtering “Crooked Hillary” suggested search to favor Clinton.


New on Search Engine Land

    4 elements of good content, according to Google research 

    Google Ads bug inflating some cost-per-click (CPCs) for non-US campaigns

    3 changes coming to Google Ads audience features

    Chrome will show Google Lens results in the same browser tab

    Google Marketing Live 2022: Everything you need to know

About The Author

Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

Related Topics

GoogleSEO

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Webinars

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

Dominate Your Competition with Google Auction Insights and Search Intelligence

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.