Google Purging Conservative News Sites II
A while back, there was substantial controversy about GoogleNews dropping several conservative blogs from their site.
Interestingly, one of the main ones at the center of that controversy, Jawa Report, is back (via email tip from Joe Gandelman). Since the controversy broke, I’ve also noticed that the libertarian-right QandO is featured and the very conservative Michelle Malkin startup Hot Air (here). Such sites as Conservative Voice (here)and Gandleman’s The Moderate Voice (here)are also included.
The criteria for selecting and not selecting–and even purging–blogs from the search results remains unclear. Some of these sites include actual reporting; others don’t. Clearly, though, it’s not a purely ideological decision.
For what it’s worth, we’ve been on Google News for quite a long time. I’ve heard that some sites were never added, others were added then displaced for awhile, etc, but we’ve been lucky enough to get on and stay on.
I suspect — and this is mere speculation — that some sites were dropped due to obscure algorithm stuff or violations of even more obscure Google rules (i.e., no hidden text, link-spamming, etc), but I really don’t know. Meanwhile, some of the sites that complained about not getting picked up by Google News did not seem to adhere to some of the Google News requirements (the “multiple authors” requirement, for example, would have kept our Malkin and LGF).
I tend to think this is impersonal Google stuff, and that they really don’t give a rip about bloggers.
Or rather, that they don’t care about the political views of bloggers.
My weblog was denied because I’m a one-man operation. Why that matters I’m not sure.