Google accidentally leaked their search API on Github, giving everyone insight into that they:
--Lied that they track users clicks as a factor for search rankings [1][3]
--Lied about using data from Chrome browser for search, including clicks. This contradicted their sworn testimony to the Department of Justice on anti-trust. [1][3]
--Lied about having a sandbox (to prevent "some" or new sites from ranking) [1][2][3]
--Purposefully gave smaller "personal" sites their own category which ranked lower, EVEN IF they had more relevant information. To favor larger brands. [3]
They after removed the leaked data, but it was already published under an Apache open source license. [2] So now anyone can do whatever with it. The irony of Google having crappy privacy.
Sources:
[1]
https://ipullrank.com/google-algo-leak
[2]
https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/29/internal_google_search_documents/
[3]
Mental Outlaw on Google leak
https://lbry.vern.cc/@AlphaNerd:8/google-has-been-lying-about-their-search:e
[4]
https://www.medianama.com/2024/05/223-leaked-google-docs-show-click-datas-role-search-rankings/