Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Google Removes Links to Competing Map Systems

Search Engine Land notices that Google has removed links to competitor’s map applications when you search for addresses or locations, like san francisco. They’re now showing a direct (and exclusive) Google Maps illustration. Before, they only displayed a static icon, along with links to Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest. I believe the search result is still neutral though, because the maps result is just another neutral* piece of result.

*Of course, no human-created algorithm is ever completely neutral, but Google Maps search results do not e.g. artificially skew results in favor of the “parent company.” You won’t find a big memorial sign on the San Francisco area reading “Tip: Picasa was created nearby.” This is comparable to when you Google-search for e.g. [picture of giraffe], which returns a onebox linking to Google Image search results... which returns images from all kinds of websites, not just say Google’s Picasa.

Google Removes Links to C ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (26)

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