Study suggests Google skews search results

New York

GOOGLE entices people to search by promising links to the best that the Web has to offer. But research , led by top academics but paid for by one of Google's rivals, suggests that Google sometimes alters results to play up its own content despite people's preferences.

In the study, researchers from Harvard and Columbia presented 2,690 Web users with two versions of Google. One version showed search results for local businesses as users usually see them, with links to the businesses along with ratings as posted to a Google site. The other version showed links to businesses along with ratings from rival sites like Yelp, the online review website, which paid for the study.