Hi Diane,

Thanks for posting.

Admitted, the article is not conclusive. But then, few articles are when dealing with politics, where biased opinion is the rule and not the exception.

I am posting below a similar yet diverging case - “diverging” in that Google backing is directly specified by one of its directors - where this is further exemplified.

Thanks again,

Miguel

Quote:
Hi Miguil

Regarding your post about the story that has taken the net by it's ears " Google is manipulating Autocomplete search results to help improve Hillary Clinton’s online reputation."

I would like to share two different articles debunking this story.

The first post is from Google itself ~>

Google Search Autocomplete ( click on link)

Over the last week we've received questions about our autocomplete feature. I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify a few things....

Here is another post debunking SourceFeds video

Google is manipulating Autocomplete search results to help improve Hillary Clinton’s online reputation. SourceFed told the Internet about it, so it must be true..... read the rest of Rhea Drysdale's response on Medium ( by the way her response is very detailed and will take about 6 minutes to read)

Vox has written their response to this story

There's no evidence that Google is manipulating searches to help Hillary Clinton

The more I read about the debunking of the original story says to me ( once again) that people will believe what they want to hear.

Thanks for letting my have my say and as always it is great to say hi to you

Google lends support to the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership

The TPP is already divisive in the tech world.

Reuters/Stephen Lam

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a wide-ranging and controversial trade agreement between 12 countries that President Obama has strongly supported throughout its creation. Today, he received a major ally in the form of Google -- the company endorsed the plan in a blog post. "We hope that the TPP can be a positive force and an important counterweight to restrictive Internet policies around the world," writes Google SVP and general counsel Kent Walker. "Like many other tech companies, we look forward to seeing the agreement approved and implemented in a way that promotes a free and open Internet across the Pacific region."

The TPP is far from easy to sum up -- but as it relates to tech companies like Google, it contains a number of provisions relating to intellectual property and copyright as well as freedom of internet access and the passage of data around the world. Google supports the TPP in part because of its "strong copyright protections," limited ability for governments to demand access to encryption keys, and its support of an open internet architecture that would theoretically make it harder for governments to block access to certain websites.

That all sounds good, but plenty of technology companies and organizations have stated that the TPP as written is more problematic than positive. The EFF claims that the TPP will benefit big businesses over consumers and takes issue with the lack of transparency around the agreement's creation and provisions. The organization also has concerns for what the agreement will do to potential whistleblowers and believes it'll greatly expand copyright terms and and restrictive DRM schemes. And last year, more than 250 companies signed a letter saying the TPP was "dangerously vague."

Despite this, President Obama has backed the agreement, and it also has the support of Google's contemporaries Microsoft and Apple. Whether the agreement is finalized in its current form remains to be seen however -- chances are good Obama won't be able to finish getting it pushed through before leaving office, and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both have issues with it.