Google search manipulation starves some websites of traffic

Google's placement of its own flight-finding service in search results is resulting in lower click-through rates for companies that have not bought advertising, according to a study by Harvard University academics. The study provides data for how Google's placement of its own services amid "organic" search results may hurt competitors, which is the focus of an ongoing antitrust case between Google and the European Union.

How paid and non-paid search results are displayed has a powerful sway over consumers, the study found. Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, and Zhenyu Lai, a Harvard doctoral candidate, looked at when Google began inserting its own Flight Search feature, launched in December 2011, into search results. They found that Google chose to display Flight Search depending on a user's search terms. When Flight Search was displayed, it takes a top position in the search results, pushing lower down non-paid search results. The result was an 85 percent increase in click-through rates -- a key measure for advertisers -- for paid advertisements. Non-paid, algorithmically generated search results for competing travel agencies dropped 65 percent.