The Straight Story on Search Engines

Rigged Results?

Paid links that aren't clearly labeled are bad enough, but at some sites, PC World found evidence that you can't always trust the real results. In some cases, results at AOL and MSN seem to serve the companies' corporate needs as much as searchers' interests. (Note: PC World regularly provides content for AOL's Computer Center channel.)

In our tests, we found that some portal sites plug their own products and services every chance they get. For example, when we searched for "travel" on AOL and on MSN, the companies ranked their own affiliated e-commerce sites high on the first page. Though you might expect such listings in the sponsored links, we noticed the phenomenon in the real results as well.

When you run a search for "travel" on AOL, four of the first ten results that AOL delivers are affiliated with AOL--the number one recommended site is AOL Travel. AOL ranks Expedia, Microsoft's travel site, at number 14. Plug the same keyword into MSN's search field and you'll find no mention of any AOL travel sites within the first 50 results. But Expedia appears in the top spot in two categories, Featured Sites and Sponsored Sites (go to PC World's Analysis for more details). Expedia is the second-most-visited travel site on the Web, and AOL Travel is number seven, according to recent statistics from the research firm Jupiter Media Metrix.

Why are results so different on the two portals? It's hard to find an innocent explanation. AOL and MSN both use Inktomi's technology for searches. MSN also uses Overture-powered sponsored links. When we carried out our search tests, AOL was still using Overture's technology.

Inktomi and Overture say that their customers can manipulate results and prevent competitors' sites from showing up. But both AOL and MSN deny manipulating Inktomi's search results. Neither company, though, could explain how they produce different results for identical searches.

"Every AOL search [result] features the most relevant content for AOL users, whether it is a partner or nonpartner site," says AOL spokesperson Andrew Weinstein. With the search results that MSN generates, "everything is editorially managed," says Brian Gluth, MSN senior product manager. "It's all relevancy."