Google updates site that explains how search works as it faces mounting regulatory pressure

Google is launching a redesigned repository that attempts to explain how its core business functions.

On Monday, Google Search liaison Danny Sullivan noted that the company redesigned a website it first created in 2016. It now has more information and easier navigation, including how Google’s ranking systems sort through hundreds of billions of web pages, Sullivan said.

With sections such as “How Search works” and “our approach,” the company attempts to explain — in its own words — more details about the process of how it decides what shows up where. There have been 4,500 adjustments to Google Search in 2020 alone to Search, Sullivan stated in the blog post, calling them “improvements.”

The effort comes under growing legal pressure, as U.S. government enforcers in July filed their fourth recent antitrust lawsuit against Google. Most of these investigations, especially from the Department of Justice, have centered on the company’s Search business. Regulators have asserted that Google’s search business is a monopoly, and have criticized it for being a “black box” where only Google knows how results are displayed.

The Biden administration recently announced it would appoint known Google foe Jonathan Kanter to lead its antitrust division. Biden also issued an executive order specifically ordering a crackdown on Big Tech and practices around data gathering and privacy. 

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