According to Google; according to DuckDuckGo
Grosskreutz was the man who survived being shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, and who testified for the prosecution in the trial. During that testimony it was brought out that Grosskreutz had been carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
This is a violation for which he could and probably should have been charged. But we all know why he wasn’t charged. It would have taken away some of his credibility that the state so desperately needed to make its case, and perhaps would have even bolstered Rittenhouse’s self-defense claim.
Can’t have that, can we?
So, what happens when you do a Google search for “why wasn’t grosskreutz charged with weapons violation,” as I did? You get a load of articles, but none of the high-on-the-list ones appear to address that question. Here’s the very first one on the list if you want to take a look at what you typically get from that Google search.
It isn’t until the fourteenth article on the Google list that we come to something marginally relevant to my search: this Quora question-and-answer. But it doesn’t really deal with the question I really wanted answered, either. That Quora piece asks why Grosskreutz wasn’t charged with pointing the gun at Rittenhouse, not why he wasn’t charged for concealed carry without a permit. It’s only at article number sixteen that someone asks (tentatively, without much information on it) about that type of weapons charge for Grosskreutz. But even after that, although I looked for a short while longer, I found no more articles addressing the subject.
Go to DuckDuckGo, however, and the story is very different. The first five articles that come up are directly on point, as is number eight (at least, in my list). That’s pretty impressive. Apparently there aren’t so many places where it’s been discussed, but DuckDuckGo does a good job of locating and prioritizing them. Google does not, and of course that’s not by accident.
It’s one of the biggest ways in which Google shapes public opinion rather than merely providing information, and the only thing to do about it is to stop using Google and advise others not to use it either. But Google is an immensely popular search engine and I’m pretty sure that the vast vast majority of people who use it have no idea about its biases or how they operate to keep information from the searcher.
‘But Google is an immensely popular search engine’
That may be the understatement of the century. Alphabet (Google) is the most powerful company in the world and maybe in the history of the world.
Should one wonder how they’re going to hide inflation?
(Or maybe that should be “Bidenflation”?)
Suppose they could always blame Trump, though.
Gotta keep that fire raging!
The first on duck duck go was also first on Microsoft bing. The fifth one on bing was Why no charges for Gaige Grosskreutz (aka, Bye-ceps …
That made me laugh.
Lying again…(Or maybe just taken out of context….)
“Biden’s Build Back Better breaks vow, forces 30% of middle class to pay higher taxes”
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/11/12/did-he-know-bidens-build-back-better-breaks-vow-forces-30-of-middle-class-to-pay-higher-taxes-1162009/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Not only is Google manipulating search results, it also continues to reinsert itself back into browsers I have thoroughly eliminated it from. It is like the worst kind of crabgrass. And in some browsers it makes itself the default search engine and nothing you can do can change that.
Google lists accepted MSM news sites — BBC, NPR, Milwaukee News Sentinel, CBS, CNN, Chicago Suntimes, etc.
DuckDuckGo lists alternative media and blogs — Quora, Guns in the News, Legal Insurrection, Heavy, Law Enforcement Today, Minnesota Right Now, Gateway Pundit.
Apples to pommegrranites. Go to the NEWS tab and then compare. I read from both lists and find they are all slanted, biased, and untruthful about the other. Yes, people who search Google are going to see Killer Kyle articles. DDGo searches will offer the direct opposite. It’s neither right nor wrong that this is so. Reporting has always — ALWAYS –been biased. To deny that one point is an unhealthy bias.
Indigo Red:
I am not talking about which news sites are listed first. I’m talking about the list being on topic, whatever the topic may be. Google is not on topic if the topic is politically on the right. DuckDuckGo is far more likely to give you articles on topic whatever the question.
In addition, search engines are not “reporting.” They are supposed to be places where you look up specific information.
I don’t use the “news” tab at search engines. I’m talking about general searches.
Not only that, but I also am seeing that this model citizen has had a couple of recent DUI charges dropped – I guess the prosecutor didn’t want those cluttering up the otherwise pristine character of the subject witness.
http://kenoshacountyeye.com/2021/02/07/gaige-grosskreutz-finally-charged-with-second-dwi-almost-4-months-after-arrest/
http://kenoshacountyeye.com/2021/05/26/body-cam-footage-released-of-gaige-grosskreutzs-2nd-dwi-arrest/
His full arrest record is at the second link. Looks like he has a nice steady funding stream for legal aid though…..
Those both came up near the top of a DDG search, by the way.
Sorry, meant to add the recent story of the charges being dropped just before the trial
http://kenoshacountyeye.com/2021/10/28/governor-eversd-appointed-judge-dismisses-second-dwi-against-man-who-tried-to-shoot-rittenhouse/
-and-
https://survivalmagazine.org/news/breaking-exclusive-potential-witness-tampering-as-gaige-grosskreutz-the-felon-who-aimed-his-gun-at-kyle-rittenhouse-had-two-prior-charges-dismissed-by-prosecutors-only-days-before-trial/
DDG again. But the same search under gOOgle pulls up many of the same stories.
I’ve found DDG much better than Google for the kind of academic research I need to do for my freelance work– particularly in regard to medicine.
I always “duck” these days.
In my little circle “duck” is the replacement verb for “g**gle”
@Aggie
I too just read on Gateway Pundit that Grosskreutz’ criminal (felony) cases were “dismissed” a week before he was called to testify. Very important, material and surprising development. Google doesn’t see it that way….. Pathetic.
You cannot trust Google if you are searching anything remotely touching on social crap
Andrea Widburg (“Bookworm”) posted an account of a very analogous experience a few months ago.
She searched on Google for the title of her article verbatim (and possibly the author’s name as well, can’t remember now), and her article showed up far down Google’s list of “hits”, after “hits” that did not contain the verbatim title.
It was quite a different story with DuckDuckGo. (Widburg is a definite rightie politically.)
Break up Google and all the major social media companies.
I CANNOT state here what I wish to happen to those who have led Google/Alphabet.
@Chases Eagles:
“The first on duck duck go was also first on Microsoft bing.”
No surprises there. DDG is a front end to Bing and a bunch of other services. They do have their own crawler, too. Hazarding a wild guess, I’d guess that 80% of everything that DDG serves up originates at Bing.
Neo,
I know what you are saying. However, everyone knows Google is left-leaning and DDGo is right-leaning. We know the product line of each search engine. What I’m saying is, why go to Burger King and then be surprised they won’t serve Big Macs?
Your search terms were too legalistic and used a apostrophe/negative “wasn’t.” That confuses the algorithm. I used “gaige grosskreutz illegal firearm charges” and got comparable results reported often the same results.
@GvdL:
That’s OK. Their AIs can infer your intentions and they know where you live. Have you got Arnie on speed dial?
“Trained paramedic shot and wounded by Kyle Rittenhouse testifies he thought teenager was an active shooter”
– wkow.com h/t google.com
A steering engine. A handmade tale.
I find Google generally better than DuckDuckGo — except for anything touched by politics. I use DuckDuckGo for those things. Wikipedia is much the same, but there aren’t that many free alternatives. The real damage occurs from the software loaded on devices that show news from CNN, MSNBC, and other
Nazileft wing propaganda sites.I’ll frankly state that I go against Chuck and Indigo. Now that I’ve identified that Goolag lies to me (and, contrary to Indigo, I have never found Duck to lie to me) I do my tiny infinitesimal bit to deny them the revenue which my usage would bring them.
We should all do what we can … and stop enabling the BigTech authoritarians.
WKOW, Madison WI. Progressively truthy.
JmNorCal,
“Goolag”… I like it!
Once I searched for something political on Bing and I got the expected left-wing propaganda on the first few pages of results. But … It was nothing but that for many pages before something useful and exactly on point showed up. OK, it’s a little worse than usual; then I noticed it.
Many of the links on those first 5 or 6 pages were the same worthless links repeated over and over. Maybe Bing got paid for those placements. But for news items?
Can’t remember what the search was. I ticked me off enough that I wrote it up as a complaint/nastygram and sent it to the Bing team.
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This has been the case for as long as I can remember. It’s not just news, but also if you want to get the other side of any social issue. You can go over 10 pages in and still not find an accurate description of what the other side thinks and why.
I miss that about the old yahoo. In the beginning, they would have a social topic, eg guns, and have both pro and con accessible.
This further serves to isolate and make ‘extremist’ our views. Infuriating. It’s the youth I worry about in this respect. They’re growing up with the one-sided view. Do they still teach addressing 2 objections when teaching research papers?
I use DuckDuckGo by default. There are a few types of highly technical searches on which Google seems to deliver better results, but they’re strictly non-political questions. Even on those, as time goes on DDG seems to be catching up.
@ Faith2014 > ” Do they still teach addressing 2 objections when teaching research papers?”
I suspect they no longer teach research at all.
My experience as a research scientist comparing DuckDuckGo to Google exactly matches Wendy’s statement: on many highly technical–and strictly non-political–searches, Google does better. This is also true at times for somewhat esoteric searches. That said, DDG does better or as well as the Goog, and remains my first (and default) choice for searches
Indigo Red: I would say that Google is very much “left”-leaning, while DDG is much more neutral. It only seems “right” because it doesn’t (at least as actively) discriminate against “right” sources *or* concepts.
Witness my apocalypse. It is pretty good.
Never trust what is presented to you by the media. The “radical” sites at least give a hint of what you should look for and verify. Google and the Democratic Media give you prepared and filtered “Narrative”, most commonly without a hint of any reality.
“Journalism” is dead. If you look to the Media for “News”, you are a fool. The Media information about Rittenhouse, vaccines, inflation, China, etc is all “Narrative” with no intent to inform. Digging through the chatter is annoying, but there is no other way to have a clue about what is going on. If you care, look around.