Written by Richard L. Hall   

I run a little free-to-pick-up political newspaper called The Community Shopper. So yesterday, I’m collecting information on US Congressional candidates.
I type in a Go@gle search on a Democratic candidate’s name with one letter misspelled by accident and “tn 2012 congress”. A long while I was typing I didn’t get the usual helpful hints on the spelling or suggestions of what I might have meant to type. When I hit “enter” nothing about the candidate came up on the entire screen. No suggestion of what I might have been searching for. But there was an ad for an incumbent Republican.
I thought that was weird, no suggestion or corrective attempts along the way.
So I did another search using an independent candidate, his name with one letter misspelled and the same identical phrase as before “tn 2012 congress”. Same thing happened.
I did another Dem and it was the same result.
Then I starting typing in a Republican candidate’s name. Helpful hints and a suggestion and a full page of all about the non-incumbent Republican candidate, got it all.
I called a local Democratic guy who helps run the local internet service and told him about what I just did. He did the same thing, got the same kind of results using his identical phrasing with a one letter misspelled names. I figured I should make copies of the pages so I started over. I got a copy of the first page exactly as I described above. The next candidate I searched came up this time after 5 or 6 Republican links. I knew the G@ogle algorithm had figured out what I was doing and was become helpful. The third attempt at copying was with an independent and he showed up properly on the page this time and with suggestion along the way while typing with the bottom suggestion being his Republican challenger.
I’d done too much in a session and Go@gle had done learned me. Yeah I talk that way.
At least I had a respectable witness to the experience.
Today, the next day, I did it again with Virginia US Congressional Candidates and got the same results and now that I really knew what to expect was able to see how extremely biased in Republican favor the search hints, the suggestive did you mean link and results Google was offering were.
I had call some people about it including a local TV newsroom. The newsroom person said it sounded interesting but didn’t think it was newsworthy in other words. She said you can pay to be at the top of the list. That isn’t the issue. It’s the exclusion of non-republican candidates in the helpful hints and suggestions that G@ogle is offering. And the difference in how much misspelling will keep you from getting the results your seeking, depending on being Republican or non-Republican.
I played with it and you can get a page full of Republican info with extreme misspellings. But a slight misspelling of a non-Republican candidate will get you no info on that candidate and helpful hints for Republican links/candidates and a page full of Republican candidate and/or Republican info. Try it for yourself and shut down your browser and bring it back up between attempts. It will do it longer before catching on to what you’re doing.
I spoke to the first Democratic Candidate, Mary Hendricks running in the 3rd Us Congressional district in Tennessee and told her what I had found. She said “So what you’re saying is I have an uphill battle ahead of me.” I said “yeah, I guess you do.” And so do all non-Republican Candidates… and the rest of us.

Rich Hall
The Community Shopper
Oneida, TN