Google has confirmed that a massive leak of some 2,500 internal documents related to its search engine is authentic – and one expert said the trove

Google admits massive document leak related to search algorithm is authentic

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2024-11-07 07:30:04

Google has confirmed that a massive leak of some 2,500 internal documents related to its search engine is authentic – and one expert said the trove shows that “Google tells us one thing and they do another” when it comes to its mysterious algorithms.

The tech giant has been secretive about how its search engine works even as it has wielded outsize influence over the flow of information, traffic and ad revenue online.

Some details appeared to contradict past public statements by Google employees regarding which factors are and are not used to calculate rankings.

Information in the documents, however, suggests that Google considers click rates, data from its Chrome web browser, website size and a factor called “domain authority” – a measure of a website’s importance or relevance on a particular subject – to guide rankings.

“The main takeaway here is Google tells us one thing and they do another,” iPullRank CEO Michael King, who published the first analysis of the trove, told The Post.