Google Buries Yelp and TripAdvisor Results, Claims Its’s a Bug ⇥ recode.net

Mark Bergen, Recode:

Over the weekend, executives from public Internet companies Yelp and TripAdvisor noted a disturbing trend: Google searches on smartphones for their businesses had suddenly buried their results beneath Google’s own. It looked like a flagrant reversal of Google’s stated position on search, and a move to edge out rivals.

Nope, it’s a bug, claims Google. “The issues cited were caused by a recent code push, which we’re working quickly to fix,” a Google spokeswoman said.

Strange how this bug was so beneficial to Google while damaging to their competitors. I suppose that’s unfair, though; I should really only be more suspicious if Google had a history of doing this sort of thing.