It seems that someone needs to explain the concept of SEO to President Donald Trump after another early morning tweetstorm, this time aimed at search results on Google.
SEE ALSO:Trump's awkward call with the president of Mexico gets mashed with 'Veep' creditsTrump unleashed his criticism in early morning tweets that sound exactly like the type of thing a person who regularly Googles himself (or has someone do it for him) might say, especially if he's not happy with the results. (Note: Trump deleted the original tweets because on contained the phrase "Fake New" but reposted nearly identical ones with the proper "Fake News" claim around 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday).
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Okay, a couple of things.
First, Trump is complaining that the top results are from "Fake News." When you consider that Trump's deemed every non-Fox News outlet to be "Fake News" -- including the sites for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post -- then, sure, this would fit his narrative.
Second, as Matthew Gertz of progressive news watchdog Media Matters points out, Trump seemed to be tweeting about Monday's episode of Lou Dobbs' show on Fox Business.
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And, most tellingly, Dobbs was citing a study by conservative media outlet PJ Media which based its findings off of a media chart by conservative pundit Sharyl Attkisson.
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There is a lot wrong with the above chart, but you'd be forgiven if you didn't trust the analysis simply for the fact that it claims Info Wars (a site whose founder once bemoaned the government "turning... frogs gay") is closer to center than NPR, the BBC, or the New York Times.
It's true that Google's search results can be incredibly problematic, but Trump's complaints paint a simple-minded conspiracy where the truth is actually very complex and based around a series of constantly shifting algorithms, geographic-specific rankings, and changes based on searches via mobile.
And for all of this information that we do have, there's even more we don't know about how Google search actually works because Google has steadfastly refused, like many other platforms, to be fully transparent about its inner workings.
Hours after Trump's tweetstorm, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told press that the administration's "taking a look at" Google searches.
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Google has since denied the president's accusations.
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As for Trump's search results, as of 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the top Google search results for Trump were all about...Trump and Google.
Credit: googleWhile those top two results for me -- ABC News and the Washington Post --are perfectly reliable sources, Trump-friendly Fox News comes in at number three, which seems to undermine Trump's claims of suppression.
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