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War  ·  3163 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Google could rig the 2016 election

I understand to some extent what they mean when they talk about search rank, but I wish they went into more detail what that actually entails. I may even need some clarifications on it. To my understanding search ranking determines your placement in the search results. Being in the top five search results in google gives you a serious advantage over other links in the category. What I don't understand is the basic experiment they conducted. The participants are given 15 minutes to research the candidates and the one with the higher ranking usually had the more positive results. What are these people searching though? I mean if I for instance search Bernie Sanders, how is Hillary Clinton having a higher search rank going to affect the results I receive? Now, if I look up 2016 presidential election I can understand how that could be affected by Search rank.

Am I missing something? Are people not searching specifically by name? Are there searches on elections more general?