Reddit Users Figured Out How to Trick Google's Algorithm

If you’re looking for restaurant recommendations in London, you might be tempted to see what Google’s search results turn up for the city in question. It’s a time-honored tradition, after all, especially considering that Google is one of the handful of corporate names that can also be used as a verb. But when it comes to London’s eateries, you might want to take those results with a grain of salt, based on a new investigation of a group of Reddit users who manipulated the search engine.

As Ars Technica’s Scharon Harding reports, a group of London residents grew concerned that too many positive reviews might cause their eateries of choice to become overly crowded. This led to a number of Reddit users to instead begin posting enthusiastic opinions about other local restaurants, including suggestions that tourists make their way there. It’s a gambit that appears to have worked.

Writing at Gizmodo, Lucas Ropek explored how this trend began, which involved people venting on Reddit about a growing number of “influencers” crowding their preferred restaurants and gratuitously photographing their meals.

For her reporting at Ars Technica, Harding found that the restaurant that many Reddit users had elevated as part of their attempt to game the system, Angus Steakhouse, was showing up at the top of a search for the best steak sandwich in London.

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As 404 Media’s Emanuel Maiberg reported earlier this year, Google became the only search engine that returned results from Reddit. This came about because of, in Maiberg’s words, “a multi-million dollar deal that gives Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI products.” That might be good news for Reddit’s bottom line, but it also reveals a few drawbacks — including for anyone looking for an accurate steak recommendation in London.