malcolm coles

The results from Google if you search for MPs expenses are rubbish. Last week they had pages from the BBC first and the Telegraph 2nd - even though the Telegraph is the primary source of all this material. Today the results are even worse: they're absolute garbage.

• In first place, we have the BBC, with one page from yesterday and from October 2004.
• Then comes the Guardian, with its MPs'-expenses landing page followed by a story from Saturday. That might be fair enough for 2nd place.
• Then theyworkforyou.com - tangentially interesting I suppose, but the page is dated 2004.
• Then the Daily Record from Saturday. I've nothing against Scottish newspapers, but really - ahead of the Telegraph?
• And finally, the Telegraph with one page from Sunday and its MPs'-expenses landing page (maybe that link will bump them up ...)

Utter rubbish. I know there are 3 news stories listed above the normal results. And I know google is probably suffering because no mainstream news organisations link back to the Telegraph.

But for a topical news story, this set of web search results is really bad.

Screenshot

The results of a google search on monday 18 may for MPs expenses

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