For a few months, users who had configured the Google search engine in Catalan, saw how, gradually, the results prioritized the pages in Spanish, even though there was a Catalan version. Let's say you were looking for information on Volodimir Zelensky. Until not long ago, the first search was the Viquipèdia in Catalan. Now, on the other hand, the search engine prioritizes the result of the Spanish version.
If information about a company or institution was sought, the search engine also prioritized the result in Spanish. Àlex Hinojo, an activist for the Catalan language, contextualizes it: “There has been some change in the configuration of Internet searches that is affecting how information is presented in search engines. We complain about Google, but the same thing happens with Bing and other search engines.
In recent weeks, complaints from Internet users directed at Google have increased exponentially on social networks and last Wednesday they received a response. The Silicon Valley giant launched a tweet, in Catalan and English: “We understand the concern of those who seek results in a specific language. It is one of our priorities and we continue to investigate solutions although it takes time to make sure they work perfectly.”
The reason is to be found in the algorithm, which detects a greater number of web pages in Spanish in the area where the search engine is used and prioritizes this language, even though the search engine is configured to return results in Catalan. But Google is not only working on it, but they have begun to see improvements: the prioritized Wikipedia continues to be the Spanish one, but the search, for example, in the Teatre Lliure already gives the Catalan version.
“This fact has revealed how dependent we are on large corporations. And that governments and the European Union have to prioritize that the rights of citizens (access to information, linguistic diversity...) are also fulfilled on the internet”, adds Hinojo.
The consequences of this change go beyond the fact that the user has to take more steps to read the content in the language they have chosen. The main effect is that the number of clicks registered by a page in Catalan is reduced. And today, when the internet world is governed by the number of visitors who consult each website, it harms it. With fewer clicks, less visibility, presence and usage, and, on the bounce, less ad revenue. And less interest from companies and institutions to offer their content in Catalan. Google has started to rectify this anomaly.
