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On April 9, Futurism journalists noticed that Google News began showing Polymarket contracts in the format of news cards next to the materials of major media. According to the publication, links to forecast markets appeared in the For You section, on the Google News homepage, and even in search results on relevant topics.

In one example, Google News showed a Polymarket contract for the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz next to publications by the Financial Times, The Guardian and Reuters. It looked as if the betting platform was acting on a par with regular news sources, although it led users not to journalistic material, but to a forecast page with money bets.

Google recognized the hit of the links as a mistake

After the publication of Futurism, The Verge requested a comment from Google. Company representative Ned Adrians said that Google News is intended for sources publishing materials about current events and important topics, and links to this site appeared in the News section by mistake and are no longer shown there.

Thus, Google actually confirmed that Polymarket should not have been present in the news output as a full-fledged source. This is a sensitive episode for the company, because such a mix of journalism and betting can create a false impression among users that the forecast markets are verified news content.

The story has added questions to the boundary between news and betting

Futurism also notes that Google News allowed Polymarket to be searched as a separate “source”, and complaints about contracts appearing in news results have been appearing since the end of March. However, the exact moment when such links began to appear en masse remains unclear.

An additional context of the situation is that Google had previously entered into an agreement with Polymarket and Kalshi to transfer their data to Google Finance. However, both Futurism and The Verge emphasize that there is no evidence yet that this integration has anything to do with Polymarket’s entry into Google News.

Source: https://futurism.com/future-society/google-news-polymarket