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Google News Now Prominently Featuring Polymarket Bets (futurism.com)

(Friday April 10, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD) from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)


Futurism found that Google News is [1]surfacing Polymarket betting pages alongside traditional news sources . "The bets often appear in the 'For you' section of Google News, which is tailored to a user's personal interests," the publication reports. "In one instance, it was even the very top result, as with this bet on the price of Bitcoin." From the report:

> In our testing, Polymarket bets are also showing up on the Google News home page. But links from the prediction market can pop up all over Google News, including in searches. In further tests, looking up "will ships transit the strait," referring to the Strait of Hormuz, returned numerous credible sources like Financial Times, The Guardian, and Reuters. Just below them, however, was a [2]Polymarket bet on the number of ships that would be allowed to pass through the critical oil passageway.

>

> This doesn't appear to be an accident. When searching "Polymarket" in its search bar, Google News now allows users to choose it as a "source," directing them to a page that aggregates other Polymarket hits. It's not the only non-news site that's selectable as a source -- looking up "Reddit" and "X" offers the option, too -- but searching for "Kalshi," another prediction market and Polymarket's main competitor, doesn't give the option to use it as a source. [...] In light of all this, Polymarket appearing in Google News is a major victory for the prediction platform -- rubber-stamping its image as an authority on developing real-world events right alongside genuine real publishers of journalism.



[1] https://futurism.com/future-society/google-news-polymarket

[2] https://polymarket.com/event/will-ships-transit-the-strait-of-hormuz-on-any-day-april-8-12



Publishers Can List Themselves (Score:2)

by Luthair ( 847766 )

Given that publishers can add themselves to Google News, do we have any evidence that this is anything more than that?

Just use Duck Duck Go (Score:3)

by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 )

I end up doing about 15% of my searches on Google, because DDG has some serious deficiencies. But DDG doesn't feed me polymarket crap, and it even provides a URL which dispenses with the AI bullshit altogether.

It's long past time for people to start punishing Google for all their anti-society crap by just not using their services. At this point the world would be better off if Google just died.

Re: Just use Duck Duck Go (Score:2)

by umopapisdn69 ( 6522384 )

I don't disbelieve this is happening to some. But not to me. I've yet to see a polymarket story on gnews. But (1) I don't use any Google account. (2) I only read gnews through a privacy/adblocking/cookie-killing browser (Brave). And (3) I do almost NO searches through Google.

Re: (Score:2)

by misosoup7 ( 1673306 )

I only use Google to search and I don't see polymarket stories on gnews either. I think for Futurism because they're covering new technologies like Polymarket and Kalshi, they're getting fed those by the algorithm. Where I do see polymarket prominently featured is any Yahoo! News articles that I click into from gnews...

Re: Just use Duck Duck Go (Score:2)

by umopapisdn69 ( 6522384 )

I take it back. I now see a cluster of actual news stories about the White House warning staffers against insider trading on Polymarket Iran war bets. Perfectly legitimate news.

Re: (Score:2)

by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

> ... DDG has some serious deficiencies.

Have you considered [1]Startpage [startpage.com]?

[1] https://www.startpage.com/

Re: (Score:2)

by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 )

Thanks for the reminder. I used to use Startpage but stopped for reasons I don't remember. Time to try it again.

Alternatives to Google News (Score:2)

by Morromist ( 1207276 )

I've been looking for a good news aggrigator that is customizable as an alternative to google news for many years. Google news seems a little abandoned by google, and, I'm pretty certain, the button that says "Fewer stories like this" doesn't actually do anything at all.

The profile it builds on you can be very annoying. For example it somehow got the idea that I was very very interested in news about Kanye West, despite never searching for him or clicking on articles about him and ignoring my fewer stories

Re: (Score:1)

by ozzymodus12 ( 8111534 )

I only trust Asmongold.

Re: (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

Isn't he the right winger who refuses to bathe and had roaches crawling on himself during a livestream?

Ah, yes, Polymarket bets (Score:2)

by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

A thing made by losers for losers.

Fill what's empty, empty what's full, scratch where it itches.
-- Alice Roosevelt Longworth