Search neutrality

Search neutrality is a principle that search engines should adhere to editorial policies that are devoid of bias, ensuring the provision of results is comprehensive, impartial, and based solely on relevance. This means that when a user types in a search engine query, the engine should return the most relevant results from the provider's domain (those sites which the engine has knowledge of), without manipulating the order of the results (except to rank them by relevance), excluding results, or in any other way manipulating the results to a certain bias.

Search neutrality is related to network neutrality in that both concepts aim to prevent any single organization from limiting or altering a user's access to Internet services. Search neutrality aims to keep the integrity of organic search results, defined as results returned due to their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to results sponsored by advertising. In contrast, network neutrality aims to prevent internet service providers from limiting access to content or resources.