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Naver is South Korea’s version of Google and one of its most-used features is its real-time most-searched feature. People use this to look for the most trending topics or keywords and it was revealed that this will soon be abolished.
Naver announced its plan to scrap the feature and users will stop seeing this trending search chart this month. KBS World reported that the South Korean company is taking down this particular service on Feb. 25.
Why Naver is getting rid of the feature
When Naver was launched in 2005, its feature that shows the most searched keywords on its site became the most favorite among its users. People would visit the site just to look for what is trending and this may be names of celebrities, personalities or current situations.
This is why Naver’s search soon became as some sort of a barometer of what the Koreans are interested in at some moments in a day. Mostly, Kpop fans use this to see if their favorite idols are also trending and why.
Now, even if this is a popular tool, Naver decided to remove it due to the endless controversies. It was alleged that the tech company is manipulating the search results, public opinion and its posting of advertisements.
The allegations against Naver
The company came under fire not once but a few times already and it was accused of featuring political messages and advertisements. In one incident, the trending search chart displayed support and opposition messages for Cho Kuk who was a justice minister candidate at that time in 2019.
Naver attempted to address the issue by increasing the search rank index from 10 to 20. It also started to utilize AI technology to personalize searches according to the user’s interests, however, the company still continued to get complaints so the management decided to just discontinue the service.
Yonhap News Agency reported Naver has around 30 million users who use the search index feature each day. But the situation left the company with no choice. Naver is the second tech firm in South Korea to shut down its real-time search feature as its rival, Daum already pulled out the same function last year.
