Google Loves Print, This We Know, Because Its SEO Guidelines Tell Us So

Google’s preference for print pops up frequently in its guidelines for quality raters, a 160-page document that advises the Google employees who evaluate Websites in order to improve the company's search algorithms.

But why does Google prefer print—or, more precisely, why do its search results tend to favor Websites associated with printed publications?

The rating guidelines document doesn’t explain the preference explicitly and in fact never mentions the word “print.”