On Monday evening, Google search results started showing strange results related to currency exchange rates. euro, According to the Google Finance website“valued” at 5.9 PLN (closing price on Friday was 4.37 PLN), dollar up to 5.37 PLN (instead of 3.93 PLN), Swiss Franc For 6.38 PLN (instead of 4.67 PLN), British pound “Fixed” the exchange rate at 6.84 (instead of PLN 5.0).
Poles flocked to currency exchange offices? After receiving several signals, we decided to check it out. The experience of people operating currency exchange offices was different. as well as the reasons for changes in consumer behavior.
The rest of the article is below the video
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Some Poles believed in the Euro at 6 PLN
Marcin Starkowski, PR manager at Cinkciarz.pl, admits that distorted Google search results translate into specific behavior of some users.
On January 1, unexpected anomalies in the exchange rates of the most popular currencies caused a lot of confusion in the media and social media. NOur portal Cinkciarz.pl recorded several hundred percent. More traffic than usual, he said.
Poles also apparently searched the Internet for confirmation of unusual information. – We also noticed Much more visits and followers On our profile on the X platform (formerly Twitter), where we publish current notes about currency exchange and other multi-currency services – he added.
The representative of cinkciarz.pl also admitted that the reasons for the inflated rate are completely unclear. – Everyone was wondering if this was a technical error in the Google search engine's data provider, or possibly fake news. If the latter option were true, then hypothetically someone could, for example, use artificial intelligence to generate artificial traffic to websites. But this is only a guess. We will probably never know what the real cause of this condition was, he added.
He also explained that it is worth contacting real prices and checking global news agencies such as Bloomberg.
Currency exchange offices have more traffic, but the reasons are different
A representative of the National Network of Currency Exchangers admitted in an interview with money.pl that the increased traffic on January 2 actually happened. However, the reason was not the mysterious charts that netizens saw the day before. – Increased traffic at the beginning of the year is normal – We always observe this after the Christmas and New Year break.
As he explained, the increased interest in currency exchange is usually associated with the exchange of presence. The dollar exchange rate may have had some significance.
“Playing on Silent Phone”
We checked the situation in local points scattered across Poland. In most cases, we heard the same answer. – We have not seen any increased traffic. Consumers probably realized that this expensive tariff was a mistake, said the owner of a small outlet in Greater Poland in an interview with money.pl. Monday was a holiday, and by Tuesday morning all the media were reporting that the rate had not actually risen.
The owner of the Point Pomeranian has a different theory. – You know, there was a bigger movement. To me it's like a game of silent telephone. Someone heard something, someone repeated something, some people asked about the high exchange rate of the euro. But I have the exchange rates in the window – I suspect that a group of customers just came to 'see for themselves' how much it costs in euros or dollars,” he added.
Google explains why there is confusion
The Internet giant admitted where it got its not-so-trustworthy data. “End-of-day prices are provided by Morningstar. Corporate performance data and company metadata are provided by Refinitiv,” the statement said.
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