4 ms·

The "tabloid-y results" are also the truth of how her career started, strangely missing from Google. I think the biggest bias here is people wanting to believe

The "tabloid-y results" are also the truth of how her career started, strangely missing from Google. I think the biggest bias here is people wanting to believe Google's search results can still be trusted.

ceejayoz 8y ago
#4 on the top stories hardly seems like "missing", and I can't say I fault the news algorithm for weighting a senator and presidential candidate's current policy proposals over a blurry memory of what song she listened to while smoking pot in college, or a relationship from twenty years ago.
- calibas 8y ago
  This is exactly what I'm talking about. The "tabloid-y results" that are also the truth of how her career started are not her smoking pot in college. You don't even know what I'm referring to because Google's results don't mention it.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    > You don't even know what I'm referring to because Google's results don't mention it. I'm well aware of both stories you highlighted. Both are far less important than the current policy proposals of a presidential contender, so I argue Google is correct not to highlight them as the top couple of stories about Harris if you search for her.
    - calibas 8y ago
      Sleeping with a married superior to get a better job really brings someone's character into question, but maybe the bar for corruption in US politics is set so high people don't care anymore. With Google you get her policy proposals, with DDG you get that too and the actual dirt on the politician. I like to have all the information.
      - ceejayoz 8y ago
        Per https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/28/18200885/willie-brown-kamala-harris-2020 https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/28/18200885/w..., Brown was separated "for more than a decade" from his wife at the time. I have a hard time seeing that as a major character flaw. The assertion that she slept with him "to get a better job" is just that - an assertion. > As Siders notes, suggesting that Brown had any influence over Harris’s professional ascent obscures the fact that he broadly exerted the same influence over numerous politicians in the region, given his wide-ranging position of power. > “It is difficult to find any successful politician in San Francisco who does not have history with Brown,” writes Siders. “Before being elected mayor of San Francisco the same year Harris ran for district attorney, Newsom owed his start in San Francisco politics to an appointment by Brown to the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission, and later, to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.” You're really only reinforcing my point - that Google's correctly selecting the more meaningful news stories here. This information is all available on Google (hell, that's how I found it). It's just not the "top story", per Google's algorithmic judgement call.
        calibas 8y ago
        There's nothing wrong with them having sex in itself, there's nothing wrong with him helping her get a job in itself. When those things are connected though there's a problem. And I doubt that's the case with Newsom, so it's a misleading comparison. And wow, you found an article that whitewashes the whole thing. Proves Google's fair, right?

ceejayoz 8y ago

#4 on the top stories hardly seems like "missing", and I can't say I fault the news algorithm for weighting a senator and presidential candidate's current policy proposals over a blurry memory of what song she listened to while smoking pot in college, or a relationship from twenty years ago.

calibas 8y ago
This is exactly what I'm talking about. The "tabloid-y results" that are also the truth of how her career started are not her smoking pot in college. You don't even know what I'm referring to because Google's results don't mention it.
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  > You don't even know what I'm referring to because Google's results don't mention it. I'm well aware of both stories you highlighted. Both are far less important than the current policy proposals of a presidential contender, so I argue Google is correct not to highlight them as the top couple of stories about Harris if you search for her.
  - calibas 8y ago
    Sleeping with a married superior to get a better job really brings someone's character into question, but maybe the bar for corruption in US politics is set so high people don't care anymore. With Google you get her policy proposals, with DDG you get that too and the actual dirt on the politician. I like to have all the information.
    - ceejayoz 8y ago
      Per https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/28/18200885/willie-brown-kamala-harris-2020 https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/28/18200885/w..., Brown was separated "for more than a decade" from his wife at the time. I have a hard time seeing that as a major character flaw. The assertion that she slept with him "to get a better job" is just that - an assertion. > As Siders notes, suggesting that Brown had any influence over Harris’s professional ascent obscures the fact that he broadly exerted the same influence over numerous politicians in the region, given his wide-ranging position of power. > “It is difficult to find any successful politician in San Francisco who does not have history with Brown,” writes Siders. “Before being elected mayor of San Francisco the same year Harris ran for district attorney, Newsom owed his start in San Francisco politics to an appointment by Brown to the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission, and later, to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.” You're really only reinforcing my point - that Google's correctly selecting the more meaningful news stories here. This information is all available on Google (hell, that's how I found it). It's just not the "top story", per Google's algorithmic judgement call.
      - calibas 8y ago
        There's nothing wrong with them having sex in itself, there's nothing wrong with him helping her get a job in itself. When those things are connected though there's a problem. And I doubt that's the case with Newsom, so it's a misleading comparison. And wow, you found an article that whitewashes the whole thing. Proves Google's fair, right?