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We could start with what they had before they started biasing results based upon user activity. i.e. What search engines like DuckDuckGo do.

by ok_coo 7y ago

VikingCoder 7y ago
People make web pages. Web pages link to each other. Page Rank finds out how important a page is, based on links to it from other important pages. That idea is probably at the core of all modern Search Engines (including DDG). Thus, all modern Search Engines (including DDG) are almost certainly based upon user activity. That being the users who build web pages and links to them.
- ok_coo 7y ago
  Correct. I guess I wasn't clear. I'm talking about the personalizing of search results based upon search history, search terms, personally and in aggregate. Not based upon the structure of the web itself.
traderjane 7y ago
How is that less biased, as opposed to less personal? Or do you mean that companies shouldn’t be biased to your preferences as a customer?
- ok_coo 7y ago
  Search engines could bias towards our preferences as consumers if they weren't a monopoly and didn't sell/place ads in the search results. That's the problem with Google and I think we're too far down this path for them to fix it. We've been watching this slow walk to where they are for a long time and I think people have just become to used to it to notice how insidious the situation has become.
- rjf72 7y ago
  Is the company biased towards their interest or towards the customer's? If Google was simply a provider of information then the answer would be that those are one and the same. But they obviously are not. One conflict that already provides an irreconcilable conflict of interest is the fact that they are primarily an advertising company - and the world's largest one at that. There are countless other issues that could also be brought up to emphasize conflicts of interest, but that's not really necessary. That their primary business is selling advertisements creates too large of a conflict of interest to ever expect "customized" search results to be anything but manipulative.

We could start with what they had before they started biasing results based upon user activity. i.e. What search engines like DuckDuckGo do.

by ok_coo 7y ago

We could start with what they had before they started biasing results based upon user activity. i.e. What search engines like DuckDuckGo do.

VikingCoder 7y ago

People make web pages. Web pages link to each other. Page Rank finds out how important a page is, based on links to it from other important pages. That idea is probably at the core of all modern Search Engines (including DDG). Thus, all modern Search Engines (including DDG) are almost certainly based upon user activity. That being the users who build web pages and links to them.

ok_coo 7y ago
Correct. I guess I wasn't clear. I'm talking about the personalizing of search results based upon search history, search terms, personally and in aggregate. Not based upon the structure of the web itself.

traderjane 7y ago

How is that less biased, as opposed to less personal? Or do you mean that companies shouldn’t be biased to your preferences as a customer?

ok_coo 7y ago
Search engines could bias towards our preferences as consumers if they weren't a monopoly and didn't sell/place ads in the search results. That's the problem with Google and I think we're too far down this path for them to fix it. We've been watching this slow walk to where they are for a long time and I think people have just become to used to it to notice how insidious the situation has become.
rjf72 7y ago
Is the company biased towards their interest or towards the customer's? If Google was simply a provider of information then the answer would be that those are one and the same. But they obviously are not. One conflict that already provides an irreconcilable conflict of interest is the fact that they are primarily an advertising company - and the world's largest one at that. There are countless other issues that could also be brought up to emphasize conflicts of interest, but that's not really necessary. That their primary business is selling advertisements creates too large of a conflict of interest to ever expect "customized" search results to be anything but manipulative.