4 ms·

While fascinating, if this is a deliberate strategy, I wonder what its intended effect is supposed to be. Are people curious enough to google for stories about

While fascinating, if this is a deliberate strategy, I wonder what its intended effect is supposed to be. Are people curious enough to google for stories about Johnson's alleged affair with the American woman going to be satisfied with the "model of restraint" quote? Are they going to forget what they have just been searching for, get immediately distracted and go read what this model of restraint business is all about? Do we have any inkling as to whether this works at all?

IMTDb 7y ago
No, but it makes the alleged affair look a lot less important. If a news story is not even on the first page of google results, is it even that big of a deal ?
- gowld 7y ago
  The only things that matter are what is on the front page for a vague search term? If you remove the vague extra word "model", the alleged affair is still on the first page pof results for "Boris johnson". Also, if you want news, perhaps you could...read a news site, not just stop at whatever Google suggests as 10 headlines related to a three word query
- DrScientist 7y ago
  Actually the alleged affair, is not the important bit. The important bit is him appearing to mis-use public funds for a friend ( whether that friend was with benefits or not ).
pflenker 7y ago
If I committed murder and wanted to hide the body, I would hide it on Page 2 of the search results. No one goes there. After all, if the first x results are not what you were looking for, how likely is it that the next x results will provide a match?
- azangru 7y ago
  That's totally fair if the user doesn't know what they are searching for (e.g. if the only search criterion is Boris Johnson); but if they already know that there is a body; if they have already heard about the model (or the bus), how likely are they to be put off the scent by irrelevant search results?
  - pflenker 7y ago
    If you are already convinced that something is going on, then this will not throw you off, no. But if you are indifferent to the matter, then you will most likely quickly give up, thinking that it can't be that important if it's not in the top search results.
- jmkni 7y ago
  There is no page 2 anymore, though. My page 2 might be your page 1, and vice versa, based on how we've been profiled by the search engine, our location, browser, etc etc
tiborsaas 7y ago
One one hand some might think that there's no "model case" if top 3 results don't mention anything on the subject. On the other hand, Android and Chrome mobile keeps suggesting articles based on my interest. If I follow brexit then this might pop up more so it could be used for subconscious manipulation even if I don't click just read the headline.

IMTDb 7y ago

No, but it makes the alleged affair look a lot less important. If a news story is not even on the first page of google results, is it even that big of a deal ?

gowld 7y ago
The only things that matter are what is on the front page for a vague search term? If you remove the vague extra word "model", the alleged affair is still on the first page pof results for "Boris johnson". Also, if you want news, perhaps you could...read a news site, not just stop at whatever Google suggests as 10 headlines related to a three word query
DrScientist 7y ago
Actually the alleged affair, is not the important bit. The important bit is him appearing to mis-use public funds for a friend ( whether that friend was with benefits or not ).

pflenker 7y ago

If I committed murder and wanted to hide the body, I would hide it on Page 2 of the search results. No one goes there. After all, if the first x results are not what you were looking for, how likely is it that the next x results will provide a match?

azangru 7y ago
That's totally fair if the user doesn't know what they are searching for (e.g. if the only search criterion is Boris Johnson); but if they already know that there is a body; if they have already heard about the model (or the bus), how likely are they to be put off the scent by irrelevant search results?
- pflenker 7y ago
  If you are already convinced that something is going on, then this will not throw you off, no. But if you are indifferent to the matter, then you will most likely quickly give up, thinking that it can't be that important if it's not in the top search results.
jmkni 7y ago
There is no page 2 anymore, though. My page 2 might be your page 1, and vice versa, based on how we've been profiled by the search engine, our location, browser, etc etc

tiborsaas 7y ago

One one hand some might think that there's no "model case" if top 3 results don't mention anything on the subject. On the other hand, Android and Chrome mobile keeps suggesting articles based on my interest. If I follow brexit then this might pop up more so it could be used for subconscious manipulation even if I don't click just read the headline.