Filter bubbles

D6BP3.jpg
 
Weird, it actually differs a lot. I didn't even get photo results on the first page.
 
I've noticed the shit about Facebook. Some friends' status updates and links I see all the time, while I almost never see other people's. Must be because I like and comment on them more, I suppose. Interesting topic.
 
HA2lj.png


Ireland, Firefox 4
Not sure if Google.com or Google.ie
 
I typically know about what I'm searching for... so if I don't find what I expect I might find i'll brute force the shit out of what I'm searching for even if it takes a while.
 
Interesting stuff, though it's no surprise to me and I'm sure a lot of people have noticed this on their own as well.

It's most annoying to me when I get search results in google prioritized based on my location. Most of the time, when I search for something, I'm interested in content in English as most relevant information will be in this language, it being the most widespread. Google however thinks that I prefer websites in my language and it will, more often than I'd like, put those websites in the first pages of the search results, even though they are not the most popular among people searching for a certain string.

There should be an option to switch to a universal algorithm at will.
 
There is an option to change your location on the left of the search results.
 
That... is actually a good point.

When I want to go to google.com, it automatically switches to google.pl and I have to click a "Google in English" link on that site. I'm pretty sure I had tried that before and nothing changed, but this time it indeed got rid of the Polish sites (at least when googling "Egypt"), so maybe they changed something. Anyway, thanks :thumbs:
 
I don't see this really being worthy of a TED talk. Basically, his whole talk could have been summed up as "the internet is slightly different from how I would like it to be."
 
Using Chrome. Got about the same results as Riom, but shuffled.

2hWtH.png


Dan said:
I don't see this really being worthy of a TED talk. Basically, his whole talk could have been summed up as "the internet is slightly different from how I would like it to be."
Click to expand...

Uhh, that's kind of an over-simplification. The issue is that he's not deciding how he'd like it to be, or which content he can access, the algorithms are doing it for him. If these sites start catering merely to what you want to see at that moment (as apparently they are), they're filtering out other things you may have liked to see but now cannot. In essence, he's not talking about the way it is, he's talking about the way it becomes how it is and why that's a problem.
 
If you really want to see results that you aren't getting, search better.

If you are clicking on the links that Facebook and Google gives you, then you are apparently satisfied with the results they send. Really want he wants is a psychic search engine that gives you results that you secretly want to know exist, but don't really want and aren't going to click on anyways.

Seriously, I don't think it's a problem, and I haven't noticed masses of people encountering problems with this. If I want news about the Egyptian revolution, I will search those term, or I will go to see recent news.

Basically he is upset that his results are not EXACTLY the results that he wants (he wants the results that he won't click), and he blames this on his search being personalized. Well if you want unpersonalized results, you are just going to get the results that are most popular to the general population. The fact is that there is always going to be an algorithm that picks a limited number of results to give you. That algorithim is the "gatekeeper" he talks about. There is no possibility to have a gatekeeperless internet unless you want to get the entire internet returned for every search you do. And there is always going to be some schmuck who has some beef with the search algorithim because it doesn't give EXACTLY the result that they want.

BadHat said:
The issue is that he's not deciding how he'd like it to be, or which content he can access, the algorithms are doing it for him.
Click to expand...

That is the whole point of the algorithims. It is impossible to crawl through the internet by hand. If you want to decide for yourself what your filters should be like, then write your own filters or write your own search engine and see if anybody prefers it over Google. Nobody is limiting his content access, they are trying to provide the most useful possible results.
 
What google should do is have options you can choose that tell the engine which algorithm to use. That way you can set it to maybe ignore some previous searches. Say if I were researching WWII vehicles and I clicked on a lot of links for US vehicles that came up. Next time I search for WWII vehicles I probably won't be looking just for US ones. Letting you set the algorithm would eliminate any problem here. Though I must agree, its not a huge issue, because anybody who knows how to search knows how to narrow down search results.

But his point isn't that hes not getting the search results he secretly wants to know about, its that the algorithms are coincidentally nudging people down a narrowminded path by giving them front page results that consist mainly of their own viewpoints. The algorithms that work on your previous choices are promoting ignorance to other viewpoints, and thats what he is taking issue with.
 
Say you only look at the first 10 results of any search (that's being generous). Of those 10, would you like to knock out a few useful results for a "nutritious" result? How exactly would this work. Should Google be writing algorithms that bump up intellectual hits? Who decides what is nutritious content? I mean an algorithm somehow has to pick the best results. It can't give you the whole unfiltered internet every time, it has to use some criteria to get results. If Google just used your search keywords would that be better? If for example you searched for High Speed Internet Providers you would get results from all over the world. Is this preferable?

To sum up my points:
  • I don't see any big problem with the current results or filters I'm getting off of Facebook and Google.
  • He doesn't actually provide any solution to his perceived problem. What exactly is the alternative, how can it be implemented?

At best the only useful message I can take from that talk is that we should be aware that our searches are tailored to our online data. If you didn't already know that well maybe you should be watching his video or just not using the internet.
 
The Monkey said:
I've noticed the shit about Facebook. Some friends' status updates and links I see all the time, while I almost never see other people's. Must be because I like and comment on them more, I suppose. Interesting topic.
Click to expand...

Click Most Recent -> Edit Options ->Show posts from: All of your friends and pages. That'll fix it.
 
Getting really different results, does anyone else have something like this?

EEjQy.jpg
 
I only get that when I search for "ZT's mom."


BAM.
 
It's rare that these 'customized' search results don't contain what I need, but maybe ten times a year I'll need something that Google just isn't returning, and Yahoo! (which I only use about ten times a year) usually nails it.
 
If you guys are going to post more of these can you at least post your location, browser, and which google domain (.com, .uk, etc.) you are using so it's might actually be helpful?
 
er, using the firefox beta, my location is on the screencap (.co.nz).
 
Vegeta897 said:
If you guys are going to post more of these can you at least post your location, browser, and which google domain (.com, .uk, etc.) you are using so it's might actually be helpful?
Click to expand...
Added them to my post.
 
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