Googling something does not mean you don't know what it is.
Very often I google things that I know quite a bit about. Sometimes to see if there is any news about it, or just to get to the wikipedia page, and brush up on a few facts.
Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
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Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#12I'd say the core problem here is that people are insufficiently cynical about plurals. If you see a headline that says "Belgians are going crazy about a roller-blading echidna", you should be asking "How many Belgians?". If there's no answer in the article, the answer is "at least two, maybe". Google Trends is just one of many ways that headline might come to exist.
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#13very glad this was written -- the sensationalism of it bothered me
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#14Think about this: the media could concoct this narrative after every single election if they wanted to. They just chose this time because it suited their broader narrative. They're trying to tell you what to think and they're surprisingly effective at it. This should be a wake-up call to thoughtful people everywhere.
After this sorry debacle, with all of the major media outlets in the West pushing this ridiculous and spiteful narrative, how can anyone seriously claim that they aren't totally in the bag of certain political interests, that the media isn't pushing a particular world view by spreading lies and deception.
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#15I honestly took the WP article at face value and told a coworker that Brexit voters were regretting their decision based on conclusions drawn from Google trends.
I feel like one of those ants that have been infected by the mind control fungus, helplessly infecting others with misinformation designed for an agenda.
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#16I honestly took the WP article at face value and told a coworker that Brexit voters were regretting their decision based on conclusions drawn from Google trends. I feel like one of those ants that have been infected by the mind control fungus, helplessly infecting others with misinformation designed for an agenda.
To be fair, some voters are regretting their decision.
Here's the former editor of The Sun (a large uk tabloid "red top") saying he regrets voting leave.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/former-sun-editor-ke...
There are many others, but I link this one because, well, he should have known better.
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#17The Washington Post reporters knew that Google Trends data was not accurate and misleading. They went with it because: it is a liberal site, wanted to make people angry against the Brexit voters. Also Jeff Bezos(the owner) has a beef with Trump and publicly supports liberal media outlets like Gawker. tldr: Nothing unexpected happened, they knew what they were doing.
Rather than downvote, I'd love to see some links regarding if the Post has a liberal bias, that they knew they were publishing inaccurate and misleading information and did so willingly with intent to deceive, and evidence that they want their readers to be angry against the Brexit votes.
I totally agree with your other, factual statements, Bezos I'm sure doesn't care for Trump, and does indeed probably support Gawker. I just can't find anywhere in the world literature any evidence that supports your other claims. Or I guess I wouldn't would I?
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#18I'm glad this was written and has more historical examples than just Brexit. I could imagine a good portion of the questions could be originating from students. If a large political or economic event happens, it's not unlikely for classrooms teachers to task their students to understand what's happening. Search is the obvious first step for that. Even more broadly, and in line with the article, extrapolating from a s…
If you start with the assumption that your enemies are stupid, you won't have much trouble finding the evidence.
True. Also, if Google Trends were for some reason down for the last weekend, journalists would keep looking for "evidence" of stupidity until they found something else.
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#19Googling something does not mean you don't know what it is. Very often I google things that I know quite a bit about. Sometimes to see if there is any news about it, or just to get to the wikipedia page, and brush up on a few facts.
Or in some cases, to 'confirm' that what you think about something is correct or popular. How many of the people searching for the EU stuff were those in both sides looking to validate their own decisions?
But yeah, Googling stuff can mean a lot of things, and its ridiculous to assume it purely means someone doesn't know about something.
Re: Inappropriate Uses of Google Trends
#20Googling something does not mean you don't know what it is. Very often I google things that I know quite a bit about. Sometimes to see if there is any news about it, or just to get to the wikipedia page, and brush up on a few facts.
Google is indeed rightfully called "the Address Bar of the Internet" in the article.
Few of the searches I did today[0]:
- russian letters - because I needed to copy-paste a glyph
- ramen - because I wanted to double-check this word for one of my today's HN comments
- polyvalent - because "wtf does that word in today's HN link mean?"
- sabaton prague - to get the name of a song I wanted to listen to
- list polecający - to double-check that's a right name in Polish for "recommendation letter"
- shield logo - to quickly find an image URL I could post to office chat so that the person who stole my mug can know which mug I'm talking about
etc.
I could call only one of these (the "polyvalent") a case of not knowing something. Rest were mostly "utility searches".
[0] - I'd post more, but for the typical weird Googly reason, they completely fucked up the search history interface - it's now mixed with sites visited with Chrome, of which I have significantly more than distinct Google queries. And there is no way to filter the list. Why Google keeps making interfaces dumber and less usable is beyond me, but I'm started to get sick of it.