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Google News Initiative

newsinitiative.withgoogle.com

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Re: Google News Initiative

#71

Post by specialist »

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #17
inetknght wrote: post #6

I used Google News for a long time. I have since blackholed it on all of my machines. By tailoring the news articles presented to be based on the interests that Google data mined from my Google profile, it became an echo chamber even worse than Facebook. It became a very bad source of news: all of the articles were self-reinforcing each other with very very little actual diversity of sources.

Could not disagree more. I am generally pretty liberal but get news stories from Breitbart, Fox news, etc all the time in my feed. I like to read all sides so love this aspect of Google news. Heck I get negative Google stories from Google. Can't ask for more neutral.

The remedy to information overload (spam) is better filters.

I demand the filter bubble that we were promised.

We live in an attention economy. My most valuable resource is my time.

The inclusion of trog media is precisely why I won't use Google News. I couldn't figure out how to exclude it.

What little benefit Google News, Twitter, Facebook provide is more than offset by the negative impact of their quest for our attention.

Re: Google News Initiative

#73

Post by WalterGR »

lgleason wrote: post #9

Given the bias inside of Google and the fact they have already demonstrated that they are not a neutral arbitrator, the last thing I want to have is them being the arbitrator of who or what news is seen. This is more of an attempt to consolidate their power, what you can and cannot see etc.. Hard pass.

Given the bias inside of Google and the fact they have already demonstrated that they are not a neutral arbitrator

I hear this accusation a lot, but I haven't heard about (or perhaps I just forgot) specific examples.

Perhaps there's a comprehensive rundown of what's being alleged, somewhere on the web?

Alternately, can someone clue me in with examples?

Re: Google News Initiative

#74

Post by arghwhat »

kingnight wrote: post #42

Sadly, Google is also sitting on a HUGE amount of archival newspaper in a completely unsearchable state. They've OCR'd thousands of historical papers but the search is completely broken. https://news.google.com/newspapers It's a pretty incredible resource if you know the date/place of an event but if you wanted to research a little more broad it's a tool with incredibly untapped potential. I wish they would spend mor…

What do you expect? They're just an advertisement agency. They don't have the tools or skills required to perform advanced searches in a large, unstructured data corpus.

Oh, wait.

Re: Google News Initiative

#75

Post by specialist »

skrowl wrote: post #52
inetknght wrote: post #6

I used Google News for a long time. I have since blackholed it on all of my machines. By tailoring the news articles presented to be based on the interests that Google data mined from my Google profile, it became an echo chamber even worse than Facebook. It became a very bad source of news: all of the articles were self-reinforcing each other with very very little actual diversity of sources.

I had a similar problem. After I stopped using gmail & google search (for privacy reasons) and started using Duck Duck Go, it almost seemed random in what news it was trying to feed me because it didn't have enough data. I messed with the little sliders, banned fake news sources like HuffPost/WashPost etc, but I couldn't get it to deliver a news feed I actually wanted to consume... so... I just gave up on it. Finally…

I do much the same. But I'm still missing local events, news, politics. I haven't figured out how to efficiently get those feeds.

Re: Google News Initiative

#76

Post by 24gttghh »

sterban wrote: post #28

I got fed up with Google News a year or so ago, over the echo chamber that the news site has become. It motivated me to create https://statesreport.com , with no ads and no tracking.

Wow this works without whitelisting anything in noscript. Thank you!

Re: Google News Initiative

#77

Post by simula67 »

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #20
lgleason wrote: post #9

Given the bias inside of Google and the fact they have already demonstrated that they are not a neutral arbitrator, the last thing I want to have is them being the arbitrator of who or what news is seen. This is more of an attempt to consolidate their power, what you can and cannot see etc.. Hard pass.

Bias? Google is now paying the infrastructure cost for channels like Alex Jones as no advertisers to generate revenues for Google. But in the name of free speech Google allows on YouTube and foots the bill. What could be more unbias?

Google has fact checked a claim that was not made in right leaning Daily Caller website : http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/09/googles-new-fact-check-fea...

Although it may be bugs and not bias : https://www.poynter.org/news/blame-bugs-not-partisanship-goo...

Google continuing to host Alex Jones may not be be 'in the name of free speech', they may not want people to go to other platforms to get their content. They can lead users to other videos from any video ( using the side bar ) and make money from those videos which does contain advertisements

Re: Google News Initiative

#78

Post by dleslie »

inetknght wrote: post #6

I used Google News for a long time. I have since blackholed it on all of my machines. By tailoring the news articles presented to be based on the interests that Google data mined from my Google profile, it became an echo chamber even worse than Facebook. It became a very bad source of news: all of the articles were self-reinforcing each other with very very little actual diversity of sources.

Out of similar concern, could you share your blackhole list?

Re: Google News Initiative

#79

Post by kolpa »

kingnight wrote: post #42

Sadly, Google is also sitting on a HUGE amount of archival newspaper in a completely unsearchable state. They've OCR'd thousands of historical papers but the search is completely broken. https://news.google.com/newspapers It's a pretty incredible resource if you know the date/place of an event but if you wanted to research a little more broad it's a tool with incredibly untapped potential. I wish they would spend mor…

What specifically is broken? Basic keyword search seems to work.

Re: Google News Initiative

#80

Post by kolpa »

jacksmith21006 wrote: post #17
inetknght wrote: post #6

I used Google News for a long time. I have since blackholed it on all of my machines. By tailoring the news articles presented to be based on the interests that Google data mined from my Google profile, it became an echo chamber even worse than Facebook. It became a very bad source of news: all of the articles were self-reinforcing each other with very very little actual diversity of sources.

Could not disagree more. I am generally pretty liberal but get news stories from Breitbart, Fox news, etc all the time in my feed. I like to read all sides so love this aspect of Google news. Heck I get negative Google stories from Google. Can't ask for more neutral.

There's a lot more to 'news diversity' than the basic "left-wing" vs "right-wing" opposing views on hot-button controversies of the moment. The topic selection is as important as the bias selection.
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