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Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

theguardian.com

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Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#21

Post by CountSessine »

cko wrote: post #2

I'm not sure that counting gay porn searches (example they gave in the article) is a reliable indicator of whether the seeker is gay. This may be TMI for HN but once in a while I (a straight male with zero attraction to men ever) have searched for and "enjoyed" gay porn. I was curious about this phenomenon and found many forum posts where straight guys say they've watched gay porn.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the occasional hetero guy searching for gay porn is a rain drop in the deluge. If gay men search for gay porn as often and as reliably as hetero men search for hetero porn, the occasional hetero guy conducting a bi- or gay-curious gay porn search would be insignificant.

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#22

Post by louithethrid »

cko wrote: post #14
rocqua wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might that mean that you are bi? I mean, if you like watching it you might enjoy doing it. If your first response to that suggestion was visceral, maybe you actually have some aversion to the idea that you are. It makes sense, the world is easier for straight people, but it might bear closer examination.

I thought about that possibility, but I never check out men and have no interest in them. A really good female friend of mine tells me she only watches lesbian porn. She's straight as far as I know.

We are one worm away, from a society where everybody searched for embarassing stuff.

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#23

Post by graphitezepp »

Ded7xSEoPKYNsDd wrote: post #18
pmarreck wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> assumptions based on search autocomplete results (which vary based on location, IP address, browser, OS, and other factors). I imagine you could just do the same searches in an Incognito browser window and get results not tailored to you, nor your location, IP, etc. (Or, I would be rather surprised if google searches were STILL tailored to some determinable attribute of you in an incognito browser window.) I also i…

Incognito mode doesn't do anything to hide your location or IP (basically the same thing on non-mobile). It's really just meant as a porn mode: nothing you do is saved to disk.

Good for temporary logins to services when using someone else's machine as well.

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#24

Post by newtem0 »

What a crock of utter and complete nonsense. If you isolated the simple statements of fact then this article would still be a long and enjoyable read, but instead i am assaulted with corresponding insane ranting; accusations against huge swaths of people that are totally unsupported. So nobody googles if their daughter is smart? Maybe its because parents are worried that looks and not intelligence are important for cohesing in school and not getting bullied, for girls. Maybe the same for boys, but with social quickness and intelligence. Maybe they are responding to the behaviour of the kids themselves, who might openly worry about being smart or ugly; perhaps girls and boys have their own tendancies about which one worries them because of the small fact that they are differnt biologically, and that visual attractiveness is much more important for men? Not a single alternative is explored by this author and it should be no surprise because when you zoom out and look at the whole picture of this article its obvious that this guy is simply using these issues as a tool for popularity and self advancement. Im not saying it shouldnt appear on hn because the phenom of using these issues for personal gain and the death of journalism is in itself an intellectual curiosity. But i will die before letting this shit go uncommented upon.

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#25

Post by gregfjohnson »

I use google search all day every day. On those occasions when I want to do a search and not have it end up in advertiser databases, I switch to duckduckgo.com.

Do you HN'ers generally consider DuckDuckGo to be trustworthy for search queries of a private nature?

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#26

Post by tux1968 »

gregfjohnson wrote: post #25

I use google search all day every day. On those occasions when I want to do a search and not have it end up in advertiser databases, I switch to duckduckgo.com. Do you HN'ers generally consider DuckDuckGo to be trustworthy for search queries of a private nature?

I personally take them at their word about privacy -- there doesn't seem to be much choice to do otherwise. And it's easy to add !g to a search to send it over to google when better search results are required. Actually it's really convenient to be able to do !gm for google maps, !wa for Wolfram Alpha or use any number of other bang commands.

https://duckduckgo.com/bang

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#27

Post by pjreddie »

newtem0 wrote: post #24

What a crock of utter and complete nonsense. If you isolated the simple statements of fact then this article would still be a long and enjoyable read, but instead i am assaulted with corresponding insane ranting; accusations against huge swaths of people that are totally unsupported. So nobody googles if their daughter is smart? Maybe its because parents are worried that looks and not intelligence are important for c…

> accusations against huge swaths of people that are totally unsupported.

The search data is meant to support the accusations. A main point is that other methods of supporting such statements (like surveys) are unreliable.

> So nobody googles if their daughter is smart?

The article doesn't say that, it says parents are about twice as likely to google if their son is smart vs daughter.

> Maybe its because parents are worried that looks and not intelligence are important for cohesing in school and not getting bullied, for girls.

This seems like exactly the problem the author wants to bring up and address. Society values appearance above intelligence in women. This is apparently also true in how parents see their children.

The author doesn't draw conclusions about this prejudice, he is merely remarking that it exists.

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#29

Post by andreasgonewild »

How about Google revealing some of their own darkest secrets instead, that would be interesting. There are clear incentives for the ruling powers to make everyone believe we're all as messed up in our heads as they are, makes us more forgiving and accepting of whatever leaks out from their filthy games.

Re: Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

#30

Post by greglindahl »

pmarreck wrote: post #8
rasmi wrote: post #3

I purchased this book on sale at the Kindle store to get a detailed sense of what his methodology was, and it seems he just uses Google Trends to compare search volumes across locations combined with Google AdWords to give the data a numerical scale and break down the data demographically. It seems statistically dubious at best, especially the part where he makes assumptions based on search autocomplete results (whic…

> assumptions based on search autocomplete results (which vary based on location, IP address, browser, OS, and other factors). I imagine you could just do the same searches in an Incognito browser window and get results not tailored to you, nor your location, IP, etc. (Or, I would be rather surprised if google searches were STILL tailored to some determinable attribute of you in an incognito browser window.) I also i…

I'm pretty sure that incognito mode still gets you ip-based and location-based personalization -- try experimenting at your workplace with searches that you think your co-workers might use.
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