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Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

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Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#41

Post by eksemplar »

maxxxxx wrote: post #34
eksemplar wrote: post #18

2018 was the year I adopted ddg, not because of privacy, but because google result sucks. Almost every time I search, I don’t get a single result I want on the first page. The first 3 results are sponsored adds, then there is the Danish Wikipedia article (useless), then 3-6 advertisements pretending to be content, and then if I’m lucky something that was relevant 5 years ago. DDG isn’t much better, but it’s better. I…

I use DDG out of principle but to be honest Google is still much better for the stuff I am searching.

Google is better at localized stuff, but very often I prefer the English version. Like in the case of Wikipedia, if my goal was to look something up on wiki I’d always pick the English version, but on google it’s on the second or third result page.

Quora is another good example, it’s a place I often visit after search results, but on google.dk, it’s almost never a result, possibly because it’s not in danish.

DDG is much better, but once in a while when I’m searching for something very specific that I know google will first, I’ll do the !g.

If I’m looking up anything technical or comitting an act of google programming, I’ll always go straight to google.

The other day I was looking for some pipeextenders for our shower though, and neither bing, google or DDG were able to help. I ended up finding them by searching on amazon. Google was 100% commercials for plumbers and completely useless otherwise. DDG and bing had no clue what I was looking for. A few years ago, google would have been able to help, I know, because google helped me find our current ones.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#42

Post by zo1 »

bduerst wrote: post #31
amelius wrote: post #19

I'd like Google to show the full input to their search algorithm at the bottom of the search results, so I know exactly which information it used.

That would allow some pretty rampant gaming of SEO, wouldn't it?

Google facilitates SEO gaming by not letting us openly crowd-source the removal of websites/hosts/topics that participate in manipulative SEO or any other criteria from our search results.

When was the last time you tried to permanently remove a domain/website from search results? And not temporarily via the "negative" operator, as that gets tedious.

So instead of having an open, curated or crowd-sourced list of bad domains that can cater to any specific crowd/subset, we are forced to accept or promote serious, government and large-scale censorship in order to hide bad content.

But more to the point. It's more about centralization than it is about "filter bubbles".

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#43

Post by random878 »

kiriakasis wrote: post #11
alopecoid wrote: post #5

Google can and should customize search results based on location, and it's not just about "local articles" as the article suggests. If enough people from the same general location click on certain results more frequently, then those results should rank higher for others who search from that same general location. We use Google because the results are useful, not because they are "unbiased". Ranking implies some sort…

> I think people will switch back to Google because they find the results more useful, even in privacy mode. I now use duckduckgo as default search engine and my experience is mixed. The problem with google is that sometime you search for something new and then you see the bubble very clearly, which applies non only to search but also to youtube (maybe even more). The problem with duckduckgo is that you are searching…

I tried duckduckgo, but wasn't pleased with the results. I switched to startpage which has been very good.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#44

Post by PavlovsCat »

krrrh wrote: post #39
PavlovsCat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not creeping me out, it's disgusting me. When I want to look for django reinhardt, I can look for "django music" or whatever, if I want the framework "django web framework" should do the trick. Oh, and and when I add a + before I word I want that word to show up, if there are no results with that word, show me no results. I'm fine with others having the option of personalized search, I'm not fine with me not hav…

Just in case you aren’t aware, google deprecated the + operator years ago. If you want to ensure a single word is in your results you can put quotation marks around it. It mostly works.

Oh.. I tried it out and it worked perfectly, thank you very much! I'll gladly take the egg on my face in exchange for learning this :D

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#45

Post by chrisco255 »

FilterSweep wrote: post #24
citilife wrote: post #4

> Back in 2012 we ran a study showing Google's filter bubble may have significantly influenced the 2012 U.S. Presidential election by inserting tens of millions of more links for Obama than for Romney in the run-up to that election Thank god someone is discussing this. I think it's a real shame that the "media" is focusing only on the 2016 election is discussing how Trump manipulated voters. Sure, they ran advertisem…

The obvious difference being state sponsored actors from a foreign entity weaponized this “feature.” Not sure how you’re equating the two, but it’s disingenous.

I don't care whether it's a foreign entity or a domestic one...it's dubious and not good for the future of American politics.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#46

Post by nofunsir »

alopecoid wrote: post #5

Google can and should customize search results based on location, and it's not just about "local articles" as the article suggests. If enough people from the same general location click on certain results more frequently, then those results should rank higher for others who search from that same general location. We use Google because the results are useful, not because they are "unbiased". Ranking implies some sort…

Found the Google employee.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#47

Post by alopecoid »

nofunsir wrote: post #46
alopecoid wrote: post #5

Google can and should customize search results based on location, and it's not just about "local articles" as the article suggests. If enough people from the same general location click on certain results more frequently, then those results should rank higher for others who search from that same general location. We use Google because the results are useful, not because they are "unbiased". Ranking implies some sort…

Found the Google employee.

You should see how I defend Facebook or Apple.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#48

Post by GordonS »

alopecoid wrote: post #5

Google can and should customize search results based on location, and it's not just about "local articles" as the article suggests. If enough people from the same general location click on certain results more frequently, then those results should rank higher for others who search from that same general location. We use Google because the results are useful, not because they are "unbiased". Ranking implies some sort…

I completely agree, and often that's how I want Google to work.

But what I would also like is a way to search without using my context, as sometimes I want results that aren't related to my location etc.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#49

Post by reaperducer »

GordonS wrote: post #48
alopecoid wrote: post #5

Google can and should customize search results based on location, and it's not just about "local articles" as the article suggests. If enough people from the same general location click on certain results more frequently, then those results should rank higher for others who search from that same general location. We use Google because the results are useful, not because they are "unbiased". Ranking implies some sort…

I completely agree, and often that's how I want Google to work. But what I would also like is a way to search without using my context, as sometimes I want results that aren't related to my location etc.

Yep. Like when I'm using a VPN, but I still want to know about stuff where I am physically located.

Re: Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click

#50

Post by i_am_proteus »

GiuseppaAcciaio wrote: post #28
kiriakasis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think people will switch back to Google because they find the results more useful, even in privacy mode. I now use duckduckgo as default search engine and my experience is mixed. The problem with google is that sometime you search for something new and then you see the bubble very clearly, which applies non only to search but also to youtube (maybe even more). The problem with duckduckgo is that you are searching…

I keep on trying to love duckduckgo but find that often even typing the exact title of an article I'm looking for, it's not on the first page of results...

This happens to me sometimes, and is why "!g" is DDG's killer app.
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