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DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

dontbubble.us

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Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#41

Post by jarek »

retube wrote: post #30
yanw wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's a non-issue, and by the way Google probably uses much more that 57 'inputs' (signals) to determine relevance. Personalization is just a different term for relevant results and this is just FUD, the source of which is people who don't understand the technical aspects.

I'm gonna humbly disagree. There are many potential ranking factors in a search result: how well the query matches the document text, how important that text is in the document, how important the document is (PR) and so on. What I don't necessarily want is further ordering by what a machine thinks is my political inclination or world view.

But probably more than 80% of the users do want that.

edit: speaking of bubbles :D

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#42

Post by rryan »

huckfinnaafb wrote: post #34
andrenotgiant wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use Incognito mode in Chrome when you would like to search the un-"filtered" Google.

Unless I'm mistaken, Incognito mode simply disables local history recording, and has not much (if at all) to do with search results or the ability for Google to track your movements. I suggest Chromium for the paranoid!

Incognito mode isn't just disabled history recording. It does not use any of your cookies from main session, and it deletes the cookies when it is closed. It also isolates your extensions from running incognito unless you elect for them to be.

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#43

Post by klous »

retube wrote: post #11

Yeah this is an important issue. Google apparently ranks results (for you personally) based on some 57 inputs, even when not logged into Google services. In short results suffer from a self-reinforcing feedback loop, forever constraining what you see. I wonder how easy it is to get "clean" or "default" results from Google? And I know it's been discussed many times , but just how easy would it be to maintain real anon…

You can get "clean" or "default" results from google by using http://www.scroogle.org/

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#44

Post by qjz »

yanw wrote: post #35

Shame on DDG for endorsing this nonsense. I understand the quest for a larger userbase but please don't use this sort of FUD that is being peddled by those who don't understand the technical aspects of search and are trying to sell their books. A search engine's prime function is to filter the millions of results for each query down to the most relevant results for each individual user, and never the same 10 results…

So, your argument is that it's bullshit because it's true?

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#45

Post by speckledjim »

yanw wrote: post #35

Shame on DDG for endorsing this nonsense. I understand the quest for a larger userbase but please don't use this sort of FUD that is being peddled by those who don't understand the technical aspects of search and are trying to sell their books. A search engine's prime function is to filter the millions of results for each query down to the most relevant results for each individual user, and never the same 10 results…

Spreading FUD about tracking search terms etc didn't seem to help DDG last time. I doubt this will have any effect either.

DDG: If you want to grow, don't keep attacking the big search engines with FUD that only a miniscule % of people care about.

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#46

Post by jerf »

yanw wrote: post #19
retube wrote: post #11

Yeah this is an important issue. Google apparently ranks results (for you personally) based on some 57 inputs, even when not logged into Google services. In short results suffer from a self-reinforcing feedback loop, forever constraining what you see. I wonder how easy it is to get "clean" or "default" results from Google? And I know it's been discussed many times , but just how easy would it be to maintain real anon…

No it's a non-issue, and by the way Google probably uses much more that 57 'inputs' (signals) to determine relevance. Personalization is just a different term for relevant results and this is just FUD, the source of which is people who don't understand the technical aspects.

"Personalization is just a different term for relevant results"

Fine. It's not a "filter bubble", it's "excessive personalization", and it's still bad.

Arguing about what it's called doesn't do a thing to change whether or not it exists, or whether or not it's a real problem.

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#48

Post by Revisor »

yanw wrote: post #35

Shame on DDG for endorsing this nonsense. I understand the quest for a larger userbase but please don't use this sort of FUD that is being peddled by those who don't understand the technical aspects of search and are trying to sell their books. A search engine's prime function is to filter the millions of results for each query down to the most relevant results for each individual user, and never the same 10 results…

Search queries have different purposes. Personalization based on my preferences and past search works wonders for known-item seeking and for re-finding.

But for exploratory search and exhaustive search personalization works as an echo chamber (or filter bubble if you will) .

Then there is the problem of change and inertia. People change, their preferences vary in time. Personalization has an inertia that causes the recommendation engine to always be behind the actual preferences. It's more visible the better the recommendation engine.

I'm not saying personalization is problematic. There are problems with using it all the time and stealthily, without a clear possibility to turn it off.

It's not FUD, but a challenge to overcome.

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#49

Post by jarek »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #26

Confirmation bias is bad enough already, it's really a shame that powerful companies like Google reinforces it just for the sake of giving you more pleasing search results. (Pleasing and Good overlap, but they're not equal.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias http://lesswrong.com/lw/iw/positive_bias_look_into_the_dark/ Edit: I didn't intend to bash Google specifically. But they are faced with a choice in…

Yes, after all the primary job of a search engine is to fight the user's own biases, and who wants a product that's pleasing to use anyhow?
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