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Google wants to rank websites based on facts not links
New Scientist ^ | 28 February 2015 | Hal Hodson

Posted on 03/01/2015 7:24:23 AM PST by 9thLife

THE internet is stuffed with garbage...Google has devised a fix – rank websites according to their truthfulness.

Google's search engine currently uses the number of incoming links to a web page as a proxy for quality, determining where it appears in search results. So pages that many other sites link to are ranked higher. This system has brought us the search engine as we know it today, but the downside is that websites full of misinformation can rise up the rankings, if enough people link to them.

A Google research team is adapting that model to measure the trustworthiness of a page, rather than its reputation across the web. Instead of counting incoming links, the system – which is not yet live – counts the number of incorrect facts within a page....

The software works by tapping into the Knowledge Vault, the vast store of facts that Google has pulled off the internet. Facts the web unanimously agrees on are considered a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that contain contradictory information are bumped down the rankings.

...LazyTruth is a browser extension that skims inboxes to weed out the fake or hoax emails...Emergent, a project from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, pulls in rumours from trashy sites, then verifies or rebuts them ...

LazyTruth developer Matt Stempeck, now the director of civic media at Microsoft New York, wants to develop software that exports the knowledge found in fact-checking services such as Snopes, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org so that everyone has easy access to them. He says tools like LazyTruth are useful online, but challenging the erroneous beliefs underpinning that information is harder. "How do you correct people's misconceptions? People get very defensive," Stempeck says.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Nothing but the truth"

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: facts; google; hedgemony; internet
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You report, They decide.

kIlLThEMaChiNEs

1 posted on 03/01/2015 7:24:23 AM PST by 9thLife
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To: 9thLife

Whose facts? Their facts according to them??


2 posted on 03/01/2015 7:25:08 AM PST by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: 9thLife
This article appeared in print under the headline "Nothing but the truth"

I did a quick search for the original article but got sidetracked by the results: a Google-book by the same title. That highlighted the absurdity of it all enough for one morning.

3 posted on 03/01/2015 7:28:26 AM PST by 9thLife ("Life is a military endeavor..." -- Pope Francis)
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To: WKUHilltopper

Exactly. Some “facts” will be more equal than others.

On the other hand, if Google messes too much with its winning formula, it might kill the golden goose. Think New Coke. And, frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing Google go down the tubes.


4 posted on 03/01/2015 7:29:05 AM PST by rbg81
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To: 9thLife

THE internet is stuffed with garbage...Google has devised a fix – rank websites according to their truthfulness.

SO they want to shut down the Obamacare and the White House websites??


5 posted on 03/01/2015 7:33:44 AM PST by eyeamok
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To: 9thLife

Say, Google, since you’re so interested in facts, and you were somehow able to you were allowed to add to it in the days before it was foisted on us, what did you put in there?


6 posted on 03/01/2015 7:35:59 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: rbg81
On the other hand, if Google messes too much with its winning formula, it might kill the golden goose. Think New Coke. And, frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing Google go down the tubes.

They approved what's in the new Ministry of Information Diktat. They have nothing to lose.

7 posted on 03/01/2015 7:37:44 AM PST by 9thLife ("Life is a military endeavor..." -- Pope Francis)
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To: 9thLife

Google is Big Brothers data collection source. Google is the most EVIL corporation on the planet.


8 posted on 03/01/2015 7:42:09 AM PST by Lets Roll NOW (A baby isn't a punishment, Obama is)
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To: Lets Roll NOW
Google is Big Brothers data collection source. Google is the most EVIL corporation on the planet.

I am not convinced that isn't what they have been from the start. Way back then people instinctively mistrusted them and their monopoly.

9 posted on 03/01/2015 7:51:27 AM PST by 9thLife ("Life is a military endeavor..." -- Pope Francis)
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To: rbg81

What do you use?


10 posted on 03/01/2015 7:53:47 AM PST by Lee'sGhost ("Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Just look at the flowers.")
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To: 9thLife

Yep.

I don’t use google - ever.

I use Startpage.


11 posted on 03/01/2015 7:56:42 AM PST by sneakers
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To: 9thLife

Wow. Relying on Google to tell what truth is.


12 posted on 03/01/2015 7:58:20 AM PST by moovova
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To: 9thLife

As a corollary, it would be the end of the era of new facts. The modern equivalents of phlogiston theory would be cast in bronze.


13 posted on 03/01/2015 7:58:51 AM PST by Colinsky
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To: 9thLife

Google is just preparing for the 2016 election. This will result in hiding all Dem (think Clinton) scandals.


14 posted on 03/01/2015 8:00:17 AM PST by aimhigh (1 John 3:23)
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To: Lets Roll NOW
"Google is the most EVIL corporation on the planet."

Oh, I don't know about that.

They might be far worse.

15 posted on 03/01/2015 8:01:33 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Colinsky

Ah, phlogiston!


16 posted on 03/01/2015 8:02:49 AM PST by 9thLife ("Life is a military endeavor..." -- Pope Francis)
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Marching to green!
Less than $6.4k to go!!

17 posted on 03/01/2015 8:04:13 AM PST by RedMDer (Keep Free Republic Alive with YOUR Donations!)
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To: 9thLife

This goes against the basic function of journalism, which is to convince people of lies in the interest of hidden elites.


18 posted on 03/01/2015 8:04:13 AM PST by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: Lee'sGhost

I use both Google and Bing. Probably use Google 75% of the time.


19 posted on 03/01/2015 8:04:28 AM PST by rbg81
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To: Lets Roll NOW

When they say “Don’t be evil”, what they really mean is don’t be conservative.


20 posted on 03/01/2015 8:05:43 AM PST by rbg81
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