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Google washes search results
The Register ^
| 012/14/2008
| andrew orlowski
Posted on 12/14/2008 6:11:18 AM PST by slnk_rules
Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.
Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that: The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm "relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. "
That Google was impartial was one of the articles of faith. For if Google was ever to be found to be applying subjective human judgment directly on the process, it would be akin to the voting machines being rigged.
For these soothsayers of the Hive Mind, the years ahead looked prosperous. As blog-aware marketing and media consultants, they saw a lucrative future in explaining the New Emergent World Order to the uninitiated. (That part has come true - Web 2.0 "gurus" now advise large media companies).
It wasn't surprising, then, that when five years ago I described how a small, self-selected number of people could rig Google's search results, the reaction from the people doing the rigging was violently antagonistic. Who lifted that rock? they cried.
But what was once Googlewashing by a select few now has Google's active participation.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: agitprop; algorithm; america2point0; americans; barackobama; bias; boycott; broadband; business; censorship; china; communism; communismkills; communists; computer; corporations; corruption; data; dnctalkingpoints; earth; economy; filter; fraud; freedom; freespeach; gaggle; gmail; google; googleconscensor; googlecorrupt; googledems; googlessp; information; internet; liberals; livesearch; marxism; newmedia; news; orwelliannightmare; programing; propaganda; ratlies; reddupes; scam; searchengine; socialism; stalinisttactics; stockmarket; trust; truth; unamerican; web; world; yahoo; youtube
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To: ChetNavVet
Google seeks to buy out, consolidate, and rule the information world. The fact they have a leftist agenda is really the only thing that makes them evil. Could not agree more. They are a wonderfully innovative and savvy company. I do think that because they are an INFORMATION company, they are blind to the how poisonous an ideological agenda will actually be to them. It is like viewership of the network news. Everyone laughs at it because they don't trust it. Google, with all its top notch stuff, could be a glitzy PRAVDA in a few years (although PRAVDA is actually a fairly decent news org nowadays).
21
posted on
12/14/2008 6:43:47 AM PST
by
slnk_rules
(http://mises.org)
To: Dick Bachert
Do any of those search engines have a News Homepage. Where you just read the headlines before searching?
22
posted on
12/14/2008 6:44:11 AM PST
by
AmericanMade1776
( Obama Happens! Not my Fault!)
To: Paladin2; All
Ok, guys...based on NOT being a lefty and being technologically superior...which is the best search engine?
23
posted on
12/14/2008 6:44:53 AM PST
by
Recovering Ex-hippie
(Obozo.....friend of dictators and wannabee revoluuuushionaries !)
To: angkor
Yeah. I’m firmly in the Mac camp.
24
posted on
12/14/2008 6:44:55 AM PST
by
null and void
(Hey 0bama? There will be a pop quiz every day for the next four years...miss a question, people die.)
To: slnk_rules
25
posted on
12/14/2008 6:45:10 AM PST
by
IrishCatholic
(No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
To: AmericanMade1776
I think I am going to use AOL.com for my homepage news instead of Yahoo for awhile.
26
posted on
12/14/2008 6:47:50 AM PST
by
AmericanMade1776
( Obama Happens! Not my Fault!)
To: clee1
The problem with dogpile, is that it is just a regergitation of yahoo and google results. I think I like the results better from clusty.
27
posted on
12/14/2008 6:48:07 AM PST
by
Always Right
(Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
To: Always Right
Try cuil.com (pronounced cool)
It was started by the original creator of Googles algorithm and is someday supposed to rival Google.
28
posted on
12/14/2008 6:48:26 AM PST
by
Las Vegas Ron
(Sho me da BC...mo)
To: slnk_rules
Well DUH, grasp of the obvious.
Haven’t used Google in over a year.
29
posted on
12/14/2008 6:49:43 AM PST
by
SouthTexas
(Remember, it took a Jimmy Carter to bring us a Ronald Reagan!)
To: slnk_rules
Google will find out , just as the dying lamestream media is, that if you can’t do the job you are supposed to do, people will go elsewhere.
30
posted on
12/14/2008 6:50:37 AM PST
by
Nateman
(Socialism: The cockroach rule of law!)
To: Recovering Ex-hippie
try out clusty.com....the few searches i have done, it has been very good.
31
posted on
12/14/2008 6:50:38 AM PST
by
Always Right
(Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
To: ChetNavVet
“the fact that the have a leftist agenda..”
Well there is that..
I still use Alta Vista, tried Dogpile and was not impressed, tried Cuil...no thanks...
32
posted on
12/14/2008 6:51:48 AM PST
by
padre35
(You shall not ignore the laws of God, the Market, the Jungle, and Reciprocity Rm10.10)
To: Recovering Ex-hippie
It’s similar to the quandary of what medium to use for one’s archival backup of digital data. There may be no good answer, much less a good, long term answer.
33
posted on
12/14/2008 6:54:26 AM PST
by
Paladin2
(No, pundits strongly believe that the proper solution is more dilution.)
To: Dick Bachert
Don’t forget the new kid on the block:
www.cuil.com
34
posted on
12/14/2008 7:03:34 AM PST
by
bolobaby
To: slnk_rules
35
posted on
12/14/2008 7:03:45 AM PST
by
SouthTexas
(Remember, it took a Jimmy Carter to bring us a Ronald Reagan!)
To: Nateman
How true. I even find shopping through them next to impossible compared to what it used to be. Looked for tickets to “Kids In the Hall” a few months ago. The first few Google results gave prices well over $100. Knew that was stupid so I looked harder. Found out that Ticketron was less than $50. Thing was I found out later that others saw the same first few results I did and didn't dig any further for better prices. They didn't want to pay for the high cost tickets and missed the show which they would have went to with reasonable ticket prices.
36
posted on
12/14/2008 7:04:45 AM PST
by
Hillarys Gate Cult
(The man who said "there's no such thing as a stupid question" has never talked to Helen Thomas.)
To: slnk_rules
When you offer a consumer a product and suggest it is one thing when it fact it is a radically different thing that is called "consumer fraud".
Let the consumer complaints begin!
If Google wants to avoid this trouble they can try this disclaimer on their web page:
"Warning, we are ideological one-world government socialists--and we have edited our search engine to reflect our values. If you want uncensored information go elsewhere."
37
posted on
12/14/2008 7:05:32 AM PST
by
cgbg
("The Second Great Depression, popularly known as 'The Obamanation'....")
To: AmericanMade1776
check out “The California Chronicle” for a news page
38
posted on
12/14/2008 7:06:17 AM PST
by
pointsal
To: Always Right
I’ve used Clusty for the past couple of years. I rarely use Google.
39
posted on
12/14/2008 7:08:57 AM PST
by
csvset
To: slnk_rules
Good one! From the article.
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