Your Own Facts

[Gerald]

“Just Google it!” has become a common cyber-snobbish response to questions that seem too trivial to merit a human conversation. But is it really an answer? Now that more and more Internet sites are tailoring their services to the idiosyncrasies of individual users, queries for “climate change,” “stem cells” and even “pizza” may yield different outcomes for different people. This may be an era when we are increasingly entitled to our own facts — but should we also be entitled to our own search results?

Google looks to your previous queries (and the clicks that follow) and refines its search results accordingly. If you click on gossip blogs like Gawker rather than Netflix after searching for the names of movie stars, links to Gawker may feature more prominently. Likewise, if you have hundreds of Facebook friends, you see relevant updates only from the closest of them; Facebook relies on your earlier interactions to predict what, and who, is most likely to interest you. Thus, if you’re a conservative who clicks on links only from other conservatives, you may never see updates from your liberal acquaintances, even if you do “friend” them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/bo...ref=technology

Note: Published: June 10, 2011

[mookiemookie]

Eli Pariser's TED talk on filter bubbles. 9 minutes well spent: http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser...r_bubbles.html

[Jimbuna]

Google can be a PITA

[Lord_magerius]

Here I was hoping this would be a thread about made up facts from users.

So no "celery is actually a type of meat" then

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Lord_magerius

Here I was hoping this would be a thread about made up facts from users.

So no "celery is actually a type of meat" then

LOL

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Lord_magerius

Here I was hoping this would be a thread about made up facts from users.

Yeah, I'm too. I thought it was going to be about our personal statistics or background and was all ready to post a link to the "Subsim Forums Bios" thread.

[mookiemookie]

This trend is troubling because it indulges one of the worst biases in the human mind - confirmation bias. People search out and uncritically accept material that reinforces their preconceived notions. Coupled with disconfirmation bias (where people are hypercritical of and reject any information they're presented with, no matter how true, that goes against their preconceived notions.)

Heck, GT is a study in confirmation bias. You can see it in here every day.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Lord_magerius

So no "celery is actually a type of meat" then

That's just silly.






Everybody knows that celery is a peanut butter delivery system.

[TarJak]

I'm struggling to tell the difference.

[antikristuseke]

Same here TarJak, but I am fairly sure this is a healthy green salad

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by TarJak

I'm struggling to tell the difference.

One is best when it's green and crunchy. The other goes in the trash when it's like that.