How Google Is Ruining Politics
Google has to improve their ability to identify and to de-rank counter factual and conspiracy pages from those that are factual and true, even if the counter-factual pages get more clicks. Google makes enough money, they really don’t need to continue a business model that propagates more evil posts at the top rank just because they garner clicks. This is already impacting our ability to function as a civilization.
I”ve discussed this many times in the past with articles on how to rank by trust, the need to search audio, and how Google could weigh gawker fascination versus authority & authenticity. Finding facts on the internet is getting harder, not easier, and at some point Google just becomes broken and useless as a human brain augmenter, and some competitor will then eat their lunch.
Far from the days when the newspaper told people nearly everything they knew, Google has created armchair experts in everything, from international trade to wage disparity to “What Really Happened in Benghazi.” They call their congressmen to complain. They arrive at rallies armed with facts to support their opinions.
But there’s a difference between an informed citizenry and an accurately informed citizenry. Our post-Google world seems to beerasing the distinction between both fact and opinion, and information and expertise.
Google nearly anything political and you’ll get a result that contains both legitimate news and partisan hackery, equally ready to be read. Better yet, clear out your search history, begin a search, and see what pops up to finish thesearch for you. Googling “Hillary” gave me “Hillary Clinton age” and “Hillary Clinton email.” So without even trying, I’ve gotten the impression of an old lady with an email problem.
“Donald Trump” gave me “Donald Trump net worth” and “Donald Trump wife.” In my mind, I’m now looking for a wealthy married man, which seems a lot better than the email lady. But included among the top results for a Donald Trump search is, “Why the new child rape case filed against Donald Trump should not be ignored.” Child rape? How many people aren’t going to click on that to make sure it’s not true?
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