| What jlarocco said. But more specifically... Disingenuous: Because if you genuinely can't, you don't control your algorithm, you're just there to keep the lights on. I refer you to the joke about the autopilot computer, the pilot, and the dog. Unhelpful: because it is. This is someone who is being deeply distressed by Google's actions in this small area of their operations, and their reaction is to tell him to take a hike. They don't have any obligation to him, but it's not good corporate citizenship. Vaguely related rant incoming; have some patience, please. (",) We make algorithms, feed them masses of data, and have them suggest things to us based on our previous measured behaviour. This produces a positive feedback effect; in news and current affairs, you gradually get directed more and more towards news confirming your biases (see the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble concept). And we have psychological research showing groups without dissenting voices get more radical over time - see here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/169/3947/778. So naive implementations of news suggesters should be "considered harmful" to the public discourse. But those implementing these things don't seem to care, and often seem to show exactly the "it's the algorithm, not me" attitude displayed in this situation. We have a greater responsibility than that; if we're going to cause the (almost-)elimination of the job of newspaper editor, I'd hope we'd do it with something capable of doing at least as good a job. |
That's a fair request. Though, google didn't design search or autocomplete to do that right? Are they held responsible because some people figured it was good enough to do that job? I completely understand that it is detrimental to some people. At the same time, if it is changed, doesn't that take away its core functionality, which is actually useful to everybody?
Search and autocomplete serve a specific purpose: to search the internet for topics relevant to a query, and to aid in searching for common topics, respectively. People give them more functionality then that. Is that google's fault? Would they be fair in saying, "You're using it wrong"?