[saraid216]

I get:

  (Sidebar: Paul Rand)
  Paul Rand
  Paul Rand
  Rand Paul
  Rand Paul
  (News: Rand Paul)
  Paul Rand
  Paul Rand
  Paul Rand
  Paul Rand
  Rand Paul
  Paul Rand
  Rand Paul

So... 8/12 or 75% of the first page of results are Paul Rand. Plus a thing underneath the sidebar saying "See results for Rand Paul".

That's seriously not a disservice.

[shortformblog]

Author. One point I want to add here: If you're looking for news articles about Paul Rand, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Even in quotes—where the exact phrase is supposed to show up—most of the articles are about Rand Paul. That points to algorithmic issues.

But at the same time, it's worth noting that the other examples of this issue I cite—in the case of Siri and Bing—are even more troubling, because they seem to drown out the figure entirely. Based on a search of Bing in incognito mode, no searches, I found that "paul rand" in quotes brought up 80 percent Rand Paul. Siri only brings up one result for "Who is Paul Rand," and it brings up the Wikipedia page for Rand Paul.

I realize people are going to disagree about the thesis of the article, but I think my goal here was to point out that problems like these exist—and are likely to become more common over time. Thanks for engaging.