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But Whose Truths?

Google modifies, tweaks, and just plain changes its search algorithm on a regular basis, most often to disrupt the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. Now, however, a Google research team is trying to change  the algorithm, to measure the “trustworthiness” of a page, rather than its reputation across the web.

The system – which is has not yet gone live – counts the number of “incorrect” facts within a page to determine its ranking in search results instead of its reputation or popularity, as measured by incoming links, across the web.

Google Cuff Censors
Google – The Internet’s Gatekeeper

This, of course, begs the questions of whose facts? Whose truths? Who will decide what is innacurate and, hence, to be downlisted and effectively censored by Google?

Google’s answers are that facts that the web unanimously agrees upon are considered to be a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that dissent from this consensus by containing contradictory information are to be bumped down the rankings, effectively censoring them by removing them from the bulk of the web’s users.

So, insofar as the internet’s greatest gatekeeper, Google is concerned, consensus reality will be the only reality. And, of course, Google will be the arbiter of that consensus.

I guess, if Google’s plan is allowed to be implemented, nobody will read where you wrote, “And yet it moves.“

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2015 at 8:52 am and is filed under Politics, Society, Technology. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Google Knows

Google, the internet search giant and greatest controlling force on the internet, keeps track of what you search for and, while they claim that they don’t sell this information to 3rd-parties, they do bundle it together so as to better sell you to those 3rd-parties.

Google Boobs
Google Knows What You’ve Been Searching For

You might want to remember that Google is watching and remembering while you’re cruising the web and searching for stuff, especially you freaks in Lahore, Pakistan. 😆

Yo, Chutiya! You’re taking a lot more into your own hands than you think if the Islamists surrounding you find out what you’re doing on the web.

But before any of us complain too stridently about this, let’s all take a moment to remember something else:

If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

— Andrew Lewis aka blue_beetle

That’s pretty much how it goes in the real word which, despite the best efforts of fools, the internet is part and parcel of. So enjoy yourselves, but remember that it’s Google giving you that feeling of being watched while you….whatever. 😉

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at 8:53 am and is filed under Humor, Society, Technology. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.