October 3, 2011

The Invisible Editors of the Internet:Your Filter Bubble

An important video about the secret shaping of the Internet.


"The Internet is now telling us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see."

Posted by Vanderleun at October 3, 2011 12:41 AM
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The new Gatekeepers are Algorithms instead of people?

Okay... so we now have an automated memoryhole.

That puts the Progress into Progressive.

Posted by: cond0010 at October 3, 2011 1:37 AM

There IS a way to get Google's raw feed of search results before they hit the algorithms. Scroogle.org offers it and it's all I use. No cookies, no storage of search terms, in other words, complete privacy.

Posted by: John Hinds at October 3, 2011 5:35 AM

I've noticed more and more lately, Google covers less of the persecution of Christians in the middle east. I'm trying Scroogle.

Posted by: ahem at October 3, 2011 8:13 AM

Thanks for this information. It's a great video. The same generation that was taught that the only information worth having was that which did not cause "discomfort" is the same generation that has invented the algorithms to produce "comfortable" search results. No surprise here.

Posted by: Gloria at October 3, 2011 12:12 PM

I detest these algorithims. When I go to Amazon, it's like having a high pressure salesman turned loose on me. They keep telling me what I've bought before and why I would like to buy this or that book or gadget. It ticks me off that they think I am that easily pushed around. That Google, Bing, etc. are editing what I can see based on what they think I want to see really irritates me. It's all about manipulating people and separating them from their money. Damn manipulators!

Posted by: Jimmy J. at October 3, 2011 9:10 PM

Thanks John, I'm going to Scroogle.

Posted by: Cond0010 at October 3, 2011 9:47 PM

Let me see if I have this straight:
Eli Pariser, former executive director, and current Board President of MoveOn.org, self-identified "Progressive", is worried that organizations (he lists Google, Facebook, YahooNews, Washington Post, NY Times, the Huffington Post, Netflix, Amazon, as examples) are now "personalizing" their search results, "giving us what we want to see, not necessarily what we need to see". OK..., so who defines "need", Mr. Pariser. MoveOn.org??
This is the guy who earlier is quoted as saying the problem here is that "we are getting too much candy, and not enough carrots". (I'd personally like to see more "meat" on the table, but I guess that option never crosses brother Eli's ever so politically correct mind. I digress.)
But then comes the problem: "Algorithm's don't have the kind of embedded ethics that editors did."
The solution: Make sure these algorithms include something "important", or "challenging" or "uncomfortable" in their results. Huh...?! "We need to have the new gatekeepers to encode that sense of civic responsibility into these algorithms..."
I suggest that Mr. Pariser omits 60 years of mass media history: the fact that we still have those gatekeepers hard at work - see the list above to name just a few, and add NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN. So far they have been overwhelmingly left wing in their ethics, and that what he is most determined to see is that they become even more influential, just statutorily so.
Have a great day. I'm gonna go check out Scroogle.
Richard

Posted by: Richard at October 4, 2011 11:27 AM

Another search engine that eliminates the cookies and such is "Starting Page". I use it quite extensively.

Posted by: dejake at October 4, 2011 8:29 PM