“Fair” search results — it’s the law?
Gordon Crovitz spotlights a Congressional investigation into Google search. As Crovitz puts it:
An absence of consumer harm didn’t stop senators from offering some improbable recommendations. Among them: that Google replace its algorithm with a panel of experts to ensure “fair” search results. As Google tries to improve the relevancy of its search results for consumers, some sites inevitably come up higher and some lower in the results. The losers now lobby Washington.
While we know that the government should not regulate Internet search, it should be pointed out that Google has indicated an ability and perhaps even the inclination to censor skeptics via its search algorithms.
The mainstream media has a long history of censorship — i.e., filtering the news so that you only get to read/hear about what it deems appropriate — and a real value of the Internet (so far, anyway) has been its circumvention of the MSM’s conspiracy of silence.
We suppose if searches at Google get bad enough, then competitors will arise and do to Google what blogging and the Fox News Channel did to the MSM.
Meantime, Googler beware.
Click to read “Climate cleansing: Google to censor skeptics?“
http://www.wolframalpha.com is also an excellent scientific search engine..
However, on the topic at hand, I believe interference with the freedom of speech by an elected official should carry the death penalty. That would make finally put this kind of nonsense to rest.
Why I use Bing: Aside from the superior parsing of MSDN, I don’t care for censorship or Google’s politics.
At least if I’m going to support a mega-corporation that controls much of my life and my data, I’ll support one that’s honest about their intentions.