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Subject:RE: Beliefs and passions- new job requirements From:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"john -dot- x -dot- posada -at- us -dot- hsbc -dot- com" <john -dot- x -dot- posada -at- us -dot- hsbc -dot- com>, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> Date:Tue, 6 Nov 2012 18:25:03 -0500
> -----Original Message-----
> From: john -dot- x -dot- posada -at- us -dot- hsbc -dot- com
>
> Have you ever talked to any Google employees? I interviewed with
> them in NY
>
>
> They DO believe it. They're believe they are out to change the world.
Well, talk about "drinking the koolaid" then...
No doubt [many of] those Google employees have fallen for versions
of what Google does to the rest of us.
By that, I mean the Google search bubble. My bubble is not the same
as your bubble.
Long ago, in a web far, far away, it often happened that (for example)
somebody would ask a question in a forum/mailing list, and the
resident smart-asses would respond, testily, with "Google is your friend".
Then they would list their search terms and say something like:
"Your answer was right there in search returns 3 and 4 on the first
page."
Then it began. The benign purpose of Google tweaking your individual
search results, based on things it knows about you, was to give you
better, or more localized results for weather, restaurant searches, etc.
But it quickly outgrew that.
Now, you and I are unlikely to get the same search results if we search
the same terms, at the same time.
Your Google search bubble and mine are likely to return at least some
differences in hits (whether we see items at all) and some
differences in the order that same items are presented.
Both the Wall Street Journal and the good folks at search engine
DuckDuckGo.com have done some qualitative and quantitative
testing, and were able to demonstrate very significant differences
from one person to another on identical search terms.
The testing included tests where more than 100 people
(widely scattered) entered identical search terms within a short
window of time, and took screenshots of the results. Those were then
tabulated and examined.
If your curiosity sends you for a look, I hope you'll have the wit to be
uneasy with what you find.
Anyway, this is Tuesday.
I'm Canadian, so I don't have as intimate an interest in certain things
taking place today, but perhaps you Americans might be concerned
about what undecided voters were allowed to see when they did
their pre-vote research... via Google, of course.
As for me, I'm concerned, but in the more general non-political case.
Oh, and DuckDuckGo.com has been my default search engine for about
half a year, now. No coincidence.
-k
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