SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Days after the Trump administration instituted a controversial travel ban in January 2017, Google employees discussed ways they might be able to tweak the company's search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations and contact lawmakers and government agencies, according to internal company emails.
The email traffic, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, shows that employees proposed ways to "leverage" search functions and take steps to counter what they considered to be "islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms 'Islam', 'Muslim', 'Iran', etc." and "prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results from search terms 'Mexico', 'Hispanic', 'Latino', etc."
The email chain, while sprinkled with cautionary notes about engaging in political activity, suggests employees considered ways to harness the company's vast influence on the internet in response to the travel ban. Google said none of the ideas discussed were implemented.
"These emails were just a brainstorm of ideas, none of which were ever implemented," a company spokeswoman said in a statement. "Google has never manipulated its search results or modified any of its products to promote a particular political ideology—not in the current campaign season, not during the 2016 election, and not in the aftermath of President Trump's executive order on immigration. Our processes and policies would not have allowed for any manipulation of search results to promote political ideologies."
wsj.com/articles/google-workers-discussed-tweaking-search-function-to-counter-travel-ban-1537488472
(Score: 2, Disagree) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:38PM (5 children)
Exactly. Search engines are entirely too easy to make and host for monopoly to ever be a worry. Lessen your quality of service at your own peril.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 26 2018, @02:09PM (4 children)
Your new, fair, search engine might not take the market overnight. And Google might recognize the competition and mend its ways -- which doesn't help your project to be successful. So now there is a potential cycle.
10. Monopolist starts to become abusive
20. Open competition starts to become a threat
30. People start using the competition
40. Monopolist pretends to be nice again
50. Most people come back to the monopolist.
60. GOTO 10
With each iteration, the competition gains more users. Unless, the competition is wiped out on each iteration, or even only some iterations.
However this didn't seem to work for Microsoft. Linux won. Open Source won. Microsoft is now trying to embrace.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 26 2018, @02:09PM
I suppose I could have added:
70. PROFIT
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @05:27PM (2 children)
Monopolist doesn't mean "has all the customers", it means controls the supply of $product/$service. Google doesn't and can't for search engines. Google isn't on top because they can control what people search for, it's on top because they have a reputation for providing the most relevant results very quickly. Having to repair a reputation they've damaged if they want to keep users is the market functioning precisely as intended.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 26 2018, @06:29PM (1 child)
I don't disagree.
Another factor that contributes to Google being on top is that it is the path of least resistance. Since I've used it for ages, it took me a while to try another the duck thing. Then a while to bookmark it. Then a while to make a habit of it. Even thought I still use Google search a lot.
Google also has built a moat around its castle. A 250 mile wide moat. (not length but width) That moat is all of its other free services. Gmail. Keep. Docs. Drive. News. Android play store, with cloud backups. Etc.
Basically the same factors that keep people locked into Microsoft. Not just inertia. But deep hooks into a lot of things that would have to be changed.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @08:42PM
Eh, it's not as wide as you think. Most of the stuff they have besides Android and YouTube is garbage compared to other free services or products out there. Just Android the OS, mind you, not the Google apps.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.