The Dangers of Personalised Search Friends of Search

20 February 2014

Barry Adams

Vulgar self-promotional slide

Barry Adams is…

Digital Director at multi-award winning digital agency

The Tomorrow Lab in Belfast (formerly known as Pierce Communications)

Dutch (yes, really)

SEO polemicist

Twitter ranter @badams

Editor & blogger for award-winning blog StateofDigital.com

Also blogs at award-nominated BarryAdams.co.uk

Google’s Business Model

AdWords launched in Oct 2000

90% of Google’s revenue is from advertising;

Not advertising

Advertising

Personalised Search

What is Personalised Search?

“Search results that vary based on the searcher’s profile and

past behaviour.”

Elements of Personalised Search

• Location

• Search history

• Browsing history

• Social circles

• Known interests

Smart Personalisation

Not-so-smart Personalisation

Dumb Personalisation

Creepy Personalisation

But all that is the stuff we notice….

What about the personalisation we don’t see?

October 2012 research from DuckDuckGo: http://vimeo.com/51181384

Political bias >> SERP bias

Query: ‘climate change’;

• The Right-wing voter will see climate change denialist SERPs

• The Left-wing voter will see climate science SERPs

Which are the ‘best’ results?

Google Maps Personalisation

Personalised Maps

“In Google's world, public space is just something that stands

between your house and the well-reviewed restaurant that you are

dying to get to.”

- Evgeny Morozov

Source:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/05/google_maps_personal

ization_will_hurt_public_space_and_engagement.html

What’s next, a Personalised World?

Why is this a bad thing?

The Filter Bubble

• Google will show you things it knows you like;

Your SERPs will be full of sites you visit regularly.

Your news will be from the sites whose perspectives &

viewpoints you agree with.

Your maps will be full of places you & your friends have visited

before.

Why wouldn’t you want that?

• Because you’ll rarely be exposed to something new and

unexpected.

• It erodes the commonalities between all people.

• Our worldviews will become increasingly polarised, isolated, and

self-perpetuating.

Why is it dangerous?

• People get things wrong all the time.

• But if you’re never exposed to alternative viewpoints, you’ll

never know when you’re wrong.

• Result: unshakable convictions that are (probably) based on

flawed information.

Technology can imprison us

• Technology does not automatically liberate us;

If left unchecked, technology can serve to contain us

• New technology is not released in a vacuum;

Existing corporate & government structures will capitalise on

and subvert the Next Big Thing

Silicon Valley ≠ the Real World

Corporate campuses like the Googleplex are isolated communes

of geek productivity.

What can you do?

Embrace doubt

“The trouble with the world is that the

stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are

full of doubt.”

- Bertrand Russell

Enjoy serendipity

“I find that a great part of the information I

have was acquired by looking up something

and finding something else on the way.”

- Franklin Pierce Adams

Reject Google’s Filter Bubble

Personalised search in Google is unavoidable. Thanks to Google+

you are logged in all the time, so Google tracks you everywhere.

Stop using Google.

Seriously. Stop it.

Alternatives:

DuckDuckGo

Blekko

Yandex

Reject an advertising-mediated

worldview

• Use Amazon when logged out.

• Install AdBlock Plus.

• Read different newspapers. (Just for the sake of all that is good in

this world, NOT the Daily Mail!)

• Explore stuff online!

• Read Eli Pariser’s book ‘The Filter Bubble’.

What’s next?

What’s next for Google?

• Microphones in every ceiling

• Microchips in our brains

• Self-driving cars

• Balloons over Africa

• Robotics...

Thank you.

@badams

barry@thetomorrowlab.com

http://www.barryadams.co.uk