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The Open Secret of Google Search (theatlantic.com)
8 points by jindalbells 5 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments



What does the the "breaking point" of Google search even look like?

Tech always comes and goes, but this is not MySpace. Google search is a skill, its so central to so many lives. And that means the breaking point has to be all that more extreme to even be a breaking point.



I really love the art on this piece. Anyway, I found this article interesting because of this point:

> " “I don’t know if you searched for holocaust information between 2000 and 2008, but deniers routinely showed up in the top results,” he told me. The same was true for Sandy Hook hoaxers—in fact, campaigns from the Sandy Hook families to fight the conspiracy theories led to some of the search engine’s changes. “Whenever somebody says, ‘Hey, Google doesn’t feel as human anymore,’ all I can say is that I bet they don’t want a return to that,” Fishkin said. "

Google search might be worse in almost every measurable way, but it's better at not surfacing fringe ideas and conspiracy theories? I'm not sure that lines up with my experience, especially if you take youtube's algorithm into account...


Its better at avoiding negative headlines, which is not the same thing.




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