The Dangers of Personalised Search - SAScon 2013

Copyright. All Rights Reserved Pierce Communications. 2013

The dangers of Personalised Search #SAScon Barry Adams Pierce Communications



Barry Adams

Digital Director at multi award winning creative agency

Pierce Communications in Belfast

Dutch (yes, really)

SEO polemicist

Twitter maniac (@badams)

Editor for award-winning blog State of 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


But all that is the stuff we notice….

What about the personalisation we don’t see?


October 2012 research from DuckDuckGo: http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/impersonal-google-search-results-are-few-and-far-between-duckduckgo-finds.php

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/impersonal-google-search-results-are-few-and-far-between-duckduckgo-finds.php






















Political bias results in SERP bias

Query: ‘climate change’;

• The Tory voter will see climate change denialist SERPs

• The Labour 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_personalization_will_hurt_public_space_and_engagement.html

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

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


What’s next, a Personalised World?


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 is that a bad thing?

• 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.


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 the 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 the Filter Bubble

• 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’.

Copyright. All Rights Reserved Pierce Communications. 2013 Copyright. All Rights Reserved Pierce Communications. 2013

@badams [email protected] http://www.piercecommunications.co.uk http://www.barryadams.co.uk

The Dangers of Personalised Search - SAScon 2013

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