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