People Search Digest

Google is taking a break from its ongoing tussle with Microsoft to test a search interface it has been developing for about a year on randomly determined users. The new interface melds the thumbs-up-thumbs-down social networking ethos of Digg with your basic Google search. Essentially the new Google search allows users to rate search results with the click of a button. A negative review of any search result causes it to disappear from the list of results in a magic puff of cyber smoke.

Techcrunch has a video detailing exactly how the new search interface will work. In addition to the rating system, users will be given the option of adding comments to the search results and their username link to a public profile, thus giving the search engine sheen of social networking power that has worked so well for Digg (which, coincidentally, is being bid on by both Microsoft and Google).

It’s an interesting concept, and perhaps even an enticing one with its promise of an exciting integration of two hitherto separate online models. It is a more intimate version of Google’s original search premise, which ranks search results based on the quantity of links available. The new interface will give users the power to rank results for themselves, independent of Google’s algorithm - in essence, make a personalized Google Bomb with every click.

Despite the gee-whiz-coolness of the new interface, Google’s potential model is striking more for its general insidiousness. Most troublesome is the way a search result ranked negatively disappears from the search results, regardless of its relevance to the search term. Though one would hope that users wouldn’t simply prune search results to suit their own viewpoints, the system is so wide open to abuse that it’s unlikely users would not be tempted to snip out websites that evoke their ire.

But it’s worse than that: by giving users the opportunity to trim the Internet to fit their own world view, Google is encouraging a myopia which deprives citizens of information and breeds apathy and isolation. Similarly handing over the power of ranking to the masses might ruin the way the Internet gives under-heard and under-represented subcultures to define themselves without the instant judgment of the masses. If a user can simply remove results he or she doesn’t like, how does that contribute to a free thinking, tolerant society that acknowledges the validity of all forms of thought, culture, and output?

Once people start to surround themselves with themselves, they are on the road to the kind of derangement that can destroy nations. Google was roundly criticized when it capitulated to the Chinese government in keeping certain websites from the eyes of the Chinese people. By implementing a search model that gives the user the opportunity to insulate themselves from diverse opinions, how is this any different?

By Mariana M.