Sunday, February 27, 2011

Google Alters Algorithm

Google recently announced that it is changing its search algorithm. This move is meant to make higher quality sites appear before “lower quality sites.” How do they determine which sites are low quality? The New York Times article did not explicitly say what part of the algorithm Google altered. Though Google has received negative feedback about some sites, such as eHow, Google promises that information gathered from which sites Google Chrome users block does not factor into the new rankings. (Google Chrome is a web browser created by Google.)

While I appreciate that Google is trying to offer a more efficient, reliable service, something about their action is unsettling to me. I had never thought about how much my search engine influences what information I find. If there were ever information that Google wanted to keep under wraps, all it would need to do is tweak its algorithm. After all, who is going to jump to page 756 of their search results?

In addition, who is Google to say which sites are “low quality?” Is there a difference between a low quality site and spam? I’m all about keeping spam out of my search results, but where is the line drawn? While I don’t think that Google is overreaching, this did make me pause and consider the impact my search engine can have on my information-gathering abilities.

1 comment:

adi chatow said...

From what I understood, Google is trying to make the searching engine more efficient and satisfactory by more strictly matching the words searched to the URL domains.
However, I do agree with you the power Google has on our research facilitation is quite frightening. For example,communist China keeps their national Google access limited and controlled by the government to keep its citizens under full control.
Even though I don't think Google is trying to control us, I do believe we should not disregard this issue.