Bubbles, Censorship, Filtering, Personalisation, Relevancy… I’m tired of it all. Tired yet mad.

  • Personalisation is the process of tailoring pages to individual users’ characteristics or preferences.
  • Censorship is the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society.
  • Filtering search results is a fancy way of saying censorship.

 

Google_is_not_your_friend image When I search the Internet I do NOT want results tailored to me. I want real information presented to me without bias. If and when I want biased information I can and will search for it. I’m quite capable of doing that. I am a free thinking person who is capable of searching and discerning what to read or not read. I don’t want a 3rd party (google/facebook/BB) censoring, er filtering information for me.

I used to like Google, I really did. It wasn’t all that long ago when they respected users privacy and the search results were unbiased (not tailored) and impartial but now they seem to care more about competing with facebook and other social media than being the best search engine. The new Google motto of Search Plus Your World has changed everything.

John and I noticed a trend with our searches so we deliberately and intentionally tested it. Obviously we both have different tastes and this was being reflected in our searches. Our search results were filtered/tailored based upon our gender, our search history, our click history. The problem with this is that as I click on things that I want to see and I agree with, I just keep getting more search results geared toward that. All the other results gets demoted (filtered). I wanted to know what I was missing out on!

I don’t want to live in a bubble that only shows me things IT thinks I will like or want to view. When I search for information I don’t want the results to be filtered UNLESS I intentionally filter them with various options. I want to do my own processing and filtering, thank you.

TedTalk – What FACEBOOK and GOOGLE are hiding from the world

Breaking Out Of The Bubble

Breaking out of the bubble and away from the grasping claws of Google isn’t easy. It is something that I’m looking into. So feel free to share any ideas with me.

Want Out But Still Want A Good Search?

StartPage: startpage.com/
When you search with Startpage the Web results are generated by Google but Startpage does NOT record your IP address! Nor do they share your personal information with any third party.

DuckDuckGo: duckduckgo.com/
Provides a clean interface together with a no-tracking privacy policy. Offers keyboard shortcuts to navigate and zero-click information sources. See their privacy page for more info.

Bing might be a good option for now… but I can’t help but wonder if they will end up going down Google Street too?

And Just for The Conspiracy Theorists…

Did you know that both the big G and FB (along with those in Amazon and LinkedIn) attended the Bildeberg Conference 2011? If you don’t know what I’m referring to… then StartPage is your friend. 😉

I know I might sound like a crackpot to some… and if you think I am that’s okay. Simply disregard this post as the raving of a mad woman. But don’t say you weren’t warned. 😉