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Programming Pitfalls:�Google Searching

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Google Searching

  • The Google search engine has become the standard way of finding information on the world-wide web.

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  • In this lesson we’ll look at some ethical issues with Google’s autocompletion process, and we’ll also look at ethical issues in how Google’s search process works.

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Google Searching

  • When you are typing in a phrase to search for, Google uses an autocompletion process help in searching.

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  • The autocompletion works based on phrases that people have actually searched for in the past.

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  • This can sometimes result in some very funny suggestions, however sometimes it results in suggestions that are not at all funny.

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Google Searching

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  • Some Google Autocompletes are funny:

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Google Searching

  • October
  • 2010

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Google Searching

  • October
  • 2010

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Google Searching

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  • But some Google Autocompletes are not at all funny:

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Google Searching

  • December
  • 2018

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Google Searching

  • December
  • 2018

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Google Searching

  • The Google search engine uses the PageRank algorithm to do the search process and return results, the specifics of which are a closely guarded secret, but the main idea is easy to grasp:
    • the more sites that a webpage with the search phrase has, the higher the rating it will get (and the higher it’s “credibility score”).

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    • Also if two pages are pointed to by the same number of sites, but if for one of these pages each of the pointing sites have higher credibility scores that the sites pointing to the other page, then the first page will end up with a higher credibility score.

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Google Searching

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Google Searching

  • Google Personalized Search

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  • Since 2009, when you do a google search, the search results are not only based on the relevance of each web page to the search term, but also on which websites you (or someone else using the same browser) visited through previous search results.
  • This provides a more personalized experience that can increase the relevance of the search results for the particular user. However, such filtering may also have side effects, such as the creation of a filter bubble.

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Google Searching

  • However, there are other ways to improve the order of webpage results that are returned form a search.

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  • Including the following >>>

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Google Searching

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  • Money: Organizations and individuals can pay Google to improve their placement in the ranking of results returned.

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Google Searching

  • Search Engine Optimization: Organizations and individuals can hire companies that specialize in improving their placement in the ranking of results returned by doing some of the following:
      • Cross-linking pages on the same site, this increases the number of links
      • Cross-linking pages on different sites, these are called Link Farms.
      • Constantly updating the content on the site, which increases its rank.
      • Adding information to the “Header” page of the webpage (called the “metatag” section), that doesn’t appear on the browser, but is used in ranking the order of webpages.

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Google Searching

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  • There may be some evidence that Google itself is changing the ranking order of content for political reasons >>>

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Google Searching

  • Also, in 2019 senior Google engineer Gregory Coppola contacted watchdog group Project Veritas to talk about the Google bias that affects the information users get about political choices.

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  • Coppola noticed that in 2014 Google search was neutral, but by 2016 it was showing clear bias for the US Democratic Party.

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Google Searching

  • This was supported by Research Psychologist Robert Epstein who showed that biased search results generated by Google likely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton

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  • Epstein showed that a lot of people think that if something is more highly rated on Google Search than another story, then it would be more important and more correct.

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Google Searching

  • Epstein also noted that “searches for Hillary Clinton did not autocomplete to words that were popular searches if they reflected negatively on the Democratic candidate .”

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Google Searching

  • Coppola doesn’t believe there is a vast conspiracy in Google, but rather that: “And in fact, I think it would only take a couple out of an organization of 100,000, you know, to make sure that the product is a certain way…”

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Google Searching

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  • Finally let’s look at how Google Image Search can sometimes promote gender-based stereotyping >>>

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Google Searching

  • Google Image search can sometimes promote gender bias - Teacher

December

2020

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Google Searching

  • Google Image search can sometimes promote gender bias - Programmer

December

2020

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Google Searching

  • Google Image search can sometimes promote gender bias - Homemaker

December

2020

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Other Search Engines

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DuckDuckGo

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DuckDuckGo

  • https://duckduckgo.com/

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  • Key concept: Privacy

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DuckDuckGo

  • DuckDuckGo presents itself as “Privacy – simplified“.

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  • The site claims that it does not collect data of people using it.

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DuckDuckGo

  • As a consequence, the results on a search are independent on who is searching.

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  • Technically it is a combination of a meta search engine and a web crawler.

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DuckDuckGo

  • The name goes back to a childrens’ game by the name of Duck Duck Goose.

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  • The site is run by a small company in the USA.

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Ecosia

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Ecosia

  • https://www.ecosia.org/?c=en

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  • Key concept: Green

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Ecosia

  • Ecosia is run by a small company in Berlin, Germany.

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  • It focusses on a sustainable, ecological mission: 80 per cent of its profits are claimed to go into reforestation projects in Africa and elsewhere.

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Ecosia

  • According to the company, the number of trees planted through their financing was 40 million in October 2018.

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  • Technology-wise, the search results are taken from Bing.

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Ecosia

  • The company in Berlin received various startup awards.

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Qwant

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Qwant

  • https://www.qwant.com/?l=en

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  • Key concept: Privacy, Non-Commerical

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Qwant

  • Qwant is a search engine that respects privacy. For example, cookies are deleted with the end of the session.

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Qwant

  • It is based in France (a small company), and recent data said that about 65 per cent of its use are from French users.

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Qwant

  • In independent tests, search results of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Qwant turned out to be of similar quality.

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Google Searching

  • REFLECTIONS

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    • People use Google to find things out, and assume the higher the ranking of a webpage, the more likely it is to be true.

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    • There are ways for external organisations of improve the ranking of a specific website using optimization techniques.

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    • There are also ways that Google programmers can change the ranking of returned results.

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Acknowledgements

#CheckYourTech

The authors of these slides and the participants of the Ethics4EU project gratefully acknowledge the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

www.Ethics4EU.eu

#Ethics4EU