Computing Magazine

Internet Users: Don't Let Google Filter You!

Posted on the 20 November 2012 by Geekybrains @sreekanth_br

Do you love Google ? Its ok. We all love it.

Do you love Google too much ? Hmmm... It's not ok. If you are the one attached to Google too much, like searching in Google website from Google chrome browser for a Google plus user, then you are in absolute trouble.

Don't get filtered ! Claim your freedom

In my previous post I wrote that google.com/history will reveal your online history (when you sign in and search) which is really handy in some cases but  it is not safe always. Of course, Google may not reveal your data to others but it will create a "Search Filter" as per your previous search inputs. Here starts the real problem.
Let us say you live in India. Assume you always searches on topics like Cricket,Movies. Now you may feel happy some times because the Google instant is expecting what you are thinking to type.
But suddenly one day, you may get some interest on politics and search in Google. Then you may be surprised to see some results which are related to politics in Cricket and Movies. Here the case is you are actually searching about Indian politics but you got some useless output. This is not the mis interpretation by Google search engine, but a result of filtering the results as per user taste.
Well the problem is not only with Google but with many websites like Facebook , News agencies etc.
The search algorithms will take note of your browser statistics, your location, your IP address. Later the algorithm use this information to create a filter for you.
Eli pariser, Founder of MoveON moment has delivered a lecture at TED.com about on-line filter problems.Watch it once , you will understand the seriousness of the filtering trouble.

(This video is available on Ted.com . Geeky brains is so proud to promote this video from TED as we believe  open knowledge sharing environment. Ted has declared all of its videos under Creative Commons license so we can use this video for non-commercial purposes.)
How to reduce the filtering  cluster while searching on web :
1. Don't use Google every time. You can find alternatives like Bing or Blekko.You can even compare the results of different search engines by using some on-line tools too.
2.If you are a die hard fan of Google (like me once !) then use the International version of google rather than Indian Google site. But there is some problem ....! even though you give google.com the server may take you to google.co.in . So use Google.com/ncr . Here ncr means No Country specific Redirection
3.Try to refresh your search history from your Google account if you are not satisfied with the search results.
Remember one thing. Web is a powerful communication available on the universe. We can change the world with web. Don't let the silly search bot separate your content from the world. Happy browsing :)
image source: 
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/fcc-googlewifi-probe/


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