It seems that, more and more, Google is telling us what to think. I'm not a fan of the whole +1 idea (am happy to decide or discover for myself whether something is "good" or "relevant", thank you very much) -- and now in a further act of Big Brotherism, the omnipotent G is being even more "helpful" by NOT confining searches to the actual terms.
Searching for an artist's name plus "sculpture" resulted in hits not for sculpture per se, but for statue and carving. The Big G isn't believing that what its users says is what they mean. Correcting mis-spellings is one thing, but changing the words is something quite different. How far down the line of subcategories and synonyms does G intend to go, in this subversion of meaning?
And then there's the "helpful" question at the top of the search page - Did you mean: [different word]? - which can get you shouting "No I *#&!! well didn't!"
Just as well there's no way to email these concerns to Big G. Perhaps via prayer...?
5 comments:
Google is scary and becoming ubiquitous. And I can't live without it. On Google +, it took my blog subscriptions (Blogger only?) and added the writers' emails to a general list of people who get my Plus postings. Or maybe they harvested my gmail addresses -- or both. I can't tell.
Sigh. The new world we try to keep up with.
I'm going out today to find some new painting subjects -- or new takes on old ones. I miss my library of inspiring books, but am using the internet as a substitute. In spite of your posts it isn't as helpful as I would wish.
The internet doesn't have the selection and organisation - and route maps - of a library, despite google's "best" efforts. Nor are we able to talk to the librarian and get to understand it better.
It's a less-than-perfect world, all right!
and did you know that Google will "tailor" search results depending on what it knows about you? for instance, it will give different responses if it thinks you are a Republican or a Democrat, so you get to retrieve info that supports your preconceived ideas. there was a story about this in the NYTimes a couple of months ago. it bothers me.
Yikes! We need to keep throwing those spanners into the works!
And I used to think Microsoft was bad ..... time for some subversion I think. Ooh I used the 's' word is that a knock I hear at my door ......
Post a Comment