What does make you frustrated the most, when you look at a set of inconclusive results from a search engine? For most people it is the irrelevancy of the result; but sometimes it is the unimportance and trivialness of the result. Let’s look at this problem from another angle. How does the result influence us? “Influential search,” is about searching for information that is most likely to make us take an action. If we are looking for a gadget and see one that is recommended by Steve Jobs -and is not an Apple product; no conflict of interest- we probably find it very appealing. A restaurant that has been given 5 stars by 90% of its customers would be another example of good search results, when we are searching for a place to take our family to dinner. In his book, Influence, Science and Practice, Robert Cialdini defines six basic categories of influence: scarcity, authority, social proof, liking, reciprocity, and consistency. Interestingly, some of these methods of influence are used by search engines, or search functionality of other online services, to provide a more convincing result to the users. Since Google is the synonym for search in our era, let’s look at how Google’s search works. Of course, Google has a complicated secret sauce, but the essential element is finding authoritative sources. For example, for a piece of news, Reuters, CNN or BBC are authoritative sources, since most other news pages quoting them and referring to them. In fact, in many search engine niches, researchers are scrambling to find what source are the most dominant in a specific subject. A challenging problem considering the formidable number of subjects, and fluid and dynamic nature of authority in the world wide web, where everyone, at every se... ... middle of paper ... ...ms to be the hidden jewel not yet discovered by the online media. Scarcity -based search is about finding the one of the kind, the small restaurant hidden in the remote alley that only locals know about; the hairstyle that only one in a million wears; the new dance tricks that only a handful master. Scarcity is ephemeral in the Internet. If something is rare and interesting, it will, in a very short time, make a large following. The rare hairstyle becomes a heap fashion; the small restaurant becomes a chain; and the dance trick finds its way to “Dancing with the Stars.” Therefore, finding the rare things that have other elements of influence is the holy grail of search and discovery. This could explain the recent popularity of real time search. The faster you can identify a potentially hot, but currently unknown, item, the more you can benefit from its later success
Andrea Schlesinger’s, “In Google We Trust” a chapter in her book The Death of Why? The issue is that the internet has changed people and that it may not be a good thing. Google has changed the way that people think greatly, especially in our ability to analyze, understand and know the source of the information we receive from google.
The author used from Napa Valley as an example that “superior code is also ruthlessly efficient at finding every reference, however obscure, tangential or dated it might be, when an individual’s name is searched.” The author also stated that he made a website in 1998 and after a while and specifically in 2004 he came to search for himself and he discovered that Google still has this information kept in its memory. He also tried to clarify that Google can be a reason for an employee’s termination or job refusal when his/her boss or interviewer searches about their background and finds some negative feedback on their weblog. I agree with some of the writer’s points of view, but on the other hand, I think that Google is not that negative as it is expressed in this article.
It is true that Google has contributed immensely to the development of America, but one must not remain sidetracked by the holistic effects, and should instead delve deeper into the true principles of Google in order to realize that the company is, on the contrary, run by “robber barons”. Recently, Google has posted about the principles that guide the company: “do what’s best for the user”, “provide the most relevant answers as quickly as possible”, “label advertisements clearly”, “be transparent”, and “loyalty, not lock-in” (Rosoff). During Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s time at Stanford together, they wrote an essay titled: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
Many would never guess that Google's search engine is actually biased toward other companies. In the article Google's Monopoly and Internet Freedom it states that, “a commerce site whose search algorithm favors products and services from Google and those from companies able to spend the most advertising on.”(Pagliery) meaning that companies are paying Google for the privilege to advertise their product. Google is looking out for the best interest of their company then the best interest of the users, making their search engine biased since their results are modified to their liking. Many people would assume that Google’s search engine is based off of the popularity of a website but if that were the case than every other search engine would be coming up with the same results. According to Pagliery, Google hires scientist to constantly tweak their search algorithms. The only reason a site would need to change their algorithms so frequently is if a newly approaching website company is struggling to get views so they pay Google to help them advertise their site. This is why it is becoming so difficult for other companies to compete with Google because if Google can choose what to put on their search engine that means they can bury other companies to the point where their views will be almost completely gone. If users had
In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” the reader finds all three methods of persuasion, ethos, pathos, and logos in emphasizing his point that Google is possibly making people stupid; but it is ultimately the people who cause their own mental deterioration. His persuasion is a reminder to people of the importance of falling back on the “traditional” ways of reading. He also understands that in skimming an article one has the ability to retain what is necessary. Carr himself points out that in the past he was better able to focus on what he read and retain the information. However, now he exercises the process of browsing and skimming over information, just as many individuals have come to do in this day and age.
Nicholas Carr believes that Google is making us stupid, I totally agree with him! This article is appealing to me because it is a modern day problem and has a lot of controversy over the issue. I also chose this article because I too am a frequent user
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." July/August 2008. The Alantic Magazine. 20 February 2012 .
From “How?, Who?, What?, Where?, Why?, When?” all our answers are at the tips of our fingers. The multitude of answers and resources Google reveals to us, allows our brain to expand our thoughts. Each new resource leads us to more intricate and deeper thought processes. At one click of a button, numerous pieces of information are in our presence.
In composing “Is Google Making Us More Stupid” Nicholas Carr wants his audience to be feared by the internet while at the same time he wants his work to seem more creditable. Nicholas Carr uses many different types of evidence to show us that we should be scared and feared as well as his credibility. Carr’s audience is people who think like him, who find themselves getting lost on the internet while reading something, someone who is educated and uses the internet to look up the answers to questions or to read an article or book.
The steps taken to search for information that already exists about the topic include using scholarly search engines to gather a se...
In today’s fast paced technology, search engines have become vastly popular use for people’s daily routines. A search engine is an information retrieval system that allows someone to search the...
Businesses use the media to convince consumers to buy their products. Since the start of mass media, companies have used communication to broadcast to large numbers of people about their product (Shah). Companies spend a great amount of money to encourage people to buy their product, by winning them over (Shah). The media provides information, rates, and suggests new products and services such as movies, computers, restaurants, books, fashion items, and more (Rinallo and Basuroy). Back in the days where brands had to buy advertising or secure media placements are gone. Today it is becoming really hard to know the difference between the role of marketer and publisher. This gives the chance for companies to become satisfied conservators, making their own items on their websites for their businesses (“Media Influence”). More and more people are considering traditional advertisements as untrustworthy; in fact, 75% of people do not think traditional advertisements are true. Companies uses online advertisements to influence people to buy their product. People today are trying to make more informed buying choices, using all the information they can find online. A person’s online experience can influence them to shop at a particular store; in fact, 91% of people shop at stores because of reviews online (Peneycad). People spend a large amount of time researching products before they decide to buy them. 86% of people use search engines to research products. 62% of people who research products online buy products in the store. People who research services and products online are more likely to make a buying decision (Peneycad). 78% of people are influenced by post from companies on social media websites. 72% of people are trusting of online recommendations of products. Peneycad mentions,“This means 72% of people trust complete strangers just as [much] as people they know when it comes to making a purchase decision (Peneycad 2).
Buncombe, Andrew. “Google resists demand to hand over search records.” 15 March 2006. The Independent.
Exploring The Internet The Internet is like a network of networks where any computer can link up to information stored within it. It is accessed by a telecommunications line and a modulator-demodulator (MODEM). It is brought to your computer screen by converting analogue telephone signals into digital computer signals. There are many advantages and disadvantages on the Internet.