Quote:
Originally Posted by CaramonLS
Google's auto complete function typically supplies you with the most popular searches that other people are using. It helps you find relevant results. So when I type in something like "Amway", it comes up with 5 suggestions:
1) Amway is bad
2) Amway scam
3) Amway review
4) Amway center
5) Amway cult
Based on those results, if I had no prior knowledge or limited knowledge of Amway, I am probably coming away with a negative view of Amway as a company just by seeing the auto-complete function on google and may alter my perception because of it.
Now you still might be thinking "no big deal", which is your choice, but these small actions can influence voters. Here is an article which talks about the level of influence this can have on elections:
We present evidence from five experiments in two countries suggesting the power and robustness of the search engine manipulation effect (SEME). Specifically, we show that (i) biased search rankings can shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20% or more, (ii) the shift can be much higher in some demographic groups, and (iii) such rankings can be masked so that people show no awareness of the manipulation. Knowing the proportion of undecided voters in a population who have Internet access, along with the proportion of those voters who can be influenced using SEME, allows one to calculate the win margin below which SEME might be able to determine an election outcome.
The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcome of elections. |
Try the same thing with Trump. Google suppresses his controversies too (bankruptcy, ##### grabbing, etc).