Sharp as a Marble - A difference of bias?

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A difference of bias?

Google 'climate' – See the results?

climategateGoogle

Now… Use Bing

climategateBing

Now, I can't honestly say this is true bias, but I've been getting MUCH better search results from Bing, they've been more up to date, and seem to have a decent balance. Google seems to 'fix' a lot of their search results.

I can't believe Microsoft is starting to look like the good guy.

posted @ 11/29/2009 3:58:43 PM

Comments

Aaron says:

on 11/29/2009 4:27:51 PM

Before one goes ascribing malice or even incompetence to this situation, consider that it could well be that the difference in results is due to legitimate design decisions. It could just be that Google's autocomplete algorithm places higher value on historically high numbers of searches, while Bing's is more sensitive to trends.

So ClimateGate is being searched for quite a bit right now, but looking at the long-term historical trend of searches, this may just be a blip on the radar.

Since I would imagine both auto-complete algorithms are based on what people search for rather than what's actually out there, I'd be quicker to interrogate people's search habits and how they might influence different algorithms than I would be to assume that it reflects bias.

Just my $0.02.

~Aaron

Robb Allen says:

on 11/29/2009 5:08:52 PM

The problem is that Google has been caught several times "correcting" search data. Michele Obama monkey images have been removed although Bush - Chimp pictures are and always were perfectly OK.

Still, I've been getting much better results from Bing lately.

McThag says:

on 11/29/2009 8:36:02 PM

http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/42839/2769272180041331668S600x600Q85.jpg

That's what I got with the Google search gizmo with Safari 4.0.4 running on OSX 10.5.8

Could it be they fixed it now that you've caught them with their pants down?

Robb Allen says:

on 11/29/2009 9:17:17 PM

McThag, who knows? Like Aaron said, it might be a function of search popularity vs. a ranking factor. Or it could be a human correction added in afterward.

Silverevilchao says:

on 11/29/2009 9:36:04 PM

Robb Allen: They did NOT remove the Michele Obama picture, the person who put it up on their site did. In fact, Google said so themselves that they were not removing it.

Robb Allen says:

on 11/29/2009 9:40:34 PM

I stand corrected. Thanks Silver.

Sevesteen says:

on 11/29/2009 9:57:21 PM

Interesting--typing "climate" gave me climategate as the first suggestion in the Google search bar in Firefox, it wasn't even one of the suggestions searching from the Google homepage.

The suggestions are personalized--once I searched for climategate, that became the top suggestion on the homepage as well.

Robb Allen says:

on 11/29/2009 9:59:48 PM

Ah, SELF selection bias. Interesting. I forgot about that part of Google.

Hence why if you log in and do a vanity search, you're reeeealy popular when in reality, nobody else would see it.

Jose says:

on 12/17/2009 10:25:18 AM

I just did the same search today after hearing Eric's podcast. In Bing Climate did not include Climate Gate as an option. In Google, it was the second choice after Climate Change. I have the screen shots to prove this if you'd like them.

Jose says:

on 12/17/2009 10:26:11 AM

Comments have been closed on this topic.