i202 Fall 2009 School of Information, UC Berkeley

When reading this article I had a hard time with the author's assumption that search-engine users should be engaging in "deliberative debate" by default. Many searches are conducted with the simple goal of answering a question, or getting very general information on a topic. If I search for "flowers," I'm asking about a very, very big topic. We've previously learned that users rarely pass the first page of results. In the ten hits my search engine returns, should several of them be devoted to fringe controversies involving flowers? I think not. The simple fact is that any search for a noun with no qualifiers is inherently vague. I'm of the opinion that the goal of a search engine is not to "stimulate debate," but to "return relevant documents." In the absence of a clear request, a search engine should make an assumption about what a user will find relevant and fill the information need as best as possible. It is reasonable that the search engine will assume that the user is asking a question from within the norms of society, as this is where most people spend most of their time. I do agree that there is a problem if people looking for dissenting opinions can't find them. I am not convinced that this is the case in practice.

Specifically, I take issue with the author's assertion that: "PageRank does not reflect the desires of any atypical, outside the mainstream user that might actually wish to see such "unpopular" content." (p. 75) If a user is genuinely interested in debate about a topic, it is very easy to add a qualifying word that will instantly dredge up the realm of unpopular or controversial ideas. Pick any of the topics described as places were Google failed to turn up relevant controversy (distance learning, Albert Einstein, Belize, Microsoft). Now add the word 'controversy.' Voila, relevant articles on the first page of results.

Ultimately, I am of the opinion that it is not a search engine's job to try and politically educate users, and that a search engine attempting such a course would quickly find itself with a dwindling user base. If I do a search for "buy nikes," and get a load of articles about sweatshops, the search engine has not answered my query or directed me to a relevant page. As a user this is not where I would spend a few hours boning up on the finer points of free trade; this is where I would leave the page and conduct my query somewhere that will answer my question.