{"id":44416,"date":"2014-08-17T14:53:56","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T20:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/17\/prescriptive-vs-descriptive-search-results.html"},"modified":"2014-08-20T17:08:53","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T23:08:53","slug":"prescriptive-vs-descriptive-search-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/17\/prescriptive-vs-descriptive-search-results.html","title":{"rendered":"Prescriptive vs descriptive search results"},"content":{"rendered":"
So perhaps it is my Male Privilege at work here, but …<\/p>\n

So Google notes that a search request has an easily modifiable variant that is much, much more frequently searched for, and so (as Google helpfully does) it does the original entered search, but also suggests the alternative.<\/p>\n

That sounds like the right thing to do. That it gets entangled in gender politics seems beside the point. \u00a0It's not political commentary, but a reflection of the usage of the tool. The bias, if you want to call it that, is not on the part of Google or its algorithms, but on the part of people who search for stuff. Unless you're going to suggest that gender-specific words should be excluded from consideration as offered alternatives, I don't think there's a lot that can (or should) be done here.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Shannon Turlington<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Interesting story here about search algorithms and bias.\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Why did this simple Google Search get retweeted 3,500 times?<\/a>
\n When I googled “English major who taught herself calculus,” Google gave me the result I wanted — plus a most unhelpful suggestion.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So perhaps it is my Male Privilege at work here, but … So Google notes that a search request has an easily modifiable variant that is much, much more frequently searched for, and so (as Google helpfully does) it does the original entered search, but also suggests the alternative. That sounds like the right thing … Continue reading “Prescriptive vs descriptive search results”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,3,348,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-blogging","category-women","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27877,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/12\/google-search-untouched-by-human-hands.html","url_meta":{"origin":44416,"position":0},"title":"Google Search – Untouched by Human Hands?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 12-May-12 3:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Google is arguing (with some decent legal backing) that its engineered search algorithms constitute editorial control, thus making the Search results protected by the First Amendment.Which makes perfect sense for defending from some kinds of legal trouble but, as the article notes, opens them up to other objections and legal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33837,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/16\/google-and-the-new-search.html","url_meta":{"origin":44416,"position":1},"title":"Google and the New Search","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-May-13 5:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting stuff here. Google is clearly not sitting on its laurels regarding search -- and they equally clearly are best placed to do something about it (even if, as those stupid commercials try to convinced\u00a0us, people prefer Bing because it has, I dunno, more pictures at the top of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24659,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/20\/google-search-in-firefox.html","url_meta":{"origin":44416,"position":2},"title":"Google Search in Firefox","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Dec-11 3:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Of course, it's not like Mozilla had a lot of choice. They were hardly going to go with Bing ... #ddtb Embedded Link Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox | The Mozilla Blog News, notes and ramblings from the Mozilla project","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26568,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/if-youre-worried-about-google-search-history-and-its-privacy-settings.html","url_meta":{"origin":44416,"position":3},"title":"If you're worried about Google Search History and its privacy settings …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Feb-12 7:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're worried about Google Search History and its privacy settings ...... then here are some ways you can clear it (and leave it turned off). Personally, I'm not going to bother, but if it's something that concerns you, here you go. #ddtb Embedded Link How to Remove Your Google\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28637,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/17\/voice-search-siri-vs-jellybean.html","url_meta":{"origin":44416,"position":4},"title":"Voice search: Siri vs. JellyBean","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Jul-12 11:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Honestly speaking, I've never been in a location where it made more sense to search for stuff by voice than by typing something in. But Google Search in the Android JellyBean OS does seem to hit the mark more often than the Apple iOS Siri in this test (starting around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5168,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/22\/words_mean_thin.html","url_meta":{"origin":44416,"position":5},"title":"Words mean things™","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Oct-03 6:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"A French court has ruled against Google in a potentially far-reaching decision regarding use of trademarks. The civil court in Nanterre, near Paris, fined Google \u20ac75,000 ($126,000) for allowing advertisers...","rel":"","context":"In "Media Moguls"","block_context":{"text":"Media Moguls","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-moguls"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44488,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44416\/revisions\/44488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}