Why is Google messing with my search results?
I was doing a search the other day for something mundane, I think it was for movie times or fondue; whatever it was, it wasn't of importance. The important thing is that when my search results came up there was a picture of my friend's face and a blurb that read something like "Bob likes this" or "Bob +1'ed this". After processing this infomation for a moment I closed my laptop so fast I was scared that I may have broken it. Is this what we have come to, incorporating social media into search?
I love my friend Bob and all (an no his name is not actually Bob), but I really do not want his opinion when it comes to anything. He has horrible taste in movies, music, books and fondue. We have different opinions on almost everything; just because we're friends does not mean that we must have similar interests in everything we do. If I wanted an opinion I would have called, Facebooked or Tweeted Bob and asked him his advice, not have run a Google search.
Search should be just that, a search: aggregate the data of all Internet users and deliver me the most relevant and useful links! Social media and search occupy two separate spheres of the Internet: one for communicating with friends, strangers and former high school friends who you have no interest in anymore, and the other for, well... search.
I fear Google becoming an "interests" page where the top search results are only those that one's friends have +1'ed. I may be jumping the gun here, but Google is a trendsetter and if this is embraced, I fear for where search is headed.
No comments:
Post a Comment