Public Discourse in the Age of Personalization: Psychological Explanations and Political Implications of Search Engine Bias and the Filter Bubble

(Audrey B. Carson)

Propose an alternative design for Google search that addresses problems posed in this paper?

If the idea of a search engine is to come up with a series of diverse information from different sources to people, then I would agree that algorithms that personalize should not be the norm.

• I know several years of research work has gone into the current decision of what Google page now looks like, however, I think to rearrange the results as thumbnails might encourage quick scanning and exploration than the way it’s currently being displayed.
• Having an Objective mode (free of any of our connected data), to encourage an objective search result. The icon could be optional on the right-hand side.
• Also, the ‘All’ tab could be removed, leaving the search results in their categories: (i.e books, publications, articles, images, videos). This should disengage the thought that the top ten links on the ‘All’ tab are of the highest quality. Please see an illustration below:

Considering that the same problems apply to Facebook, is it possible to apply your design to Facebook too?

Not exactly, but I can suggest that Facebook doesn’t limit the content of a user’s wall to only what friends and acquaintances are sharing, liking or posting. Including other interesting posts and happenings from people unconnected to you around the world might suppress the filter bubble.

However, I think the idea of a filter bubble on a social networking site is inevitable, just as it is in real life. We are greatly influenced by our environment and friends.

So I would say detaching oneself from a filter bubble on social networking sites should be a personal responsibility, and not a design solution, which may be bad for Facebook’s business anyway.