Is google putting its thumb on the scale?

[Jimmy Higgins]

I ponder how hard it is to screw with the algorithm as accused. Google decides to weight a very particular search phrase with African American inventors. I'm curious how you mess with the algorithm to do that. Is there a wild card hidden in there for "American inventors" that tells Google to 'black it up'?

Or is it more likely that people look up 'famous' (read not famous) African American inventors with a generic search like "African American inventors" because other than ... well, there aren't many known by name, where as white inventors are searched for by name because umm... they are you... famous, i.e. Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse, Nikolai Tesla (if you take the majority of his life being spent in the US as making him American).

 

[LordKiran]

I think its pretty silly that this idea gets as much traction as it does without anything conclusive to show for it...Some people really do look for anything to get up in arms over.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Some white people are bothered by it. And we all know that white people are frustrated with having no power in America.

No, all reasonable people think its a problem that Google is using faulty search algorithms in a highly inconsistent manner.

Are they? I'm not certain how you'd screw with an algorithm as noted.

Some ideologues care enough about painting the issue as whites being bothered by black inventors, and to pretend that their is nothing out of sorts with the search results, inventing absurd excuses that they could have falsified themselves in seconds if they cared about having and honest discussion.

And I think that almost no one knows any black inventors so people search vaguely for "African American Inventors" where as people looking for famous white inventors search for "Thomas Edison" or "Henry Ford". This could easily cause an asymmetry.

If "basketball players" returned all white players, then all those dismissing this instances would suddenly be screaming racism and care a great deal, whereas I would care just as much as I do now about the current instance. That's because my response is rooted in apolitical interests in Google's AI system and how it impacts the flow of information, while their inconsistent reactions are rooted in kneejerk dogma and whatever response best serves it.

Well, you have accused Google of it, but have hardly demonstrated that you have shown your baseless assertion as having any basis in truth.

 

[laughing dog]

Some white people are bothered by it. And we all know that white people are frustrated with having no power in America.

No, all reasonable people think its a problem that Google is using faulty search algorithms in a highly inconsistent manner. Some ideologues care enough about painting the issue as whites being bothered by black inventors, and to pretend that their is nothing out of sorts with the search results, inventing absurd excuses that they could have falsified themselves in seconds if they cared about having and honest discussion.

I think reasonable and mature adults consider any inaccuracyand/or inconsistency (bias induced or otherwise) in anyone search engine out of the many that are available to be a extremely trivial matter regardless of the type of bias or inaccuracy.

[
If "basketball players" returned all white players, then all those dismissing this instances would suddenly be screaming racism and care a great deal, whereas I would care just as much as I do now about the current instance. That's because my response is rooted in apolitical interests in Google's AI system and how it impacts the flow of information, while their inconsistent reactions are rooted in kneejerk dogma and whatever response best serves it.

I think reasonable and mature adults consider such rhetorical excess over an extremely trivial matter as an exemplar of an alt- snowflake reaction.

 

[Rayschism]

Al Gore never had any rhythm.

 

[Elixir]

My understanding (and I've been doing SEO work on one website for almost 10 years - not broad experience but fairly deep) is that Google searches in a clean browser will return the most often clicked-on returns for a given search term. I have no reason to think this same algorithm isn't in operation when searching "American inventors" - the curious thing is how/why so many people searching that term have clicked on black inventors. Other posters have offered some possibilities...

 

[Rayschism]

One of the things I've notice about Google is that in some discussion that deal with Christian discrimination against atheists, I wiull do a search for:

Christian discrimination against atheists

OR

Christian hate of atheists.

And now here comes the weird part.

I always find more articles about atheist hatred and atheist discrimination against Christians.

Which just can't be true. Because according to demographics, Christians are the defacto majority of the population of this country of 318 million people.

So, atheists just can't have that much power.

Even more so if America is truly a Christian nation, only for white conservative Christian.

So something really screwy is going on there.

 

[Elixir]

One of the things I've notice about Google is that in some discussion that deal with Christian discrimination against atheists, I wiull do a search for:

Christian discrimination against atheists

OR

Christian hate of atheists.

And now here comes the weird part.

I always find more articles about atheist hatred and atheist discrimination against Christians.

Which just can't be true. Because according to demographics, Christians are the defacto majority of the population of this country of 318 million people.

So, atheists just can't have that much power.

Even more so if America is truly a Christian nation, only for white conservative Christian.

So something really screwy is going on there.

Simple. Christians are the defacto majority of the population, so they make the defacto majority of searches for discrimination against them, and make more clicks on atheists discriminating against them than vice versa.

 

[dismal]

One of the two. If this is the sort of thing acts as a trigger warning which you need to be in a safe space to view or else you get all hot and bothered, then the issue you're raising is the least of the problems you need to deal with.

Your characterization of anyone here being "hot and bothered" is a strawman.

Yeah the only people getting emotional about this are those who keep shrieking no one should care.

 

[dismal]

Then again, that would not explain Einstein as a mathematician, which is just false.

Or an American.*shrug*

 

[Angra Mainyu]

Then again, that would not explain Einstein as a mathematician, which is just false.

Or an American.*shrug*

He was American since 1940.

 

[untermensche]

Your characterization of anyone here being "hot and bothered" is a strawman.

Yeah the only people getting emotional about this are those who keep shrieking no one should care.

Funny.

A bunch of racists up in arms because their race is not getting its rightful recognition.

Hilarious.

 

[dismal]

Or an American.*shrug*

He was American since 1940.

At which point he was about 30 years past doing that which he is famous for.

 

[Angry Floof]

It must be so hard being a racist today, what with your heart going all a-flutter over every imagined insult you dig through the Internet to be able to find. We really need some kind of "Hug a Racist" telethon to help out these poor, abused souls.

My thoughts exactly. This is dumpster diving for racists addicted to confirmation bias.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

He was American since 1940.

At which point he was about 30 years past doing that which he is famous for.

Sure, though I'm not sure what your point is; in any case, he was not an American mathematician.

ETA: Do you think it's inaccurate to count him as an American scientist, or an American physicist? (he's on both lists).

 

[dismal]

Yeah the only people getting emotional about this are those who keep shrieking no one should care.

Funny.

A bunch of racists up in arms because their race is not getting its rightful recognition.

Hilarious.

Tip: Some of us here are discussing what could cause certain google search results. Any belief that anyone here has said anything even slightly racist seems to be entirely a projection on your part. You may want to have your therapist and add it to the list.

- - - Updated - - -

At which point he was about 30 years past doing that which he is famous for.

Sure, though I'm not sure what your point is; in any case, he was not an American mathematician.

My point is that it's also a stretch to call Einstein "an American".

 

[Rayschism]

Funny.

A bunch of racists up in arms because their race is not getting its rightful recognition.

Hilarious.

Tip: Some of us here are discussing what could cause certain google search results. Any belief that anyone here has said anything even slightly racist seems to be entirely a projection on your part. You may want to have your therapist and add it to the list.

- - - Updated - - -

At which point he was about 30 years past doing that which he is famous for.

Sure, though I'm not sure what your point is; in any case, he was not an American mathematician.

My point is that it's also a stretch to call Einstein "an American".

Einstein became an American citizen in 1940:

https://www.geni.com/blog/albert-einsteins-declaration-to-become-a-u-s-citizen-377945.html

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Your characterization of anyone here being "hot and bothered" is a strawman.

Yeah the only people getting emotional about this are those who keep shrieking no one should care.

Yes, I remember the time we started a thread to let people know how shocked we were about it.

 

[untermensche]

Funny.

A bunch of racists up in arms because their race is not getting its rightful recognition.

Hilarious.

Tip: Some of us here are discussing what could cause certain google search results. Any belief that anyone here has said anything even slightly racist seems to be entirely a projection on your part. You may want to have your therapist and add it to the list.

Your denial rings hollow.

This is a bunch of ignorant racists up in arms because some non-human algorithm is spitting out a bunch of black people when that of course is forbidden.

The contortions to deny this are amusing.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

My point is that it's also a stretch to call Einstein "an American".

While Google doesn't say "an American" ( I don't think that's a stretch, though), he's both on the list of American scientists and American physicists. He's also on the lists of German scientists German physicists, and German mathematicians, and on the lists of Swiss scientists, Swiss physicists, and Swiss mathematicians.
I don't think that including him on the lists of American scientists or physicists is inaccurate, though including him on the lists of German one might be, since he renounced German citizenship before becoming a scientist, but I think Google more likely just counts all of the citizenships a person ever had.