[262] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Google Takes First Key Step Toward Search Dispute
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Thu Aug 9 16:33:31 2007
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Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:34:14 -0700
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Google Takes First Key Step Toward Search Dispute Resolutions
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000267.html
Greetings. As readers of my essays are no doubt (perhaps painfully)
aware, I've been pounding for some time on the issue of "dispute
resolutions" for Web search results, particularly relating to Google
as the dominant player in the search industry.
Now comes the fascinating word that Google has made a highly
significant move in this direction. While limited in key respects,
I believe it may open the door to consideration of the broader
issues I've noted in texts such as:
Search Engine Dispute Notifications: Request For Comments
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000253.html
Extending Google Blacklists for Dispute Resolutions
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000254.html
A Most Remarkable Google Page: Toward Search Dispute Resolutions
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000255.html
Essentially, as indicated in this AP story:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/09/technology/google.php
Google will now reportedly permit the subjects or authors of news
stories displayed in the Google News aggregation system -- after
identity authentication -- to file disputes/comments relating to
those stories, which will then appear on the same page as the
original search results.
While this is a bit different from my proposal for links to external
sites for dispute purposes, the underlying principle is the same,
and it still represents an enormous sea change in fundamental
Google methodology, at least as far as Google News is concerned.
Much more importantly, I believe that it sets the stage for serious
consideration of similar changes to the broader Web search arena
(that is, not limited to news stories) -- in fact I suspect moves in
this direction will now become eventually inevitable.
The reason is clear -- there is ultimately no valid rationale for
persons in articles that happen to be categorized as news stories to
have a right of dispute and comment, but for everyone else on
"non-news" Web pages to not have similar capability options, even
in serious cases of defamation or other abuses.
Having said that, there is still an enormous difference in scale
between dealing with the relatively limited number of news stories,
(limited that is in comparison with the total number of Web pages)
vs. a broader Web results dispute system. The latter would entail
an entirely different magnitude of filtering/prioritization and
authentication of dispute requests, mechanisms to avoid falsified
disputes or "gaming" of the dispute system, etc., all on a
potentially very large scale indeed.
However, these are exactly the search engine dispute-related
technical, structural, and organizational issues I've been actively
working on as noted in my links above. I very much believe that
there are practical solutions that can enable broad implementation
of a general Web search results dispute resolution system without
entailing undue burden to Google (or other search engines) and
without significant negative side-effects. It will not be simple by
any means, but with an appropriate organizational structure and
topology, it can be done.
Google appears to have now acknowledged that at least in the news
context, the community will benefit from dispute and comment-related
materials being displayed along with some search results. This
really is a big deal.
The task now is to move forward toward the much tougher but
exceptionally important goal of extending such capabilities to the
broader universe of non-news Web page search engine results across
the entire Web. This needs to be done right, but could well
represent one of the most positive and far-reaching changes for the
Internet since the development of the search engines themselves.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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