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Google bias?

5 comments on Google bias?

Google bias?
: I’m not ready to accuse Google News of bias but I’m just asking. I’ve seen a few headlines up top from odd sources. Right now it’s:

Senior Baath Party official captured;

Thousands of Iraqis demand US forces to leave

from Albawaba Middle East News.

What’s interesting about this is that unlike the mortally boring J-school and blog discussions about whether and how the NY Times or FoxNews or the Guardian are biased, in this case, you can dig into the Google News algorithm and find out precisely what the bias is. Computers don’t lie.

Google should open up its new algorithms to public scrutiny.

5 responses to “Google bias?”

  1. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    Google news definitely has a biased slant somewhat.
    It returns Indymedia.com articles as legitimate news. You can’t get much more radical then Indymedia.
    Besides, the guys that run google are in bed with the communist Chinese and other governments in suppressing info to their masses.
    You have to take google with a grain of salt. It’s not the company it was when they started.

  2. Jake Avatar
    Jake

    While some of the sources Google includes may be questionable, I think the primary cause for what may appear to be bias is probably time.
    The headlines on the Goggle News page follow the sun, I think. It seems headlines from currently (plus a lag factor allowing the spider to find the news) active sources get pushed up the list.
    That (I believe) is why you see a lot of cricket coverage in the early morning hours (in the US).

  3. enloop Avatar
    enloop

    The time factor is important, particularly since no human editors are around to apply judgment. Google is also often slow to post breaking news, which I think can also be attributed to a lack of humans in the mix. (No editors declaring “Post this.”)
    I’ve also seen no evidence that Google is able to distinguish between secondary or tertiary sources and primary sources reporting the same story.
    And, it would be nice if Google would point to at least a little info about these sources: Ownership, editorial slant, political affiliation, readership level, target audience, etc.
    But what I really want is for Google to let me pick and choose which of those thousands of sources I want to see.

  4. jeanne a e devoto Avatar
    jeanne a e devoto

    I think the problem is in the choice of sources rather than the algorithm. (The sources are, after all, selected by a human or humans.) Some of these sources don’t get linked much, so it can’t be that. Some of them don’t have a large readership, so it can’t be that pushing them up.
    When an Indymedia site is listed in the top three sources for a popular story, something is wrong.

  5. John Lewis Avatar
    John Lewis

    This answers a few questions:
    http://news.google.com/help/about_news_search.html