The search bubble.

Let me guess - you use Google as your default search engine, and does not complain much because it is the default on Google Chrome and it loads hella fast thanks to their good servers worldwide. I was used to use Google too. I mean, it works. That's kinda the most important thing to an end user after all.

But what if we dig a little deeper...no, I don't mean the privacy issues. Google had my voice data, my mails, my search preferences, and literally a lot more of stuff that I gave them without realizing. Yes, I should have read their terms of service or privacy policy, but let's be real and agree that no one is going to read the super long thing. I won't be surprised if they are able to build something that fully replicates me...AI is scary in some ways. Whatever, that's not our main topic today. We are about to talk about the post title, that is, the search bubble.

Source

You might have heard about it before this if you are aware enough on the net. But if you are just an average net user that does not stick closely to whatever news that is posted and articles that are written regarding internet developments, then you are probably still in the shadows.

Big companies that own search engines - Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and their Bing, and...what's more? I don't remember, but most of the times if it's a company that collects your data, they will be using your data to personalize your search results. It's the 21st century and everyone is crazy on this. They build profiles based on what you tell them, and make your search result page exactly yours. Doesn't sound like a bad thing, right? I mean, who doesn't like to see relevant results? But things can be go a little too much.

It is said that search bubbles restrict people from knowing more than what search engines think they should know - since they bubbled it - I didn't believe that a long time ago. But right now...wow. I searched for the Malaysia's railway systems website to print a ticket I will be using tomorrow, and this is what shows up.

What I wanted is the first one, and I'm pretty glad that it's there. But then look at the rest - a big part of them are not even related to what I want. But, I get to know another non-profit organization and another airport. Hey, knowing more never hurts. This is what the search engine gives if it knows nothing about me - it gives everything it finds to be relevant.

Then, what about we apply a cute little bubble there and personalize my stuff?

Here's the thing. Google knows that I am Malaysian, and it guesses that I will be interested in the news and stuff that relates to this thing instead of giving me any other stuff that are related to the search term. I somehow wonder why there isn't any news about new railways or fee drops or something like that...either that they never happened or Google knows that everyone loves negative news.

I once read an article about search bubbles restricting people from knowing certain things because the search engines think that they are not interested. It's getting interesting here, because if you apply this to some political scene...yea, get my point? You will be stopped from knowing a lot of things if the search bubbles close you up well enough.

That's one of the reasons I kept on using DuckDuckGo as my default search engine. It's not like I hate the bubbles a lot - they are handy sometimes, especially with confusing search terms, bubbles can put you on the right stuff instead of random stuff leaving you to refine the terms more. But, sometimes it's good to have the bubble off because you get to see more and know more. It never hurts. Plus there's a trick for me to use Google whenever I can, DuckDuckGo has a way for it.

It will be a little uncomfortable leaving the bubble for the first time, but it is good in my opinion. Probably you should try it.

See you next time,

--Lilacse