Search results are now colored, perhaps distorted, perhaps blinded, by your prior search history. No longer are you getting the unvarnished results for the searches you do.
For example, you search for auto body repair. Up pops Joe’s Body Shop and you click on it and go there. It’s a win win right? You were looking for relevant information, and the search engine provided it. However, Joe paid Google to make sure his site was found independent of your search’s express needs.
For example, your search for the best price for a flight. Cookies are thereby created on your device. This allows you to see flight and price information even when you are on other websites. Convenient or limiting information?
Search results are no longer the same for all users, it now depends upon the user’s collected browsing data and who is paying Google. See below.
THINK ABOUT IT: Who else do you think would also pay to have your information?
Who could stand to benefit from knowing WHY you were looking for auto body shops or air flights? Don’t you think your auto insurance provider or lender/lease company would like to know that your car may have damage?
Do you think the airline above that bought that cookie to show you its flights (even when you are on other websites) will give you a better price from its competitor?
THINK ABOUT IT: MEDICAL
Let’s get a little more personal. You’ve heard the medical term pre-existing conditions. Health insurance companies are prohibited from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
When you do a search online for a medical issue, would not that search show potentially that you have a “new condition”?
Right now, there is NOTHING preventing an insurance company from changing your rates, or ending your policy, for reasons other than pre-existing conditions. Could a search puts you in a higher risk category? Wouldn’t your health insurance provider be interested in keeping informed of your medical search history “in order to provide you better service?” The answer is quite obvious.
THINK ABOUT IT: INFORMATION AND NEWS
Even just information and news searches are now colored, perhaps distorted, perhaps blind to certain websites because of what the search engine does with your collected browsing data.
If there are competing facts or opinions on a topic, the search engine can direct your search results to make you agree that only the one that they have selected to present to you is correct.
Your search results no longer allow you to see all, and THEN make your own decisions and conclusions.
Your search results are now restricted to what the search engine wants you to conclude as true, and CONSEQUENTLY, they have decided what is the best for you.
THINK ABOUT IT: DECISION MAKING INFLUENCE
Here is the really creepy part. There are only two major personal data collectors in the U. S. (Google and Facebook), and when you search the web, they have the ability to influence your decision making, without you even knowing it.
It is called “subliminal advertising” or the more modern term “messaging.”
Consider these definitions: The use by advertisers of images, stories and sounds to influence the consumer’s responses (or behavior) without the consumer being conscious of it. OR The use of displayed search results used to influence a decision toward what the search engine wants the decision to be (for whatever its motivational reasons, good or bad).
For example, say that teenage girl, mentioned above, was indeed pregnant. Would Facebook push pictures of her older sister’s baby higher on her news feed? Maybe Facebook will do this? No, there is no maybe about it!
Do you think that similarity pushed images or stories of cute babies, or deformed babies, or stories about single parenting from one viewpoint or another, could impact her decision on what to do?
Furthermore, let’s say she is considering an abortion, what if her favorite site highlights a story about a celebrity having one, or alternatively deciding against one? Or the site highlights new baby pics from a movie star?
There are SO many ways any website she visits could, with normal access to her browsing data or prior purchases or self-collected personal data, deliberately influence a decision one way or the other, without her even being aware of it.
How can you get unvarnished search results with good information, no messaging, no hidden influencers, so you can make your own informed decisions? Read on.
