We all know that Google keeps a profile on us, knows our search and viewing history, where we are located, and tries to provide search results in line with what it thinks we want to see, but this is ridiculous.
I was having a discussion over the phone with someone recently, and it lead to an analogy. There was some misunderstanding of what a term really meant, so it was suggested that we check google to settle it. Now we have vastly different viewing habits, search habits, and apparent political views, as well as geographic location. Should not really matter for a simple one issue item though WRONG!!!
We both punched in the exact same search term, and said "okay, here it is at the top."
Here are the respective results:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax
The dihydrogen monoxide hoax involves calling water by an unfamiliar name, "dihydrogen monoxide", followed by a listing of real effects of this chemical, often ...
www.dhmo.org/facts.html
Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, ...
Now if google can provide such vastly different information based on what it believes we want to see over such a simple concept (check the links, there is a huge difference between the results), what hope is there regarding important and complex topics? Maybe this is why it is called the Information Age and not the Knowledge Age.
Not sure how, but I suppose this could be used for vetting people, if you can just manage to search a few keywords on their computer and see what comes up.
Still makes me rather sad, and worried for the future.