PageRank and the Presidential Election
Google revolutionized web search with the PageRank aspect of their algorithm. It was special because it allowed pages to be ranked based on what other pages pointed to a given page, and how important those links were.
As the internet grew, companies realized that revenue from web searches was incredibly important. Instead of paying for ads, many people instead tried to modify their websites to boost their ranking on the page. I’ve pasted the Google quality guidelines at the end of this blog—it outlines what violates Google’s policy which can result in penaties in the ranking of a website. Some highlights
It makes sense that companies would want to boost profit by trying to cheat Google’s algorithm. The advantage of having a top search result is huge, as shown by the graph below. Clicks (shown as a percentage of total traffic) drop close to zero after five results.
The article I found takes some of these same ideas and instead discusses a more pressing topic: the presidential election. The article does not deal with the logistics of fudging page rankings, but instead with how important the search results are. According to the article, “biased search rankings can shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more.”
In addition, there is a bandwagon effect, where top results can sway undecided voters who themselves can make these topics more popular.
I found this article to be particularly engaging because it discusses the implications of having a search engine that is unbiased. Because the order of results is so important, it is also important that both search engine companies and third parties cannot sway how the results appear. In addition, it ties together multiple subjects. For example, part of the reason the top search results are so important is because psychologically, these seem to be the most valid to us.
Overall, the articles outlines a serious topic. While Google is adament about the unbiased nature of their search, it is conceivable to build a biased search engine, and as the article shows, such an engine could have a significant impact on public opinion.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721217?hl=en&ref_topic=6001971