[kwlug-disc] Biased Bing Search?

[john at netdirect.ca]

It's not the obvious ads that I'm questioning. I know that ads will be tailored to my search. The non-ad results is what I'm questioning. It looks like MS may be tailoring search results for advertisers. I expect search results to not be tainted by ad revenue. I want an honest search. 


John Van Ostrand , CTO, co-CEO
Net Direct Inc.
564 Weber St. N. Unit 12
Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6
Ph: 519-883-1172
Fx: 519-883-8533
http://www.netdirect.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Wennechuk" [youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com]
Sent: 01/10/2010 01:17 PM EST
To: "KWLUG discussion" <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Biased Bing Search?



The ability to shape search results is very young. It also depends on how much the searcher is willing to reveal about themselves. I think shaping ads based on demographic, and geographic information per user per request is coming very close to reality. If the results can really be "Customized" to a useful extent where I get 1 or two ads for products that I really need ( Maybe even based on what's in my fridge ) and then the information I'm requesting, then I would live with that; as long as, the ads are labeled as such, and I continue to get useful information as well.




From: john at netdirect.ca 
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 10:14 AM
To: KWLUG discussion 
Subject: [kwlug-disc] Biased Bing Search?


I've noticed the last two days a commercial on TV for Special K. The call to action is to search for "Special K" on Bing.ca.

I'm figuring that Bing and Kellogs have an arrangement where "customized" results are given for that term. The first page clearly has Kellogs corporate sites or special K friendly sites. A search at Google shows more variety.

I hate to be a pessimist but are we (as a culture) going to end up being controlled by a biased search engine that favours paying advertisers?





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 I'm all for that.
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