{"id":663,"date":"2015-04-13T06:56:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=663"},"modified":"2015-04-13T06:56:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:56:58","slug":"google-truth-ctd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/04\/13\/google-truth-ctd\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Truth, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Previously, NewScientist<\/strong><\/em> reported on a research project at Google, moving from their PageRank<\/a> system to (for lack of a better word) TruthRank<\/a>.\u00a0 Now NewScientist’s<\/strong><\/em> Feedback (21 March 2015) (paywall) column<\/a> reports on a new hazard to be scaled:<\/p>\n

\n

RANKING internet search results according to how well they reflect “facts the web unanimously agrees on” (28 February, p 24)<\/a>? What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

Adrian Ellis wrote to ask about something the web is unanimous on: that glass is really a very thick liquid (14 March, p 54)<\/a>. Well before the ink was dry on his letter, a colleague asked a FWSE<\/a> (famous web search engine) about this.<\/p>\n

It shot back: “Antique windowpanes are thicker at the bottom, because glass has flowed to the bottom over time… Glass is a supercooled liquid. Glass is a liquid that flows very slowly.”<\/p>\n

At first glance, the web page it was quoting seems to exemplify a core Feedback hypothesis: that the internet holds many false beliefs, the more fruitloopy of which we catalogue.<\/p>\n

However, closer inspection reveals a different flavour. The above text is from a page (bit.ly\/GlassLegend<\/a>) entitled “Glass: Liquid or Solid \u2013 Science vs. an Urban Legend”. It is in fact debunking the ideas quoted. This is a prime example of artificial stupidity. The search ranking system cannot tell the difference between myths and statements that mention them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously, NewScientist reported on a research project at Google, moving from their PageRank system to (for lack of a better word) TruthRank.\u00a0 Now NewScientist’s Feedback (21 March 2015) (paywall) column reports on a new hazard to be scaled: RANKING internet search results according to how well they reflect “facts the \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}