Predictive search and science - May 07, 2009
The Google search engine offers a predictive function, where it will suggest things you might be looking for in advance of you completing your query. As these are at least partially based on what other people have been searching for, can they provide some insights into the way science is perceived on the interwebs? The Great Beyond investigates.
Initial results are not promising. There seems to be widespread skepticism of evolution for a start. This page is from the US version of Google:
‘Science’ doesn’t do much better, with “Science is a…” yielding “religion”, “lie” and “sacred cow” in the top ten suggestions (View image). Stem cells fare a little better, with “Stem cells are… good” being much higher up the suggestions list than “Stem cells are… wrong”.
Green issues are also controversial, with “Electric cars are…” yielding “for girls” and “a joke” alongside “the future” and “here”.
Searching for “Climate change is…” yields the slightly depressing “natural”, “not real”, and “fake” before you get to “real”. Things get worse from there.
But what do people who do trust science want to know about? The answer is, as Nature correspondent Emma Marris points out, almost poetic:
Scientific information about dogs
Scientific information about dreams
Scientific information about global warming
Scientific information about roller coasters
Scientific information about smoking
Hat tip: This blog post was inspired by this post from the UK political blogger Guido Fawkes.
Comments
Actuallly, the list is NOT ordered by frequency of searches. The algorithm is merely guessing that you (based on your previous searches) are sceptical of conventional wisdom and suggesting "false".
Posted by: Lak | May 7, 2009 05:48 PM
Diversity demands all voices have equal merit. The more empirically defective the voice the more deserving it is of compassion. The Age of Science is being suffocated by an Age of Splendor - a dominion of poverty, hunger, disease, filth, death, and silk-clad priests with whips extorting salvation, "hodie mihi, cras tibi".
Posted by: Uncle Al | May 7, 2009 06:16 PM
@Lak, that can't be right because for every one of Daniel's searches, I get the identical set of choices. So either both Daniel and I have eerily similar "Googling" habits, or.......
Posted by: Noah Gray | May 7, 2009 06:56 PM
On the bright side, the one with the most results is "evolution is a fact."
Posted by: Lenny | May 12, 2009 05:02 PM