Subscribe Feed (RSS)When algorithms go wrong
February 27th, 2007 by Richard K Miller | Filed under Ideas, Technology, The Church.If you're new here, read more about the More Good Foundation. We help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) share their beliefs on the Internet. Learn more about what Mormons believe or talk with Mormons at LDS.net.
Amazon and Google employ complex algorithms that generally deliver, respectively, relevant book recommendations and relevant search results. Here are a couple of exceptions:
- On Amazon.com, the Doubleday version of the Book of Mormon is being advertised in tandem with a book about Freemasonry, as if they were related. (See screenshot.)
- If you search Google.com for the term “Jew”, you’ll see a disclaimer explaining that you may find unpleasant results. (See screenshot.)
If you recently used Google to search for the word “Jew,” you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google…. A site’s ranking in Google’s search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted.
The page goes on to explain that “Jew” is often used in an anti-Semitic context, while Jewish organization are more likely to use the term “Jewish,” so search results for the former are generally more negative than search results for the latter. Sound familiar?
Plenty of sites that Google considers relevant for “Mormon” are full of doctrinal inaccuracies. Google, can we get a disclaimer too?
(Hat tip to Will F. for noticing the Amazon.com issue.)
Fascinating that there is an acknowledgement of this distinction (quality versus anti content about a topic). I do wonder what would be involved in having the same sensitivity for the hits about our faith. I recently did a search whose results were pretty depressing.
Be they anti-Semitic or anti-Mormon, I can’t help but feel for people whose hearts are so warped as to choose to waste themselves on hate.
It would be nice to have a disclaimer, especially with the greater interest due to Mitt Romney. Perhaps we should contact them?
The Amazon anomaly is probably due to an algorithm like Google’s searches, but based on what people search for or buy before and after viewing the Book of Mormon web page. Likely, the type of person who buys a Book of Mormon over the internet is researching something that would cross reference the two, whereas most LDS members get free or subsidized copies through the church or buy at a church supported book store. In other words, I don’t think Amazon is implying that Mormons are a cult or brotherhood (I don’t know much about the Freemasons).
[...] searches for “Jew,” warning them of potentially disturbing results. Since a similar disclaimer for Mormon search results does not appear to be forthcoming, it becomes us as Church members to raise our voices in support [...]