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Azathoth
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Post by Azathoth » Wed May 25, 2011 3:13 pm

Scary TED talk :(

Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

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// Replaces with spaces the braces in cases where braces in places cause stasis 
   $str = str_replace(array("\{","\}")," ",$str);

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Re: Filter bubbles

Post by mistermack » Thu May 26, 2011 2:04 pm

I think he's right, but not giving the whole story.
He's painting a picture of users who just go where they are led. People who put a word in, and just blindly follow.
When I use google, I'm usually after something specific, and if it doesn't come up, I keep making my search more specific, till I get what I'm looking for. Google might tailor my search initially, but if it doesn't produce what I want, I can force it, by experimenting with the search words.

Maybe I'm rare in that way, but I doubt it.
If I wanted to know about protests in Egypt, I would search for protests in Egypt. I wouldn't just google "Egypt".
And I still get most of my news from a tv broadcast, which is not tailored.
(well, not just for me)
While there is a market for shit, there will be assholes to supply it.

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Re: Filter bubbles

Post by Animavore » Thu May 26, 2011 2:05 pm

Well this explains why I no longer get creationist websites lumped in with my evolutionary based searches.
Libertarianism: The belief that out of all the terrible things governments can do, helping people is the absolute worst.

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Re: Filter bubbles

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Thu May 26, 2011 3:51 pm

Advanced Search FTW.
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Re: Filter bubbles

Post by PsychoSerenity » Thu May 26, 2011 3:55 pm

I had noticed this on the facebook news feed and it's fucking annoying. It now only shows me updates from a few of the most active friends - which means those that only post when they have something genuinely important to say don't get through. Several times I've been to check a friends profile because I haven't heard anything from them in a while only to find that I've been missing out on things.

- But I had no idea how much google filter what we get shown. Like mistermack I don't think it affects me much because I mainly use google to find specific details - but when it comes to news sites etc. it is a serious problem.
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]

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Re: Filter bubbles

Post by Linus » Thu May 26, 2011 10:17 pm

Interesting and disturbing, I wasn't aware of the extent of personalized filtering. Even confirmation bias can be automated by having an algorithm selecting the stuff we're most likely to want to hear.

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Re: Filter bubbles

Post by PsychoSerenity » Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:36 pm

I may be imagining it but google seems to be getting worse for me recently. It's taking me much longer to find things I want - noticeably when I use double quotes to get a precise match and instead it searches for something else that it thinks I'll prefer. But also in general - the results seem to be things that are popular or things that are trying to sell me something - like it's giving me results that may well suit the majority of the public - but when I'm searching for something I usually don't want to find things that everyone else wants to see because I already know about all the mainstream simplified things - I'm looking for specific details, and google doesn't seem to find them as much any more.
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]

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