stat.eu.com Online Chat

If you have been following my writing, you will be familiar with what I refer to as The Wisdom of the Language which binds together online communities (such as twitter.com). Recently, Clay Shirky wrote an article claiming that people trust ranking algorithms without actually know precisely what it is they are trusting (he actually said this more succinctly in this video).

I have been thinking about what Professor Shirky says a lot (my initial response to his lengthier text was to point out that his argument is "incredible" in the sense that if he believed it himself, he would have a moral responsibility to resign from his position as a university professor).

Slowly but surely -- ever so gradually -- I am stepping back from my initial "normative" response (for quite some time I have compared Google to the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages, collecting huge sums from people who believe that buying a ticket will get them something for being on Google's "preferred" list).

Professor Shirky's more intriguing question (which he asked in the video) is: Why do people trust Google (the way they trusted the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages)? Note that Google no longer ranks according to Page Rank alone, but rather -- according to the company's public releases -- hundreds of variables (including a tweak to the "Google algorithm" to censor the appearance of George Bush's profile when searching for miserable failure).

It has occurred to me several times -- years ago already -- that Google has impacted how we write. There are such "style manuals" from people who call themselves "experts" at "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO), and their function in society is to train and coach to create "proper" webpages -- much in the same way that a grammar school might teach people to speak "proper" English. Perhaps blogging software is also even an outgrowth of such style manuals -- insofar as links, page titles, etc. are somewhat automatically created by the software. And Google itself has also published "webmaster guidelines", with warnings of penalties such as excommunication. In this context, note that:

Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here

In other words: Google's inquisitors can do whatever they want.

But let's get back to Professor Shirky's question: Why do people voluntarily permit Google to assume such centralized and dictatorial power to decide whether something is "good" vs. "evil"? "Right" vs. "wrong"? ... basically: to become the Pope (or Oracle) of the Internet? I have been wondering this for many years -- and now Professor Shirky has joined me in asking "why?"

Do you know? Do you have an answer -- or at least a wild guess?