Richard of JustAGwailo and Jay at MakeOutCity take issue with my claim that search engines make us smarter. The Internet, they point out, is full of false information that claims to be true.
I completely agree. So, if I don’t believe “the truth is out there,” how can I claim that search engines make us smarter?
One of the great insights of the nineteenth century was the power of numerical data–statistics–to answer questions that once were unanswerable. Statistical questions don’t require “perfect” or infallible data–so long as you can estimate what kinds of errors are likely to arise. Results you can count and numbers you can compare–search engines are great at finding just such answers.
Questions you can’t answer with search engine data: Why are we here? Who wrote Shakespeare’s sonnets? Can anonymous spammers make my package bigger?
Question you can answer with search engine data: Who gets more play in online news media–Dean or Kerry? (Last week–Kerry. Rick Heller found he was mentioned almost twice as often as Dean..)
Search engines can also make us smarter by introducing us to websites we wouldn’t otherwise find.
Another smart way I’d love to see Rick Heller using Feedster is for ongoing comparison of candidate weblogs. How much substantive policy talk, how much fundraising talk, how much negative chatter about opponents went on in each weblog this week? Wouldn’t this be a great way to promote a more positive campaign?
So, when I say search engines can make people smarter, I don’t mean that they can answer every question or turn the internet into a perfect place. I just mean that they can help us solve problems, some of them important, that would be very much harder to solve without them.
4 responses so far ↓
1 jr // Dec 1, 2003 at 5:09 am
The internet is fool proof. It keeps me from making a fool of myself when posting/commenting as I can do basic research. Yes, I have to make a decision on whether the results are reliable but I’ve gotten used to that from watching TV.
2 Betsy Devine // Dec 1, 2003 at 4:04 pm
The internet has saved me many times from making *more* of a fool of myself than I otherwise would. ;)
3 marcum // Dec 3, 2003 at 11:08 am
Betty, technology that resembles ‘search engines’ be they Boolean, META, or permutative, are what I would like to research in graduate school. I am not interrested in the sociology of science (read technology) per se, instead I am more interrested in methodological innovations that make digital archival research easier yet efficient. Now if I could only write my letter of intent without sounding overly pretentious or arrogant.
4 Betsy Devine // Dec 3, 2003 at 7:52 pm
Dear Marcum, Your plans sound great! Please consider grad school in the Boston area so that we can argue politics in person. Betsy