[re-search] Questions for Google

[Engin Bozdag]

Hi Pascal,

Here are some questions that came to my mind:

- How do they define diversity? Serendipity? Political diversity? Showing a
liberal user more conservative items?
- How do they perceive "quality"? Is it merely "customer satisfaction",
"relevance", or is it something else?
- If "relevance" defines quality, then do they feel that everything else is
acceptable? This includes personalization, whitelisting, blacklisting,
weighing some content as authoritative, etc.
- Do they run tests to measure and prevent "filter bubble"?
- Do they experiment with personalization / diversity features without
users' consent/knowledge? (Bing and Facebook does that)
- How do they make the decision on what algorithm to employ? All engineers
gather, give their thoughts and product manager tells them what to do?
- Do they consult users to understand their opinions/values on certain
features such as personalization? Or is the value of the manager/engineer
is used while deciding the algorithm?

best regards from Delft,

-- 
Engin Bozdag
PhD candidate
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
Faculty Technology, Policy Analysis, Management
Department Values & Technology
*W:*http://ethicsandtechnology.eu/bozdag
*E:* v.e.bozdag at tudelft.nl
*T:*  +31 15 27 85417




On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 3:41 PM, Jürgens, Pascal <
pascal.juergens at uni-mainz.de> wrote:

> Dear list members,
>
> (sorry for the short notice)
>
> As part of a larger research project, I'll be meeting with several Google
> representatives including search engineers tomorrow.
> We'll have the opportunity to ask questions, and I wanted to hear if
> anyone of you has an issue that is particularly dear to your heart. If it
> fits in, I'd love to ask them about any of your questions.
>
> I don't yet know about NDAs, so I can't promise a full disclosure, but
> I'll try my best!
>
> The main topics will be privacy, personalization and media literacy.
>
> Best regards from Mainz,
> Pascal
>
>
> --
> Pascal Jürgens M.A.
> Tel. +496131/39-25638
> Research Associate, Dept. of Communication
> U of Mainz, Germany
>
>
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>
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