2012-09-05: Today, DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel sent his mailing list a formal request to submit a series of queries using specific words at a specific moment in time.
What I found most interesting was the criteria he asked users to submit; the words seemed to have an uncanny relation and a deeper, hidden agenda.
In what appears to be a lame attempt designed to positively impact Google Analytics on items that are clearly pro obama, Gabriel asked his faithful users to perform the following steps as a "test" of his 'Don't Bubble Us' ( dontbubble.us ) campaign against the Google monster:
"1) WAIT until Thursday, 9/6 at 2pm Eastern Time (11am Pacific, 7pm GMT, etc.). Since results can change quickly it is best if we all do it at around the same time.
2) Search for these three queries and take screen-shots of the results with personal results on (the default): abortion, gun control, obama."
Despite being a huge DDG fan, I am not a proponent of anything obama and, therefore, will not be participating.
In fact, I am asking others who agree with my assessment to submit pro-Republican words at that same date and time using
www.DuckDuckGo.com
I contacted Gabriel to convey my sentiments and he responed as follows:
"Sorry, but this is in no way pro or anti obama. If you knew me personally you'd know that to be the case."
To which I responded:
"How, then, did you choose three words that have such an uncanny connection to obama? I am certain others will arrive at the same interpretation. "
Gabriel's response:
" I chose them because they were used in the filter bubble book and in the reviews of it (see dontbubble.us) as examples where people saw pretty different results, and also because they have to do with the election so they are searched often right now (and potentially influenced by search history).
I don't see them as connecting to obama at all in particular. They are very general issues and terms related to the election. "
My observation remains: Whether he's pro- or anti-Obama, it may not be totally clear. But what is painfully obvious is that he chose three highly-charged, political words that are extremely controversial at a highly-sensitive, political time. There was definitely some type of political motive behind those words. Otherwise, why couldn't he have suggested sports, baseball, Yankees?
2012-09-06: Gabriel sent an update to his seemingly politically-motivated agenda:
*BEGIN QUOTE*
Hi all, here are some clarifications for The Filter Bubble test (upcoming later today in ~5hr). Thank you to those who pointed out these ambiguities!
A) Please run the searches on Google (not DDG). They are: abortion, gun control, obama.
B) Some people (it seems generally outside the US) do not have a personal results toggle. In that case, just do it signed in (on) and then singed out (off).
C) The time is September 6th (today) 14:00 (2pm) Eastern Time, 11:00am Pacific Time. I previously got the GMT time wrong due to daylight savings. It should be 18:00 (6pm) GMT. You can check your particular time zone at
https://www.duckduckgo.com/?q=2pm+edt+in+gmt (substituting your location or timezone at the end).
With that in mind, here are the abbreviated directions again:
1) At the right time, take screen-shots of the three Google searches signed into Google (so your results are as personalized as possible).
2) Sign out of Google, and take three more screen-shots of the Google searches (now signed out).
3) Reply and send in the attachments named like obama_on.png, obama_off.png, etc.
Here are some additional notes:
-- If you don't have a Google account, just do the signed out version. Google personalizes results somewhat even when you are signed out (by location, for example). We want to compare signed out results to each other not just signed out to signed in for a particular user.
-- When signed in, Google can personalize results based on your use of Google services (news, google+, youtube, web history, etc.) as well as your connected accounts (facebook, twitter, etc.). Check out this stuff here:
https://www.google.com/preferences (search preferences, look for personal results),
http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/ (ad preferences),
https://history.google.com/history/ (web history),
https://profiles.google.com/connectedaccounts (connected accounts),
http://news.google.com/ (click on gears icon).
-- If you use Windows and don't have the Snipping Tool, you can use the Print Screen button on your keyboard and copy and paste it into Paint:
http://www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Screenshot-in-Microsoft-Windows. If you want to download additional software, a user recommended Greenshot (
http://getgreenshot.org/) which also allows you to remove some of the shot (e.g. email address). We, however, will not share any personal information from this test.
-- On Mac, here are the ways to take a screen-shot:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X
And here are some additional explanations (based on the feedback so far).
-- We won't share all the screen-shots because they can contain personal information. Since it isn't a scientific experiment per se, we don't have particular results we're looking for or collecting, so there isn't something obvious to share. We're exploring ways to explain The Filter Bubble concept better, e.g. through a video or plugin, and thought having some real data to work with would help in that effort. If we come across something obvious and compelling to share back we will, and if you have any suggestions please offer them.
-- The keyword searches were not politically motivated. They were chosen because they were associated with results that people had reported significantly different in the past (see figs 8 & 10 on
http://dontbubble.us/) and because right now they are searched for very often due to the US presidential election.
*END QUOTE*