A while back I posted a detailed article about the danger of social media giants and how to combat them. Here it is: Social Media is Dangerous.
I feel that it's time for a quick update because some have gotten even worse.
Today I searched the following phrase 'fact check: is Israel an apartheid state' on the following 2 browsers (search engines):
1. Google (the most popular by far)
2. Bing (the one I use that is owned by Microsoft)
The results were as follows:
1. The first page from Google
If you can't see the results that I posted below, feel free to do the search yourself.
Let's analyze the results above.
Note that the first search item returned was 'Israel and the apartheid analogy' from Wikipedia.
In it's first paragraph it listed a litany of crimes that 'some commentators' accuse Israel of doing, including 'treating Arab citizens as second class, occupying Palestinian territories, Israeli settlements, checkpoints, etc.
Out of a total of 4 paragraphs, a paltry total of 3 sentences were devoted to criticisms of the analogy. They also perpetuated the myth of a Palestinian State. It's safe to say that anyone reading this one item from the well respected Wikipedia site, would conclude that Israel is an apartheid state.
The second item "Israeli apartheid factsheet' declares absolutely that Israel is an apartheid state and worse. Feel free to read it and then vomit.
The third item 'Is Israel an Apartheid State?' is quick to talk about Israel's 'ethnic cleansing and apartheid during Israel's establishment and then moves on to talk about 'Israel apartheid today'. More vomit.
The fourth item from reliable CNN talks about newly elected Democrat senator Warnock who has said many anti-Israel (read antisemitic) statements including what the item quotes 'after his visit to Israel and Palestine he said; militarization of the West Bank was reminiscent of the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa but he doesn't claim that Israel is an apartheid state'. Now that makes a lot of sense - Not!
The last item on that first page speaks for itself.
Conclusion: Google's search engine maligns Israel and tries to brainwash people (billions of people) to believe that Israel is an apartheid state when in fact this couldn't be farther from the truth.
Now lets examine the search results from Bing. What a difference!
2. Part of the first page from Bing. I couldn't screen capture the entire first page.
The first few items above state emphatically that Israel is not an apartheid state.
The next 8 items which I didn't screen capture are a mixed bag. 6 are negative (they include the Wikipedia item that was positioned as the first item from Google, 2 are positive.
What counts most in any search is the order of the results returned. So the first items displayed on the first screen of results are the most important by far because most people who search for stuff online usually stop after the first screen. They rarely scroll down to see the following screens of results. It's like reading the news in a newspaper. Most people read the headlines on the first page and stop there.
Conclusion: Bing got it right. Anyone who's done real research on this or better, has lived in Israel which has Arabs in their Supreme Court and in their Parliament know this. Of course they are obligated as a search engine to give you all the results they can find online pertinent to your search so as one scrolls down through thousands of results one can and will find all sorts of crazy items. What I don't know is if Bing is using my past search history and other internet usage to determine that I am pro-Israel and is therefore giving me the results in the order that I would want. If you happen to be an antisemite and are for some reason reading this, please do the same search on Bing and let me know if you get the same results. Thanks.
The point of this post it to make you aware of the dangers in trusting Google and numerous sites like them, to find out anything. If they get this wrong (and they certainly have) how can they be trusted to tell you anything?
Excellent testing skills! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing this out. The greatest tools in life are usually the simplest and most obvious which, naturally, evade us for most of our lives. So I thank you for passing this one on - I will continue to employ it hence forward. On a personal note, I gave up google the minute i heard about Bing many years ago - never regretting that choice. I had found myself vomiting(as you put it) from the directed propaganda launched at me from the googlesphere with every click of the search button. I loved the photos on bing and found it pretty reliable, in spite of its association with MSFT. Recently, though, I stopped using Bing and went with Duck Duck Go due to online tracking that I heard was used by Bing. But just now, I tried your test on Duck Duck Go and found it was actually less supportive of the truth than Bing, though not as transparently focused towards the disinformation campaign which is so obvious with google. Consequently, I am considering reconsidering what I considered my priorities were when using a search engine. So, thanks again for the heads up.
Hi peloni1986 and thanks for reading and commenting. Funny, initially I planned to research 3 browsers, the third being Duck Duck Go but decided that my post would be too long. Turns out a friend who uses it, did the test and concurred with your conclusion. It's not as bad as Google but not as good as Bing. Over time, things might change however so I wouldn't rule out tossing Bing out at some point.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Leon