Those Insidious Search Engines

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?

Social Media is Dangerous

Has anyone seen this short clip that exemplifies the very real danger we are facing? It goes something like this:
Sarah wakes up late for work because her internet controlled clock on her cell phone didn't wake her up one morning. She grabbed it to see the time and sees a red banner flashing 'ERROR'. OK, no big deal. She gets up and notices it's cold in her house so she goes to the internet controlled thermostat only to see an error message flashing there too and the temperature is down to 18 degrees C.
Hmm, that's odd, she says to herself. She goes to her high tech, internet controlled fridge to get some food but again sees an error message flashing on the screen panel on the door and it won't let her open it. She runs outside to her car that uses a phone app to check her fingerprints prior to unlocking the door. But her phone displays the same error message and has locked her out so therefore her car has done the same. Wow, something is really scary here. Sarah is a modern 21st century woman who relies entirely on the internet and technology. She doesn't use cash anymore and her wallet is almost barren. You see she uses various applications residing on her all important cell phone and computer to do almost anything. From banking to paying for public transit all she does is flash or tap her cell phone and voila, she's in business. Lastly she tries to hop on a bus but realizes she has no cash and can't use her cell phone to pay the fare. 

Eventually she finds out that the error messages all relate to a Facebook post that she recently made where she criticized Islam. FB didn't like that so they shut her down temporarily. There is a lot of that going on. FB, Google, Twitter, Youtube et all consider themselves to be lawmakers these days and since they themselves are beyond the law, they wield a lot of power especially to those who rely and submit to them. Since people often log on to other internet applications with their Facebook ID and also use Google supplied passwords, pissing off either organization can seriously hamper your life style (or life).

We need to consider this a war because it is. It begins with a battle against free speech and it can end with serious consequences as the scenario above makes clear.

What can we do about it? Plenty!  First, stop relying on technology for everything. Technology can and should be used to our respective benefit when it makes sense. But it's not healthy to jump all in to anything prior to considering the alternatives.
Do your children have cell phones? Of course they do. Only the best for our kids. Mine included. Do they operate businesses or have jobs that require them to use one? Probably not. They are mostly used to gossip and send important text messages like 'Did you see what Cheryl was wearing? Hideous!' Many young adults can’t even communicate properly these days because they have their heads in their cell phones. They don’t play outside anymore. I myself don’t have a cell phone despite my background in IT or more likely because of my background in IT. How many times do you go to a restaurant only to see most of the people there looking at their cell phones?

Monopolies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon are insidiously taking over the world. (I would include Youtube but it has been bought out by Google). It has been proven that monopolies are not good. They are bad for the economy and because they have pushed old school utility companies (like oil and gas companies) out of the top financial spot they do wield a ton of power and today are out of control. It's up to us to change that. What can we do? 

There are choices. I urge people to stop using Google immediately and instead use Bing. It has been proven to be less biased (anti-Jewish/Israel and anti-right wing) in its search results and it is no less functional than Google, perhaps more so. I recently read about Google partnering with Jew hating Muslims in a London summit. You can read more about it here: https://gellerreport.com/2018/02/google-hamas-group.html/ 

My homepage on my computer

There are alternatives but we the people must encourage the new applications to succeed simply by using them instead. I find Zuckerberg's (the self hater) FB particularly dangerous. FB is already losing active members. People with a different point of view than the Facebook police, are often banned from it, either temporarily or permanently. It happens thousands of times a day! I bet you know someone who has been wrongly banned. Instagram and Snapchat don't serve the exact same function as FB or Youtube but have helped to deplete their market share. Bing (search) 'Alternatives to Face Book' and you will see numerous options. 

To stop using Google now, follow these 2 simple steps. I use an Apple Macbook air laptop:

First, click on Safari/Preferences/General and change Homepage to: https://www.bing.com/. Ensure Google is not mentioned in any other fields. 
Second, click on Safari/Preferences/Search and change Search Engine to Bing.

I also urge readers to contact Bing and Google and let them know who you switched to and why. It will take some time but we can make changes to the market and win this war!