Blekko Launches a Search Engine With Bias 133
Pickens writes "Previous specialized search engines including Cuil, Hakia, Powerset, Clusty, and RedZ — each had a special trick, but they've all faded from memory, some after crashing in flames, some after making their founders rich. Now Rafe Needleman reports at Cnet that along comes Blekko, whose claim to fame is that you can tilt your search results in the direction you like by using a category of bias, like 'liberal' or 'conservative.' Categorization lists are applied by appending a 'slashtag.' The query, 'climate change /conservative' will give you politically slanted results, for example. 'Climate change /science' will restrict your results to hits from scientific Web sites. Blekko won't have a real, Web-wide impact unless its concept — that bias is good and more aggressive search filtering is needed — gets some traction, writes Needleman. But 'Blekko is a solid alternative to Google and Bing for anyone, and more importantly it's got great potential for researchers, librarians, journalists, or anyone who's willing to put some work into how their search engine functions in order to get better results.'"
One problem (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Won't work as intended (Score:1, Informative)
I think it's your definition of Fascism that is screwed.
Fascism is about nationalism and strong divisions of social class.
Socialism is about internationalism and removal of social class barriers (at least in theory).
It is true that both advocate a strong central state, but that is the only similarity.
Re:The problem is people confuse what bias is (Score:3, Informative)
bias [thefreedictionary.com] (bs)
n.
1. A line going diagonally across the grain of fabric: Cut the cloth on the bias.
2.
a. A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment.
b. An unfair act or policy stemming from prejudice.
3. A statistical sampling or testing error caused by systematically favoring some outcomes over others. 4. Sports
a. A weight or irregularity in a ball that causes it to swerve, as in lawn bowling.
b. The tendency of such a ball to swerve.
5. The fixed voltage applied to an electrode.
adj.
Slanting or diagonal; oblique: a bias fold.
tr.v. biased or biassed, biasing or biassing, biases or biasses
1. To influence in a particular, typically unfair direction; prejudice.
2. To apply a small voltage to (a grid).
Re:Kittens (Score:1, Informative)
In the world of making sure things don't go ka-boom I really don't give a shit if reality hurts your feelings
According to Benjamin Franklin, you deserve neither liberty nor safety.