Open Letter to Google

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wexter
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Open Letter to Google

Post by wexter » Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:20 am

I sent out a letter to Google today. It will definitely find its way to the circular Google office building, it will most likely find its way to
the circular file, but it might actually be read.

To: Mr. Sundar Pichai
Google
1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043

Date: 2/1/2022

Regarding: Opt-out from Wikipedia
Unavoidable dominance of Wikipedia in Search

I enjoy using Google products including Chrome, Chrome OS, Android, and Google Search Engines.

In simple terms, I would like to “fire” Wikipedia from my search results.

I have concerns regarding the dominance that Wikipedia enjoys in the Google search results that are displayed to me. I would prefer to have my personal Google search results prioritize primary source information, first hand reporting, expert opinion, and professionally vetted research.

It was suggested to me by Wikipedia administrators that “If you don’t like Wikipedia, don’t use it.” It was something quite easy to say but hard for me to easily accomplish given the fact that all searches lead to Wikipedia. I reached out to Wikimedia with concerns about Wikipedia and they couldn't care less about the quality of content on their flagship product.

I would appreciate it if Google would help me (personally) avoid Wikipedia in search results in total, through personal customization of search ranking, or through deprioritization of Wikipedia in its global ranking schema.

The unavoidable dominance of Wikipedia in Google Search means that a questionable sources of information supplants quality sources of information. Quality sources such as Briticanica are currently deprioritized by Google. This structure adversely impacts consumers of information that cannot evaluate the quality of information and critical thinkers who are well equipped to process and organize information. Google has presented Wikipedia as a “Hobson's choice” , a choice of taking what is available or nothing at all.

Again, I thank Google for providing quality products which I enjoy and rely upon.
Wikipedia - "Barely competent and paranoid. There’s a hell of a combination."

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Jake Is A Sellout
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Re: Open Letter to Google

Post by Jake Is A Sellout » Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:09 am

You're ten years too late.

The question now is, how the fuck do I stop my [name any random Internet connected device] using Wikipedia results, especially in cases where these fucking things aren't even telling me that the ultimate source of the information is the amateur hobbyism of some know nothing wanker like "Hemenchuia, Wikipedia Editor, Wikipediocracy Blogger".

That's Hemenchuia, a person who genuinely seems to think they're qualified and entitled to pass judgment on the reliability of Brittanica, even though there are good reasons to believe he may be an actual child, or at least has the mental age of a minor (full details of that on Reddit in a few moments - I'd have posted it here, but Eric apparently wants to be protected from seeing too much information he can't understand at one time).

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