Google Search: Another Tale of Precision and Recall
July 8, 2016
I read “Google Search Shows US Election Results Instead of Australian Election.” Smart software indeed. According to the write up:
Australian internet users searching for “Election 2016” are instead being shown results for the US presidential primaries. So instead of names like Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten popping up, users are seeing names like Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Google trends on Saturday night showed “Election 2016” was the most popular search term relating to the federal election, but Google continues to prioritize US election updates in the top search results.
Yep, there’s an easy fix but Google no longer uses humans. Thus, the fix must be magical.
I mention this issue because the perception is that smart Google searches may not deliver what the users expect. I know that Google has wizards in Australia. I know that Google’s personalization functions are the cat’s pajamas.
I assume that the type of error which killed a Tesla passenger will not occur at the Alphabet Google thing.
Despite my optimism and hope, it appears that Google knows better than the Australians what they want when searching for “election results.” The fix? Just as Google once expected China to change, Google anticipates that Australians seeking information about its national election results to craft better queries. Get on with it, mates. I love the way smart systems converge to the most likely; that’s a grade C I believe.
Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2016
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