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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">Zbigniew Lukasiak raises important issues below.</span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> I don't think there will be many commercial alternatives developing, for reasons I give here: </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><a href="http://madisonian.net/2009/03/18/seven-reasons-to-doubt-competition-in-the-general-search-engine-market/">http://madisonian.net/2009/03/18/seven-reasons-to-doubt-competition-in-the-general-search-engine-market/</a></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span></span> </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">So we have to respond to the dominant search engine (i.e., the Googlement) we've got. Gaming is serious problem. </span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">My short answer is that a trusted advisory committee within the Federal Trade Commission (the US’s national privacy and consumer protection regulator) could help courts and agencies adjudicate coming controversies over search engine practices, without revealing rankings to the public. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Such a committee, like the FISA court, would not practice “total transparency”—it would practice “qualified transparency,” only releasing relevant methods “in camera” to entities that have a bona fide complaint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Such a committee would extend to the administrative realm an old judicial practice called “protective orders,” which allow trade secrets in litigation to be reviewed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">This institution might provide one method for developing what Christopher Kelty calls a “recursive public”–one that is “vitally concerned with the material and practical maintenance and modification of the technical, legal, practical, and conceptual means of its own existence as a public.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Questioning the power of a dominant intermediary like Google is not just a prerogative of the anxious. Rather, monitoring is a prerequisite for assuring a level playing field online.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">However, even if we think that type of institutional solution is not practical, it’s still valuable to consistently remind people of the weaknesses of “algorithmic authority,” as I do here: </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><a href="http://balkin.blogspot.com/2009/11/assessing-algorithmic-authority.html"><font color="#606420">http://balkin.blogspot.com/2009/11/assessing-algorithmic-authority.html</font></a></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">I think that sort of consciousness-raising is important because, at the conference, one participant at the closing session said that media studies was in a primitive state, closer to “alchemy” than a real science like physics. We need to bear in mind the power of internet intermediaries before treating the web as a natural phenomenon to be studied and understood using the models of natural science. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Search engines are referees in the millions of contests for attention that take place on the web each day. There are myriad entities that want to be the top result in response to a query like “sneakers,” “best restaurant in New York City,” or “best employer to work for.” The top and right hand sides of many search engine pages are open for paid placement; but even there the highest bidder may not get a prime spot because a good search engine strives to keep even these sections relevant to searchers. The unpaid, organic results are determined by search engines' proprietary algorithms, though users often fail to distinguish between unpaid and paid placements.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Given the secrecy of search engines’ ranking algorithms and carriers’ network management practices, it is very difficult for an entity to determine whether it has a “stealth marketing problem” online—i.e., a competitor that is somehow leveraging payments or business partnerships with intermediaries in order to gain greater relative exposure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Recognizing this problem, the FTC has taken some tentative steps toward recognizing the potential for consumer deception and cultural distortion here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In 2002, the agency sent a letter to various search engine firms recommending that they clearly and conspicuously distinguish paid placements from other results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But neither the FTC nor other potential regulators has followed up such guidance with systematic monitoring. </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In order for the FTC to determine whether its guidance is actually being followed, it will need to develop sophisticated methods of understanding how organic results are determined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Without such an understanding, it will be impossible to distinguish between paid and organic content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This monitoring needs to happen in real-time, rather than after a dispute arises, for many reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First, data retention may be spotty. Second, the history of regulation of high technology industries indicates that government lag in understanding how critical infrastructure functions can effectively neuter even a strong regulatory regime. Just as Danny Weitzner has called for an “independent panel of technical, legal and business experts to help [the FTC] review, on an ongoing basis, the privacy practices of Google,” the agency needs to develop the capacity for understanding the ranking practices of Google and its competitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This capacity could, in turn, enable litigants to submit focused queries to a nonbiased third party that could quickly give critical information to courts mired in discovery disputes in search-related lawsuits.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">I hope this counts as a practical response that respects Google’s war against spammers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As Elizabeth Van Couvering, has argued, search engines often operate using a “war schema . . . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>as they assume the role of guardian or protector of something precious—in this case, access to the Web” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Is Relevance Relevant? Market, Science, and War: Discourses of Search Engine Quality</i>, 12 <span style="FONT-VARIANT: small-caps">J. Computer-Mediated Comm. 866</span>, 880 (2007)).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The public should have some idea how the internet is shaped by search engines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And where, as in the case of books, the problem of spamming should be less acute than that on the web as a whole, more transparency may well be appropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">All best,</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">--Frank</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></span> </p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">PS: <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">France's "<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: black">Commission Nationale</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: black">De</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: black">L'Informatique</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: black">et</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: black">des</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="COLOR: black">Libertes" (CNIL) appears to have taken some important steps regarding privacy, but I'd love to hear from French list members to hear if it's actually an institutional model for assuring that "<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">the development of information technology remains at the service of citizens and does not breach human identity, human rights, privacy or personal or public liberties."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></span> </p>
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<div>On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 3:08 AM, Zbigniew Lukasiak <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:zzbbyy@gmail.com" target="_blank">zzbbyy@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Hi there,<br><br>I have not been at the conference and I don't know if this point was<br>raised, if it was then - please forgive me.<br>
<br>On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 6:28 AM, nathan jurgenson<br><<a href="mailto:nathanjurgenson@gmail.com" target="_blank">nathanjurgenson@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>> Frank Pasquale forcefully called on Google to be more transparent. Given<br>
> what was discussed above, as well as Google’s central status in our<br>> day-to-day knowledge-seeking life, Pasquale leaves us with questions to<br>> ponder: should its page-rank algorithm be public? Should Google be allowed<br>
> to up-rank or down-rank links based their relationship to the company?<br>> Should Google be able to simply remove pages from its listings? Should<br>> Google be forced to let us know when they do these things? ~nathan<br>
<br>I am also more and more afraid of the kafquesque world of Google<br>government of our information sources - but they do have a valid point<br>for the secrecy of page-rank: this is about defending against those<br>that try to game the system. If the page-rank algorithm was public it<br>
would be analysed and effective ways to game it would be found and we<br>would drown under the deluge of spam. Now there are still people and<br>companies that try to analyse the black-box - but at least their<br>actions cannot be very effective.<br>
<br>If we are to be constructive in our criticism Google for the black-box<br>algorithm we should also propose some alternative. Most probably<br>there is no alternative that Google could unilaterally deploy - most<br>probably this would require a complex web of law, social norms and<br>
technical changes. This would be an interesting project.<br><br>Cheers,<br>Zbigniew Lukasiak<br><a href="http://brudnopis.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://brudnopis.blogspot.com/</a><br><a href="http://perlalchemy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://perlalchemy.blogspot.com/</a><br>
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