The Markup – the technology publication founded by Julia Angwin – has built a useful tool that strips away the impact of the commercial interests on search results. The browser extension, which is called ‘Simple Search,’ “lets you travel back to a time when online search operated a little differently.”
Why The Markup developed Simple Search
The Simple Search browser extension was created in response to an investigation by The Markup that looked into the extent to which Google favours its own products and services in search results. Having analyzed more than 15,000 queries, journalists Adrianne Jeffris and Leon Yin found that 41% of first page results were taken by Google products.
This isn’t just about advertising. It includes things like “Knowledge Panels” (those boxes of information that appear on the right hand side of results about, for example, a specific organization or person), links to items within Google News, and “People also ask” panels.
Why does this matter?
This matters for a number of reasons. First, there is an antitrust issue because it shows that Google is able to shape the marketplace (the marketplace here being Google Search) in a way that is advantageous to its own commercial interests. Second, there is also a broader question about what a good information ecosystem actually looks like. If the way we explore and discover information is rigged by the interests of a huge company, does it not complicate the integrity of the information we find?
Sure, that might sound academic. It might even be churlish – a Google spokesperson, responding to The Markup’s initial investigation claimed that Google features that help give the impression of a walled garden “are fundamentally in the interest of users, which we validate through a rigorous testing process.”
As with many technological phenomenon, we need to question what the implications of usefulness and convenience might be. In their investigative report, Jeffries and Yin include a comment from Sally Hubbard, an antitrust expert from the Open Markets Institute: “Imagine you go to the library and the card catalog is picking and choosing what book to get based on what makes the library the most money.” Reframing the issue in this way underlines that the notion of “usefulness” can be deployed in a way that is advantageous to parties other than ourselves.
Read next: What is “on background” and why is it bad for accountability in tech?
What does Simple Search do?
The Simple Search browser extension proves that good technology doesn’t need to be complex and sophisticated to be powerful. When you search, the browser extension simply overlays the “normal” results with a simplifed version. Indeed, the results can actually be a little jarring when you first use the tool. It’s also feels like you’re being asked to do more work. You have to actively engage with search results in a way that Google has taught us we don’t need to.
While this might have become alien to us, there’s undoubtedly some value in having a new perspective on search results. It’s important to revisit and think carefully about the way search products – Google or otherwise – structure our relationship with information.