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MY REVISED ESSAY | | | Disregarding transparency’s obvious problems with execution ((1) the more transparent the algorithm, the more vulnerable it is to gamesmanship by spammers or worse, the greater the chance of the algorithm being rendered useless. (2) if the algorithm is transparent to regulators, they are unlikely to adapt fast enough to bless innovations), the concept is only worthwhile to prosumers, not consumers, and it is vital to remember that antitrust law, at least in theory, is supposed to be about protecting consumers. All consumers see is the supposedly objective final results, not the intervention by the gatekeeper. Unless the search manipulation is drastic (i.e. no relevant result appears), corrupted results are an “unknown unknown” and so no one cares. People will continue to see the search as a credence good, whose value is difficult to determine even after consumption. | |
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< | Google’s relation to prosumers: The prosumer campaigns for a system that allows a visitor to conduct any or all three types of a search task: develop information, compare options, and find where to execute transactions. Algorithmic opacity would not be ideal for the prosumer because the prosumer, the active, tech-savvy customer who gains information from digital media or online, and interprets and influences mass consumers in terms of lifestyle and brand choices, desires increased facility with the technology in order to maximize his ability to engage critically with it and collaborate with others. Collaboration or federation is value to the prosumer. Currently, web search engines like Google function as weak federation mechanisms either by bringing up relevant web pages for user queries or via directories of related sites. A federated architecture, however, would offer a single point of entry allowing users to employ specific applications optimized for their searches. In other words, the emerging paradigm is based on the combination of a multi–domain query approach with the integration of heterogeneous data sources capable to scour the deep Web. | >
> | Google’s relation to prosumers: The prosumer campaigns for a system that allows a visitor to conduct any or all three types of a search task: develop information, compare options, and find where to execute transactions. Algorithmic opacity would not be ideal for the prosumer because the prosumer, the active, tech-savvy customer who gains information from digital media or online, and interprets and influences mass consumers in terms of lifestyle and brand choices, desires increased facility with the technology in order to maximize his ability to engage critically with it and collaborate with others. Collaboration or federation is value to the prosumer. Currently, web search engines like Google function as weak federation mechanisms either by bringing up relevant web pages for user queries or via directories of related sites. A federated architecture, however, would offer a single point of entry allowing users to employ specific applications optimized for their searches. In other words, the emerging paradigm is based on the combination of a multi–domain query approach with the integration of heterogeneous data sources capable of scouring the deep Web. | | | Conceptualizing a prosumer- ideal search architecture, or as Professor Moglen puts it, “a system of federated search technology, in which we all do searching for one another in some fast and efficient manner” can prove difficult, however, for a number of reasons, not least of which is because there would need to be a revenue mechanism different from the “pay-per-click” method that we are accustomed to. Existing revenue sharing agreements between search engines and publishers, where each receives a fixed share of the profit, are no longer feasible. Consider Google’s model: once a user clicks on a sponsored link, the search engine receives the payment from the corresponding advertiser and gives part of this to the publisher. The payment ratio of the search engine is defined by a commercial contract, existing independently of the specific search. When it comes to federated search, however, the contracts between the publisher and the domain-specific search engines must account for the fact that each search engine plays a role in the generation of the search process. In order for there to be a disciplined way to estimate the search value of each domain-specific search engine, the monetization must be performed after the ranking. This would avoid issues of trust (often a search engine may want to bid strongly or decrease the bid on a query for purely economic reasons) around the domain-specific engines. |
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