EDITING 101: 53 – Internet Tracking…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Internet Tracking and How it Can Affect Your Research

I’m sure you’ve noticed—if you do any shopping online—how photos of the items you view in online stores follow you around the Internet for days, if not weeks. Commercial sites on the Internet put cookies into your browser memory and use them to track where you’ve been, what products you’ve reviewed, and to show you what they’d like you to purchase. News sites, blogs, forums, and other web pages also place cookies on your computer.

“Chris—ya know, I don’t read these articles just for my health. When’s she gonna get to something about writing?”

Ok, ok, I’m getting to that.

One site that does a lot of tracking is Google. Google is everywhere. Even when you are not signed into Google, they are still tracking you (especially if you use Chrome).

As a writer (See? Now I’m getting to it!), you probably do a lot of research on the Internet—for the book you’re writing, how to publish, which agents or publishers might be interested in your work. You may use Google and you assume that what you’re being shown is what’s out there, right?

Wrong.

If you’re using Google to search, all that tracking affects what Google shows you.

Let me describe an example. These are completely made-up, extreme, stereotypical characterizations that are not meant to offend anyone!

(A) Mary Lou is a die-hard Democrat in Massachusetts. She regularly consults Salon.com for her news, defends the current president in comments she makes on blogs and news articles, and is an avid pro-abortion supporter.

(B) Steven is an equally committed Republican living in California. He prefers Fox News, has signed petitions insisting the current president is not qualified for his job because of his birthplace, and is aghast at the SCOTUS’ recent marriage decision.

Mary Lou and Steven both decide to use Google to search for information about “Social Security funding.” THEY WILL BE SHOWN VERY DIFFERENT SITES.

Mary Lou’s page might show her sites that explain the benefits of Social Security, how to sign up, and ideas about making adjustments to payouts in order to make the funds last longer.

Steven’s page might show him sites containing dire predictions about the program’s lack of funds, sites that discuss people who are abusing the system, and the injustice of the idea that wealthy people shouldn’t collect.

Both types of information support the algorithmic profile that has been built up about each person through their Internet activities.

This phenomenon is called “the Internet bubble” and it’s becoming a real problem. While people (kind of) like the idea of being shown things they might like to buy, most people don’t like the idea of their search content being filtered. Especially writers who might be looking for information on all sides of a topic.

There isn’t a lot of information on the Internet about this, but if you’re interested in finding out more and perhaps how to avoid your personal “bubble,” these sites can help.

Search Engine Journal

Don’t Bubble

Wikipedia

There is one search engine that claims to offer unbiased results, duckduckgo, I’ve been using it for some years now and I’m satisfied with it.

Next week we’ll discuss ‘Sharing Content, Copyrights, and Permissions’

Susan

To see the index and catch up with missed episodes of this series – CLICK HERE

33 thoughts on “EDITING 101: 53 – Internet Tracking…”

  2. I am stunned-is this why we feel we are so divided? Great post Susan. Do you happen to know if this tracking is why google can also complete my search so accurately- as I start to type it, it shows me possible searches and sometimes those have seemed uncanny too

    Liked by 2 people

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    • That’s an interesting insight, Jena. I do know I’ve seen articles about algorithms causing you also to see the news articles you’re most likely to be interested in. So if you read articles that lean toward conservatism, you’ll be shown more and more similar articles (and fewer and fewer articles of the opposite opinion). So, yes, little by little you can become insulated within the material you’re offered to read. The Wikipedia link above, in the article, talks about that somewhat.

      This TED talk transcript discusses it: https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles/transcript

      And this article may be eye-opening: https://www.wired.com/2016/11/filter-bubble-destroying-democracy/

      As for the possible search completions, no, that’s not based on YOU. That’s based on what other people are currently searching for. But you can use that to your advantage sometimes, as it might show you a slant you weren’t expecting. Like, if you were intending to search for “author marketing on ” and it autocompleted after “on.” I just did this and got the following options:

      on the internet
      on a budget
      on Facebook
      online
      on Amazon

      So maybe you hadn’t been thinking about the “on a budget” aspect, but seeing this, it might lead you to explore that option instead of what you’d been intending to explore.

      Whew! I didn’t mean to be so long-winded. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
    If you have following the essential creative writing series Editing 101 on The Story Reading Ape’s blog… contributed by Susan Uttendorfsky of Adirondack Editing.. then here is a post on Internet Tracking. How Google for instance when you are researching will show you recommended sites based on your previous browsing history. We use DuckDuckgo which Susan also recommends.. read the post and then try two different searches using Google and Duck….you may be surprised at what you get shown.

    Liked by 2 people

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  7. Thanks so much for sharing this. I knew that on online stores I’d be shown items based on my history on that store, but I had no idea this worked for my Google results too.
    That’s bothers me quite a lot. It means that I’ll always find what I expect to find… so what about earing different bells in order to form an educated personal idea? Is there something we can do to limit this ‘limitatin’?

    Liked by 3 people

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