[Search-l] NPOV for Search?

[John McCormac]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
> Well, let me explain what I mean.  NPOV for search does not and should 
> not mean that only neutral results are shown.  But rather, it means that 
> the search engine itself should be as neutral and balanced as possible 
> with what it returns.  For me, this is part of what quality search 
> should be about.

I think that relevance is the most important aspect of search. The Barak Obama results from Google 
are quite relevant for the user. In this capacity, the search engine is very far from neutral (which 
would in effect mean giving each occurrence of the search term equal weighting). It is in an 
editorial position, filtering the results so that the most relevant results get to the top. From 
what I can see, neutrality (and NPOV) is fatal for a search engine. To this end it is the algorithm 
that controls the editorial process. That's the critical thing to get right.

Regards...jmcc
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