Forum Post: Democratic Internet Search

Heres food for thought: ever notice how often our opinions are reduced to a simple "for" or "against" just like it is on Election Day? It is a similar trade off for having a two party system: if we allow more complex opinions about a candidate than simply "for" Xor "against" then our decisions become less stark and potent. It does, however, divide people less starkly as well, which might make open and meaningful discussion of more specific issues more common. As it is the words Democrat/Republican are so glutted with meaning as to be similar to Yin and Yang, but the wise know that neither one of Yin or Yang is the "true" force.

But it is not just on Election Day that our opinions are so grossly oversimplified- most activity on the internet does the same with "like" systems. Once again it is a binary "like" or no-action/not-like. Sometimes its a ternary with like, dislike, and no-action but this is not as common.

This binary feeds into how easy a comment or webpage is to find. Google bases its search on the presence of links, which is also a binary, of course the actual search is exceedingly more complex than simply links, but it could have at its base a more complex idea than links. (when you put a link on your site, you are essentially voting for that site when it comes to finding it on google)

The complexity of the google search is still a black box to most of us, who, somewhat passively, type in what they are wondering about word for word and hit search. Being more intentional and putting more, less stark, decisions in the hands of the searcher is the basic idea behind my project Nightingale News. You can find the idea and updates here http://nightingale108.blogspot.com. Thanks for your time.