Google News Should Add a Liberal to Conservative Slider (Filter)

As you know, I bring news and stories to you from my findings in the discussion forums. One of those forums is the Google News Forum.

I always find it funny that every day, without question, there are at least one or two posts from people looking to block either conservative news or liberal news. People get into heated arguments over ways to block either conservative news or liberal news. It is often comical for me to see those headlines, which I normally skip. Just for reference, here is a conservative thread and here is a liberal thread (typically NY Times vs Fox News).

But then it occurred to me, why doesn't Google News give people a way to see news that they want to see. If they like the liberal spin, then give it to them. If they like the conservative spin, then give them that. How?

Remember Yahoo Mindset? The innovative tool from Yahoo that allowed you to filter your search results down by either research results or shopping results. FYI, it was discontinued some time recently. In any event, why not allow searchers to do the same thing with Google News, filter the level of either liberal or conservative spin they get in their news?

There are very few people who would not like such a feature in my opinion. Google is smart, we know your machines can detect bias, so add the slider to filter news towards one bias over an other.

Forum discussion at Google News Forum.

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posted rustybrick in Other Google Topics at May 5, 2009 7:43 AM Comments (8)

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Then watch the argument over what is considered Liberal or Conservative.

Posted by yohaas at May 5, 2009 09:19

The people won't stand for it because it could be seen as blocking/filtering free speech. Once you start labeling which speech is liberal or conservative, what's to stop someone from putting labels on all other forms of free speech. Conservative writers would cry foul that their right to free speech is being blocked/filtered..and vice versa for the liberal writers.

Posted by Steven at May 5, 2009 12:51

Good points, maybe this is a bad idea. :)

Posted by Barry Schwartz at May 5, 2009 13:06

I think that this would be a great idea. However, I do believe that politics is more complicated than left (government control of economy, more personal freedoms) and right (more freedom economically, less personal freedoms) because there are Libertarians (more freedom both economically and personally) and Statists (government control of economy and personal behavior) that do not fit into that paradigm.

Posted by Jeff Revier at May 5, 2009 14:27

Check out toppersearch.com. It was created in the spirit of Mindset or "biased search". The difference is that the slider can have any bias you choose or build ad hoc. There are several models (i.e. "hats") with some liberal or conservative twist already.

Posted by Topper at May 6, 2009 09:26

Can anyone point me towards any good reading on the state of the art in slider technology? I use it on Kayak, but don't have a clear sense as to what other applications are out there. Although I agree that a conservative-liberal news source slider might prove to be a minefield, I'd love to play with it.

Posted by RockyF at May 12, 2009 00:10

You're a huge power in the media world with your massive readership: 15!

Posted by Jake at May 19, 2009 07:35

Are you kidding me? Eric Schmidt is a hard core lefty liberal. Google News has 70% of the search market. He wants the bias upheld. Controlling information is the Marxism dream.

Posted by Bill McKay at August 1, 2009 10:22

Google News Should Add a Liberal to Conservative Slider (Filter)

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