I used Google to better understand how to escape Google’s filter bubble. Wrap your head around that. I wanted to know if there was easily accessible information, provided by Google, about how to avoid falling prey to their algorithmic search tampering. 

The term “filter bubble” was first coined by Eli Pariser in his 2011 book The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. In his book and Ted Talk, Pariser uses the example of asking two different people Google searching the same word at the same time and getting completely different and diverging perspectives. In his Ted Talk, he told the story of how he had two friends both search the word “Egypt.” One of his friend’s feeds was almost completely news about protests and other relevant, world information. The other friend had no news, but simply tourism and fun fact information. 

So, who do companies like Google tailor information in such a way? The purpose of Google’s filter bubble is “providing and consuming content that is closely aligned to your preferences results in the creation of a bubble or chamber, restricting your view of the wider picture.” Using your personal data, including location, device, search and click history and other information, Google edits and tailors your search results to show you what they believe you should want to see most. Every Google user, logged in or out, experiences these algorithms. So how do we get around these? How do we avoid being exposed to this Google-tailored version of reality? 

So, as I would do with any other question I have, I Googled it. And I learned a lot.

Logging out and clearing your history and cookies will not protect you as well as I would have thought. Even doing both of those things and using an incognito or private browser will not completely hide your activity or keep you safe from the algorithm. Simply using your IP address and location, Google still subjects any and all searches to their own “internal bias.”

Unfortunately, Google is everywhere. Escaping their filter bubble is made even more impossible by the fact that Google is not the only website that employs these tactics. Facebook slowly edits out or hides posts from friends and pages you interact with that you are less likely to interact with. Yahoo! News curates their news results based on what they believe you are most likely to click on. 

Clicks are money, and these companies are trying to rake it in. By showing you a curated list of content you are likely to click on, these internet companies are simply trying to set themselves up for success. The continual improvement of algorithms and websites is important because it is how companies keep us coming back. Updating websites for stickiness and speed is exactly how users keep wanting to come back. 

Since avoidance seems impossible, awareness is the next best thing. As informed readers, we must take it upon ourselves to search for diverse information and points of view to escape our own filter bubbles. Interacting online with others who have differing viewpoints is important in making sure that we are challenging our own biases... and popping our Google filter bubbles as well.