[ale] OT sort of: youtube search results in Linux

Damon Chesser damon at damtek.com
Wed Nov 7 10:18:07 EST 2012


On 11/07/2012 12:09 AM, Scott Plante wrote:
> I was aware Google personalized search results, but do you suggest
> that would explain returning a list of videos for something like
> "stupid Obama supporters" but then having none of those videos play? I
> don't suspect Google was doing something evil, but it does seem like
> some other weird kink or error was in play. I would be interested to
> learn if Damon was signed into Google on either the Linux box that
> didn't work, the Windows box, that did, or neither, or both. Also if
> the same browser was used on both platforms.
>
> Scott

Scott,

to be fair, I think they are two separate issues, they were discovered a
few hours apart ( the gun search happened because I was lamenting the
first issue to a friend who said everything worked for him in windows,
but, hey, I am thinking of buying this gun!  I looked up that gun to see
what he was talking about and I was not getting any hits on suppliers.

Aaron's link is totally fascinating and explains the disparity.  Now I
am off to follow up on David's link.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"David Tomaschik" <david at systemoverlord.com>
> *To: *"Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
> *Sent: *Tuesday, November 6, 2012 11:37:43 PM
> *Subject: *Re: [ale] OT sort of: youtube search results in Linux
>
> https://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54041 describes
> the information Google uses to personalize search results for users,
> and it varies based on whether they are signed in or not.  You can
> use https://www.google.com/history/optout to opt out of any
> personalized search information.
>
> [Disclosure: I work for Google, so if you believe Google is evil,
> you'll probably assume I'm feeding you the party line.  That being
> said, I am not speaking on behalf of Google in any official capacity,
> any opinions presented are my own, etc.]
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 6:12 PM, arxaaron <arxaaron at gmail.com
> <mailto:arxaaron at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I'd expect that most of these inconsistencies just came from
>     bumping into the thin soapy film of your filter bubbles.
>
>     It is my understanding that the automatic "customizing" filters
>     on search engines and such identify us by our system
>     finger prints, which include metrics on a number of factors
>     like OS, browser version, source IP, etc., etc.  Switching to
>     a machine with a different OS / Browser would put you in
>     a different bubble, probably a slightly larger one if you don't
>     use that OS / browser combo often.
>
>     It's scary to think how this marketroid customer targeting
>     is sealing all of us into our own lonely, exclusionary cells...
>
>     <http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html>
>
>     in peace
>     aaron
>
>
>
>
>
>     On 2012/11/06, at 11:33 , Damon Chesser wrote:
>
>         OK, so there is a bit of irony here for you, I will let you
>         find it:
>
>         In-law posted a vid of "stupid Romney supporters" who were
>         interviewed.
>         Now we all know there are stupid "insert name" supporters for
>         everybody.  So I went to youtube and searched for "stupid Obama
>         supporters" with the intent of posting back a good nature retort.
>
>         Not one of the "stupid Obama supporters" videos worked.
>
>         All of the "stupid Romney supporters" videos, that I searched
>         for to
>         troubleshoot, worked.
>
>         This bothered me greatly.  Youtube is not the government, they can
>         censor anything they like, but it bothered me.
>
>         I booted into windows and now the "Stupid Obama supporters"
>         videos all
>         worked!  Phew no censors.
>
>         No explanation. No moralizing,  and I am sure you can see irony.
>
>         On a separate issue, I searched for Mossberg ar15 in Google
>         and only
>         found parts to buy, search for it in bing (shudder) and I get
>         links to
>         business selling Mossberg ar15s.  Not sure what is going on
>         there yet.
>
>         Discus.
>
>         -- 
>         Damon L. Chesser
>         damon at damtek.com <mailto:damon at damtek.com>
>         http://www.linkedin.com/in/dchesser
>
>
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>
> -- 
> David Tomaschik
> OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
> http://systemoverlord.com
> david at systemoverlord.com <mailto:david at systemoverlord.com>
>
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-- 
Damon L. Chesser
damon at damtek.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dchesser




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