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Comment by mavsman | Hacker News Reader

How about open sourcing the ranking and then allowing people to customize it. I should be able to rank my own search results how I want to without much technical knowledge.

I want to rank my results by what is most popular to my friends (Facebook or otherwise) so I just look for a search engine extension that allows me to do that. This could get complex but can also be simple if novices just use the most popular ranking algorithms.

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I think Facebook really missed the boat on building their own "network influenced" search engine. They made some progress in allowing you to search based on friends' posting and recommendations to some degree but it seems to have flatlined in the last few years and is very constricting.

One thing I haven't seen much on these recent threads on search is the ability to create your own Google Custom Search Engine based on domains you trust - https://cse.google.com/cse/all

Also, not many people have mention the use of search operators, which allows you to control the results returned. Such as "Paul Graham inurl:interview -site:ycombinator.com -site:techcrunch.com"

That would bring to an even bigger filter bubble issue, more precisely to a techno élite which is capable, willing and knowledgeable enough to feel the need go through the hassle, and all the rest navigating in such an indexed mess that would pave the way to all sort of new gatekeepers, belonging to the aforementioned tech élite. It’s not a simple issue to tackle, perhaps a public scrutiny on the ranking algorithms would be a good first step.

I disagree. The people who don't know anything and are unwilling to learn wouldn't be any worse off than they are today and everyone else would benefit from an open source "marketplace" of possible ranking algorithms that the so called "techno elite" have developed.

I think the proposed improvement to the web in its intentions should mostly benefit the "ignorants", not those that can already navigate through the biases of today's technological gatekeepers. Please note, ignorants are not at fault for being so. Especially when governments cut funds for public education, and media leverages (and multiplies) ignorance to produce needs and sales, fears and votes. Any solution must work first to make the weak stronger, more conscious. A better and less biased web can help people grow their unbiased knowledge, and therefore exercise their right of vote with a deeper understanding of the complexity. Voting ignorants are an opportunity for the ill intentioned politicians, as much as are a problem for me, you and the whole country.

blekko and bing both implemented ranking by popularity with your Facebook friends, and the data was too sparse to be useful.

If the details of a ranking algorithm are open source, it would be easy to manipulate them.

Open sourcing the ranking... YES!!!

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