Every time the proverbial wool is pulled over the masses' eyes, this question materializes in my mind in a very specific way: Can't you see? Pumped with drugs, submerged into the water, and literally attached to a supposed crime-fighting machine, the main precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) pleads with Tom Cruise's John Anderton to see the truth: to clear his mind and look behind the foggy wall of deceit; to figure out what is right and what is wrong, who is a victim and who is a real criminal, where is the true justice and where is the pure greed for power and domination?
Can't you see? With their latest search-engine revamp (aka the Hummingbird offensive), Google is trying to deprive you of your basic rights (particularly those guaranteed by the First and the Ninth Amendments) and turn the last bastion of freedom, the Internet, into the same corrupt mess our tangible world has become - the wasteland, where the bigger your teeth and claws are the larger the piece of the pie you will grab.
Even though the implementation of the "hummingbird" algorithm was publicly revealed on the day of Google's 15th anniversary, it had been enacted several weeks ago. I noticed something new a month back: Like everyone else who writes, from time to time I go online to look for the best choice of words. For years, Thesaurus.com has been the first-listed result. It still is, but right above it (above everything) appears a lightly-bordered box with a Google-provided selection of synonyms, word origin, etc. Even on the 21" screen it dominates most of the initially visible space - you have to scroll down to see other results. If all you need is basics, you don't need to go to any other dictionary site - it's all right there, in the box.
Now, try to google, for example, Advil and you will see the same (only larger) box at the top, filled with medical information on this over-the-counter drug. Type 3D Printing in the search field, and you will get featured ads (powered by Google's AdSense) at the top and the hummingbird's box on the right with the top four choices for 3D printers from Google's Shopping. And don't be deceived by the fact that many of your searches don't bring back the ghostly box just yet - the knowledge base will self-educate and expand with incredible speed, just you wait.
They are not too shy about it either: In the midst of listing all the "innovative" features of the hummingbird algorithm, they freely speak about their strategy to squash the other online information purveyors. During the unveiling ceremony, Google's search executive Tamar Yehoshua constructed his demonstration specifically around queries related to nutrition. The first results were long lists compiled by Google and shown on Google's own site. No need to go to WebMD - one of thousands of online businesses dependent on the Internet users' ability to "find" them.
Wow! First, they started tracking your web patterns in order to "suggest" ads and rank search results according to your "tastes" (how are you supposed to find, buy, learn anything new, if Google keeps polluting your visual field with old, familiar shit all the time?), and now this?! They want to monopolize the Information Superhighway; they want to own your mind and hinder your psyche! This is much worse than anything Snowden has revealed about Big Brother. Can you imagine the breadth of opportunities for manipulations?
How about the unlimited possibilities for murky dealings? Just think of the fees you can charge a company for the right to be a part of Google's knowledge database, to be included into that top-of-the-page box. Judging by the experience so far, we will never know how much exactly: While making the basic AdSense pricing available to everyone, Google makes sure that it is impossible to find out how much it costs to guarantee that your ad or product always appears in the featured boxes, bypassing hundreds of others.
For many, Google's true intentions of global domination are obscured by gimmicks, oh, so attractive to the techno-savvy Internet users. You've got complex, multiword queries; you've got voice recognition with detectable accents - Google pretty much promises to come up with search results in response to your mumbling something in your sleep. Everybody's like, "Oo-la-la! Symantic search capabilities!" That's all great, except don't lead me straight to your own websites, bro, let me make my own choices!
What happened to Sergey Brin, who came here from the Soviet Union in 1979, at the tender age of 6? Didn't his parents teach him anything about the importance of personal freedom and the dangers of totalitarianism? And why? What, $24.5 billion is not enough?
I don't really know if the algorithm's nickname is an unabashed display of gall and an inside joke hinting at Google's true intentions, but I find its selection uncanny: Hummingbirds, pretty and quick, are essentially omnivores - sucking out flowers's nectar and praying on insects' protein, all in the course of one meal.
I sold my Google stock as soon as they monopolized the online advertising, and I wish I could tell you that I plan to stop googling, or use Maps. Unfortunately, I am not able to take such a pledge: no matter how hard other search engines try (and I would like them to try harder), as of this moment they cannot match Google's speed and range. Yet, I refuse to give into their tricks: I will not be boxed out neither by the AdSense tracking my Internet movements nor by the hummingbird's hijacking the top spot of the informational ladder. I will continue to exercise my freedom of going to the search results that I believe are relevant. What about you? Can you force yourself not to be lazy and bypass Google's conveniently positioned traps? Can you brush off that wool and see?