The Tail Wags the Dog: Taking Back Control of Our Searches

The Tail Wags the Dog: Taking Back Control of Our Searches Search engine algorithms are driven by financial greed masquerading as helpful personalization. I 'll start this column with a bit of nostalgia. When I first started tapping keyboards in the distant past, I was using CP/M, then MS DOS. With DOS, which enlisted text commands to perform various actions, I could modify my startup and essentially tell the operating system what to do. Apple proposed a new scenario that could best be described as, "Let us do all this stuff for you." Apple's operating systems tell you how things are going to be, with little option for your own manipulation. Microsoft has followed the same pattern, trying to keep up with Apple's innovation. Now, my control over how things work online is so limited, I feel like the dog whose tail no longer wags at my command. Instead, the tail wags the dog. If I have a hammer in my hand, I can do what I want with it. The hammer has no say in the matter. If I boot up my computer, however, I am told exactly what I can do and what I can't. It reminds me of the Little Britain skits in which the characters want something done, but an officious receptionist tells them, "Computer says, 'No'" (youtube.com/watch?v=6lweOai_s7E). Who is "computer" to tell me what it will allow? Computer is the hammer. I wield the hammer, don't I? Let's consider some ways in which a lack of tail control hampers the power of the dog.