Show The Algorithm Source Code On Internet Search Engines

 Google it.

We all used to say that, they were at the forefront of searching the internet. The term became as universally used as the name Kleenex for facial tissue.

These days there are legitimate worries about bias in search results. Agendas ruin beauty.

Initially, as I understood it, Google promised us a simple non-biased formula; the most commonly searched results were shown at the top of the results page. While that may have never been the ideal method it had good intentions behind its formulation. Now, such a standard can be manipulated. Can? I think we can guarantee it is manipulated. Bots flood out hits for the promotion of an agenda causing an unnatural directing of the results in such a system. Or, does that standard even still exist? Search results can also be manipulated at the source. Now there are many search engines. Some promise anonymity. Some are certain to compile data of you from your search. Some purposefully direct the results to further an agenda.

There are other problems with information sharing in the news lately. Social platforms have come under the command of authoritarian fascists intent of undermining our First Amendment Right to free speech. Substituting their judgement, (or is it a fear driven cancellation of the others),  for the free discourse the brilliant founders of this country so clearly trusted to filter ideas.

With so many threats to free speech we need remedial assurances that we get only what we seek.

Social platforms are a problem onto themselves, and possibly our laws can be fashioned to correct their errors.

Laws alone will not suffice when it comes to search engines. Right now, for no doubt proprietary reasons originally, the exact intent of the results we receive is unknowable. We ask, the search engine delivers. We may seem to notice the results are idealistically skewed, but we are left only to speculate. The ability to actually see the code that creates the search could remedy the inability to know why we got the results we got. Cumbersome to explore and analyze, perhaps. But, there are people who can do it, it doesn't require that each searcher will view and deduce the source code, just that some will and all can is enough to promote an honest system. (I am using source code as a description for the algorithm written for and utilized in the searching. In the same way you can right click and select View Page Source and see all of the coding written to create the page you are viewing it should be possible to view the algorithm behind a search).

I mentioned proprietary before. The idea that the algorithm is the property of the search engine and as such keeping it secret enhances its value to the company that owns it is perhaps a hurdle to enactment of my suggestion/plea, but one which must be overcome to ensure our freedom. If it means eliminating search engine algorithm from the list of intellectual property so be it.