Reading Response for Week 8
In “PageRank: The Technology That Launched Google,” MacCormick introduces three basic methods that search engines use to rank the results of a search query. The most important one, the random surfer trick, simultaneously incorporates the first two methods – the hyperlink trick and the authority trick, which focuses on both the quantity and quality of incoming links and solves the problem of the cycle of hyperlinks. In general, all of these three methods depend on the use of hyperlinks. It is interesting to, while baring this in mind, look at “Examining the Impact of Ranking on Consumer Behavior and Search Engine Revenue,” where the authors draw our intention towards the incorporation of signals from online social media into the ranking algorithms. As they have argued, there begins to be “much of this interplay between search and social media happening in information search engines (p. 24).” The Like Button mentioned in the article is one good example, and the social sharing button is another. There are no websites behind these sharing hyperlinks, only countless users. Hence, search engines have to decide whether to take these hyperlinks into account, and if so, what method they can use to do the ranking, and how much authority each user has. Some social media in China, particularly Wechat, seem to be independent from the search engine. Articles posted on the Public Accounts platform are mostly circulated within Wechat, and they are indeed designed only for Wechat users to read within this software because once people use other browsers to open these links, they will find the layout unfriendly and even terrible. Of course, in the Chinese contexts, I did encounter some search results that direct me towards social media platforms such as Weibo (more often) and Wechat (less often). However, I also find that hyperlinks of articles and posts from social media are more often to be invalid. The reason may lie in their private characteristic – many of these articles and posts are generated and controlled by individuals, who, compared to large companies or organizations, conduct less self-censorship and are more likely to delete their works. Therefore, I wonder if the inclusion of materials on social media in search engines will lead to the impermanence of the information, which may confuse and upset users.
Moggridge believes that design does not rely on technical knowledge but wisdom. He argues that “good design comes from the successful synthesis of a solution that recognizes all the relevant constraints (p. 649),” and that designers reach this goal through intuition and collaboration with experts in other disciplines. Designers deal with “the question of delight (p. 659).” While agreeing that designers, since many of them work with customers, focus more on pleasure and satisfaction, I hold the idea that there do exist lots of design projects that function in other fields, such as having political values. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a perfect example (both the original form and its digital extension/transformation). Aside from its commemorative function, “the Quilt was also intended as a tool to mobilize political action and to ensure access to economic resources need for the fight against AIDS (p. 139).” In this sense, designers themselves need to have knowledge about the society, about how people relate to each other. In other words, I believe that while design is about intuition, it is not only about intuition. Also, design can provoke questions and motivate changes. In the past week, we read articles arguing that interfaces can shape human behaviors and big data/algorithms can influence public consciousness – in other words, design can be about ideology. However, I also believe that we should not only focus on the political aspect of any design, including the Quilt. Hence, although Literat and Balsamo argue that “we should not forget that it is a deeply political artifact” and that “a cultural rediscovery of the Quilt, by means of these digital and participatory opportunities, can facilitate a process of ‘queer archive activism (p. 148),” I believe that we should also remember what are lost in these digital images – the texture, the scale, and etc., which may not be closely related to the political aspect but to aesthetics and other human emotions.