autocomplete in web search
Key Points
Autocomplete can help users enter terms more quickly or identify alternative terms (costs savings for search tools are well)Autocomplete can nudge users in particular research directions (for good and bad).
Some people look at autocompletions to research misinformation and as part of search engine optimization (SEO).
Warnings
- While it may seem so, autocompletions for a search are not the most popular searches.
- Autocompletions, as search queries, do not reveal search intents.
- The phrasing of autocompletes are not necessary indicative of the content in the search results.
Similar terms
Google Suggest, search autocompletes, search autosuggestions, search predictions, search suggestions, suggested searches
Related topics
Posts
- Reflection on the understandability of Google suggestions [thread] (Aug 23, 2019)
- On heartfelt discursive uses of Google autocomplete (Oct 10, 2023)
- Focuses on two comments:
- Search queries are not a perfect predictor of search intent
- Autocompletes are not a perfect picture of actual searches
- Focuses on two comments:
Notes
Predictions and suggestions?
- Note: While Google says "Predictions, not suggestions", 'suggestions' has long been applied as a label or descriptor, including from Google.
- See, for example
- the initial announcement for Google Suggest: I've got a suggestion (Dec 10, 2004)
- this Google patent: "Providing autocomplete suggestions"
Exemption policies
@graham2023ethical [p. 3]:
exemption policies ignore the fact that every suggestion is inherently political. Google Autocomplete still makes suggestions for topics that contribute to political attitudes such as: [are immigrants…], [abortion is…], and [legalising…] that can actively shape a user's line of enquiry and influence their political decision-making. Due to how suggestions are personalised and localised it is difficult for researchers to provide a survey of such topics, let alone study the kinds of political attitudes that might be embedded in aggregate. In this regard, the ethical challenges raised by political suggestions cannot simply be addressed by Google's current approach of preventing suggestions for the names of politicians. Instead, a wider public conversation is required about the consequences of exemption policies and what topics, if any, should be exempt
Amplifying social bias and gaming
"Data Voids and the Google This Ploy: Kalergi Plan" [-@caulfield2019data] engages with answering two questions raised by Caulfield himself: "What can we do as educators? What should we encourage our students to do?":
A final note — for the moment, avoid auto-complete in searches unless it truly is what you were just about to type. Auto-complete often amplifies social bias and for niche terms it can be gamed in ways that send folks down the wrong path. It’s not so bad when searching for very basic how to information or the location of the nearest coffee shop, but for research on issues of social controversy or conflict it should be avoided.[emphases added]
Note: "often amplifies social bias" in the original is a hyperlink to Safiya Noble (website | Twitter)'s "Algorithms of Oppression" [-@noble2018algorithms].
Harms of autocomplete
Boaz Miller and Isaac Record's "Responsible epistemic technologies: A social-epistemological analysis of autocompleted web search" [-@miller2017responsible] examine three harms around autocomplete and argue search engines "bear the bulk of responsibility to mitigate them." They write:
Autocomplete inevitably and irreparably induces changes in users’ epistemic actions, particularly their inquiry and belief formation. While these changes have potential epistemic benefits for searchers and society, they also have harms, such as generating false, biased, or skewed beliefs about individuals or members of disempowered groups.
See also @gillespie2016trendingistrending:
Consider Google’s autocomplete function, where the site anticipates the search query you're typing based on the first few letters or words, by comparing it to the corpus of past search queries. While the primary purpose of autocomplete is merely to relieve the user of typing the remainder of their query, the suggestions it makes are a kind of measure of popular activity and taste (at least as represented through searching on Google).
Context and texture
Tripodi's "The Propagandists' Playbook" [-@tripodi2022propagandists, p. 145] suggests that it can be useful to follows traces in autocomplete.
Studying the nuanced shifts in Google’s autocomplete suggestions can provide context, even texture, to what’s going on in the world. These automated suggestions can also provide a window into misinformation campaigns, which draw on the power of ideological dialects to game search engine optimization.
Localization
Some autocompletes rely more or less on localization. You can explore this by changing your location through a VPN, for example, see this from Ryan McBeth (YouTube Video), or, in Chromium browsers, through developer tools: Documentation > Chrome DevTools > Sensors: Emulate device sensors > Override geolocation
Research, Reporting, and other Writing
- @karapapa2015search
- @miller2017responsible
- @noble2018algorithms
- @tripodi2022propagandists
- @hazen2022social
- @haider2023google
- @graham2023ethical
- @leidinger2023stereotypes
- @gillespie2016trendingistrending
Reporting
- Carole Cadwalladr's "Google, democracy and the truth about internet search" (Dec 04, 2016)
- Issie Lapowsky's "Google Autocomplete Still Makes Vile Suggestions" (Feb 12, 2018)
Teaching
- @caulfield2019data
- Here is Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, on "How Google autocomplete works in Search" (Apr 20, 2018)
SEOs
- Sam Hollingsworth's "Google Autocomplete: A Complete SEO Guide" (Jan 17, 2022)
Tools
See Ronald Robertson (website | Twitter)'s <a href=https://github.com/gitronald/suggests>suggests to explore Google autocompletes programmatically [@robertson2019auditing].
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There are a wide range of SEO tools that support the exploration of autocompletes. Ex.
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Robertson's suggests