Last time, I sent my love letter to Microsoft. Now, this is my love letter to Google.
Let’s talk about a pathetically simple task: I want to read more about the R function: readODS::read_fods(). Of course, the easiest way is to use the help() function or simply adding a question mark and press Enter in the R console.
The second method is relatively stupid, but I did it all the time: search for it on the web. I know it’s super stupid, but I think a lot of people do that too. And that’s the whole reason why things like pkgdown or the newly added CRAN html help files are for.
Now, search. I think nowadays, you will not go to a search engine and then type in your keyword. Instead, you type something in the used-to-be-called-address-bar-but-now-called search bar and then search. Just assuming that you are using Google’s browser Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple’s Safari. Changes are, you will be searching with Google. In fact, both Apple and Mozilla receive money from Google, so that the default search engine is Google. I know you can choose, but don’t underestimate the power of the default.
I experienced the era before Google. I used things like Altavista and Yahoo! Google was certainly a better product than Altavista and Yahoo! And I can’t remember when was the last time I used Yahoo! (Altavista is long gone) Probably over 15 years ago. I witnessed the process of “Google” becoming a verb. I still remember I needed an invitation to get a GMail account. I still remember Google acquired Blogger! to sort of extinguish it. I still remember Google killed Google Reader and gave way to social media. I also still remember shit like Google+. Now also the shit like Gemini. But today’s discussion is not about these “side gigs” of Google. Let’s go back and talk about their “core business”, their search engine, shall we?
What would you get when you search for an R function on Google?
I can make a guess: The top search research must be something from the domain “rdocumentation.org”. Don’t be fooled by the dot org domain name. It is operated by a large company which I don’t want to name. You can also clearly see the ad banner of that company. I don’t want to talk about the track record of this company. But it is okay for one (e.g., me) to not like this “rdocumentation.org” domain.
One should ask: Why is the help file hosted on this domain ranked so high? Is it the most relevant, most authoritative website for providing R help files? If you talk about authoritative, shouldn’t CRAN be the most authoritative? readODS is an R package in the rOpenSci suite. Hasn’t rOpenSci made all help files available online? Or even something like r-universe.dev? Should they also be ranked higher?
But no. According to Google’s algorithmic Weltanschauung, the most authoritative, most relevant domain for providing R help files is rdocumentation.org. R users after R users are directed by Google to rdocumentation.org. You might ask why does Google rank rdocumentation.org that high? The answer is I don’t know. I think it is also safe to say that no one knows. I also guess that Google probably cannot give a complete explanation. Because that’s the late stage capitalistic assemblage of search engine optimization, algorithmic vision, surveillance capitalism, enshittification, self-reinforcement, and perhaps also random chance. You know what, even when I say how annoying rdocumentation.org is here can also contribute to the ranking.
Now, the problem is we know the search quality is declining but we still use Google. You know, 90% market share can’t be wrong. But we are locked into this monopoly. And in a monopoly, like living in an authoritarian regime, you don’t have a say and you don’t have a choice. They can also deliberately reduce search quality so that you need to make more clicks and see more ads. Google doesn’t need to provide any option for you to customize or improve the search result. They are de facto the only game in town.
I was that fucking pathetic. I tried to search for the way to block rdocumentation.org in the Google search results. And the pathetic outcome is that I customized the default search Google engine on my browser to add “-site:rdocumentation.org” to every search query. Until one day, I understand how pathetic I was. It’s like you want to go buy a book at a large bookshop but the shopkeeper will spit on your face every time you use the service. Now, every time you want to buy a book, you need to tell the shopkeeper not to spit. As if you have no choice but you must buy from this camel or llama.
I know that in average, the competition does not provide better search quality than Google. However, it’s like going to a local book or a local library. It’s sometimes worth it to keep competition alive.
I give DuckDuckGo a try. It’s also rank rdocumentation.org very high. It also sucks. But you know what, the block domain function is right in every search result (click the triple dots). I don’t need to add “-site:rdocumentation.org” to every search. At least it’s like an option. It’s like the shopkeeper remember that you don’t wanna be spit and I don’t need to remind him every time.
I feel a bit less pathetic after setting DuckDuckGo as my default search engine.