Snoeren Georgia Institute of Technology University of California San Diego xxing8weiddoozan3feamsterwenke gatechedu snoerencsucsdedu Abstract Given their critical role as gateways to Web content the search results a Web search engine provides to its ID: 62641
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mightpreventthemfromseeing.Moreover,personalizationfrequentlyoccurswithouttheuser'sinvolvement—orevenexplicitagreement—sousersmaynotevenbeawarethattheirsearchresultshavebeentailoredaccordingtotheirproleandpreferences.Thegoalofourworkistoexposeandcharacterizeinconsistenciesthatresultfrompersonalization.Inparticular,weseektoquantifytheextenttowhichsearchpersonal-izationalgorithmsreturnresultsthatareinconsistentwiththosethatwouldbereturnedtootherusers,andexposeanydifferencestotheuser—inrealtime.WepresentBobble,aChromeWebbrowserextensionthatallowsuserstoseehowthesearchresultsthatGooglereturnstothemdifferfromtheresultsthatarereturnedtootherusers.Bobblecapturesauser'ssearchqueryandreissuesitfromasubsetofover300world-widevantagepoints,includingbothdedicatedPlanetLabmeasurementnodesandthehostsofotherconsentingBobbleusers.Incontrasttoresearchtoolsthathavebeendevelopedtomeasuresearchpersonalizationofine[5],weintenduserstouseBobblewhiletheybrowsetheWeb,providingthemcriticalinsightintohowtheironlineexperienceisbeingpotentiallydistortedbypersonalization.TounderstandthenatureoftheinconsistenciesuncoveredbyBobble,westudymorethan75,000realsearchqueriesissuedbyhundredsofBobbleusersoverninemonths.Wequantifytheextenttowhichpersonalizationaffectssearchresultsanddeterminehowusers'Googlesearchresultsvarybasedonfactorsrangingfromtheirgeographiclocationstotheirpastsearchhistories.OurstudystudyfocusesexclusivelyonGooglesearch,oneofthemorewidelyusedsearchengines,butweexpectthatsimilarphenom-enaexistforotherpopularsearchengines.Wendthat98%ofGoogleWebsearchesreturnatleastonesetofinconsistentsearchresults—typicallyfromavantagepointinadifferentgeographicregionthantheuser,eventhoughBobbleperformsthesesearcheswithoutexposinganyinformationthatlinkstothesearchers'Googleproles.Insum,ourstudyprovidestherstlarge-scaleglimpseintothenatureofinconsis-tentresultsthatarisefromsearchpersonalizationandopensmanyavenuesforfutureresearch.Wequantifyonhowgeographyandsearchhistorymayinuencesearchre-sults,butothershavenotedthatmanyotherfactors(e.g.,devicetype,timeofday)mayalsoaffecttheresultsthatauserseesforagivensearchterm[5].Bobblehasbeendeployedandpubliclyavailablefor21months;usersandresearcherscanextendittomeasurehowotherfactorsmightinduceinconsistenciesinsearchresults.2RelatedWorkResearchershavepreviouslystudiedmeanstopersonalizeWebsearchresults.Douetal.performedalarge-scaleevaluationandanalysisofvepersonalizedsearchalgorithmsusingatwelve-dayMSNquerylog[2].Theyndthatprole-basedpersonalizationalgorithmsaresometimesunstable.Teevanetal.conductauserstudytoinvestigatethevalueofpersonalizedWebsearch[11].Incontrast,wearelessinterestedinthedistinctionbetweendifferentpersonalizationmethods,andfocusinsteadontheeffectsofasinglesearchpersonalizationalgorithm.Weaimtoquantifytheeffectsofdifferentpersonalizationfactorsonsearchinconsistency.Inacontemporaneousstudy,Hannaketal.measurethepersonalizationofGooglesearch.Thebulkoftheireffortfocusesonunderstandingthefeaturesleadingtoperson- withsamebrowser withChromeagent p-value Windows 11/1,000 16/1,000 0.1725 Linux 23/1,000 21/1,000 0.7517 Mac 15/1,000 15/1,000 1.0 Table1:Thenumberoftermsthatgenerateinconsistentsetsofsearchresultswhensearching1,000distincttermsfromChromebrowsers/agentondifferentOSes.theBobbleserverforpendingsearchterms(Step3)andreissuethemlocallyassearchqueriestoGooglewithoutsigningintoaGoogleaccountorrevealingGoogleatrackablebrowsercookie(Step4).EachagentpushestheresultsitreceivesfromGoogletotheBobbleserver.Toestablishabaselineforcomparinginconsistenciesinsearchresults,wewouldideallyliketoalsoreissuetheuser'squerylocallyfromaseparatebrowsersessionthatisnotsignedintoGoogleanddoesnotpasssessioncookiestoGoogle.Wecalltheseanonymousqueries“organic”,astheyareasfreeaspossiblefromuser-specicinuences(incontrasttoqueriesthatareissuedwhenauserisloggedinorpassingbrowsercookiestoGoogle).Unfortunately,collectingtrueorganicresultsischalleng-ingduetothetechnicalandusabilityobstaclessurroundingloggingtheuseroutinordertoissuesuchaqueryfromanextensionrunningwithinthesameWebbrowser.In-stead,BobblecollectsorganicsearchresultsbyissuingaduplicatequeryfromanearbyChromebrowseragent.(Section3.2presentsadetaileddiscussionoftheeffectsofusinganearbyagenttostand-infortheuser'sbrowser.)3.2ValidationToevaluatewhetherBobbleaccuratelyreportsresultsthatregularuserswouldactuallyreceive,werstvalidatethatBobble'sChromebrowseragentcorrectlyemulatesmajorversionreleasesofChromebrowsers—specically,thattheresultsreturnedtoaBobbleagentreectthosethatwouldbereturnedtoanactualqueryissuedbyauserinherWebbrowser.Second,wemeasuretheeffectsofcollectingorganicsearchresultsindirectlybyissuingqueriesfromnearbyagentsasopposedtoinsidetheuser'sbrowser.DoBobbleagentsemulatebrowserbehavior?WebeginbyensuringthattheGooglesearchresultscollectedusingtheChromebrowseragentdonotdifferstatisticallyfromtheresultsobtainedwhenthequeryisissuedfromtheGooglehomepageviewedwiththeChromebrowseritself.Werandomlyselect1,000uniquesearchtermsfromthedailytop-20GoogletrendingsearchtermsbetweenAugust2011andDecember2011andsearcheachofthesetermsthreetimesfrommachinesrunningLinux,Windows,andMacoperatingsystems.Oneachmachine,werunaChromebrowseragentandtwoGoogleChromebrowserswiththesamereleaseversion.WeusetheSeleniumChromedriver[9]toautomatethetwoChromebrowsersandonebrowseragenttoperformthesameGooglesearchsimultaneously.OnemightexpectthatsimultaneouslyissuedqueriesfromidenticalWebbrowserswouldreturnidenticalsetsofresults,sincethequeriesdonotinvolveanysearchhis-toryandareissuedfromthesamelocationatessentiallythesametime.Whilethisexpectationgenerallyringstrue,itisnotalwaysthecase.Table1showsthenumberof Fig.2:CDFplot:thedistributionofthenumberofsearchqueries. Fig.3:Thedistributionofthenumberofsearchquerieswhensendingqueriestogoogle.comandaGoogleIPaddress,re-spectively.searchresults.ThisresultindicatesthatorganicsearchresultsofmostGooglesearchqueriesaretailoredonthebasisofthelocationwherethesesearchesareperformed,eventhoughGoogleusersneithersignintotheiraccountsnoruncovertheirbrowsercookiestoGooglepersonalizedsearchservices.Inthefollowingsection,wefurtherdesignacarefulexaminationtoexplorewhethertheobservedsearchinconsistencyresultsfromlocation-basedpersonalizationratherthandatadiversityacrossdifferentGoogledatacenters.Toquantifytheeffectofgeographiclocationonsearchinconsistency,weclassiedtheinconsistentsearchresultsinthreeways:–Atleastonesearchresultappearsinthetop-threesearchresultsofotherPlanetLabnodesbutnotatallinaGoogleuser'sorganicsearchresultset.Wendthat23,394outof76,307searchqueries(30.66%)giverisetothissituation.–Atleastonesearchresultsappearsinthetop-10(butnottop-3)searchresultsofotherPlanetLabnodes,butdoesnotappearinaGoogleuser'sorganicsearchresultset;65,939outof76,307searchqueries(86.41%)tthissituation.–AtleastonesearchresultappearsintheGoogleuser'sorganicsearchresultsetbutdoesnotappearinsearchresultsofotherPlanetLabnodes;1,434searchqueriesoutof76,307searchqueries(1.88%)tthissituation.Consideringthefactthatthetop-10Googlesearchresultsreceiveabout90%ofclicksandthetop-3Googlesearchresultsusuallyreceivethemostattention[10],thein-consistencythatarisesduetolocationlikelyhassignicantimplicationsforauser'sexperience.5.2DistributedindexinconsistenciesTovalidatetheobservedsearchinconsistencyisinfactderivedfromlocation-basedpersonalizationratherthandatadiversityacrossdifferentdatacenters,weconductanexperiment.Inparticular,wemodifyBobbletoattempttoisolatetheinconsistencycon-tributedbylocation-basedpersonalizationfromthatcontributedbyinconsistenciesin Fig.4:%ofsearchresultschangedateachrank. Signed-indataset Signed-outdataset Location Prole Location Prole 97.64% 64.19% 97.80% 58.77% Table2:Howlocationanduserprolecontributetosearchinconsistency.Loca-tionhasmoreeffectoninconsistencythansearchhistorydoes.etal.(seeFigure5inpreviouswork[5]).Onepossiblereasonforthisdiscrepancyisthedifferenceinthemeasurementmethod.PreviousworkrecruiteddifferntGoogleuserstosearchthesamesetofkeywords,wherethekeywordswerechosensuchthattheyweredeemedtonotberelatedtouserproles.Incontrast,weperformourstudyinamorenaturalsettingbecauseitmeasurestheinuenceoftheprole-basedpersonaliza-tionusingeachuser'sownsearchqueries.Becauseauser'spastqueriesaretypicallyrelevanttopersonalizationthatmayoccurinthefuture,weobservethatprole-basedpersonalizationhasmoreinuenceonGoogleusers'searchresults.Inadditiontoinconsistenciesinthesearchresultsets,wealsodiscoveredthefol-lowinginconsistencies:–Forsigned-inusers,22,405outof66,138searchqueries(33.88%)haveatleastonesearchresultthatshowsintheprole-basedpersonalizedsearchresultsetbutnotintheorganicsearchresultset.–Foranonymoususers,3,148outof10,169searchqueries(30.96%)haveatleastonesearchresultthatshowsintheprole-basedpersonalizedsearchresultsetbutnotintheorganicsearchresultset.–Forsigned-inusers,7,352outof66,138searchqueries(11.12%)haveatleastonesearchresultthatshowsinthetop3oftheorganicsearchresultsetbutnotintheproled-basedpersonalizedsearchresultset.–Foranonymoususers,1,484outof10,169searchqueries(14.59%)haveatleastonesearchresultthatshowsinthetop3oforganicsearchresultbutnotintheproled-basedpersonalizedsearchresultset.Table2alsoshowsthattheGooglesearchinconsistenciesresultingfromsigned-inusers'prolesarestrongerthanthoseresultingfromsigned-outusers'proles.Finally,wealsoobservelocation-basedfactorsintroducemoreinconsistenciesthanprole-basedfactorsdo.7ConclusionWehavedesigned,implemented,anddeployedBobble,adistributedsystemthattracksandmonitorstheinconsistencyofsearchresultsforusersearchqueries.UsingBob-ble,wecollectusersearchtermsandresultsandmeasurethesearchinconsistencythatarisefrombothgeographiclocationandsearchhistory.Wendthatthegeographic