On the 25th, Naver real-time search word abolished
Complaints of “Inconvenience and communication channels blocked” and “Measures ahead of the by-election”
Expert “It seems that the question of maintaining dysfunction is greater than pure function”
Photo = Capture of Naver’s Official Blog’Naver Diary’
[아시아경제 김영은 기자] The portal site’Naver”s’real-time rising search terms’ service will be abolished at the end of this month. Some people pointed out that it will be uncomfortable over the abolition of real-time search words that were controversial in public opinion manipulation and advertisements, and criticisms have also followed that the measure was made with the by-election in April in mind.
On the 4th, Naver said through its official blog, “Users’ behavior of using Internet services has changed significantly from before. They are selectively consuming content according to their tastes and preferences rather than unilaterally consuming the given content. I think it’s very important to produce content myself.”
Subsequently, Naver said, “The rapidly rising search terms will be terminated on February 25 in accordance with the huge trend change that wants to actively consume the information I need in abundance of information.” The’Search Chart’ version of mobile Naver Home also ends on the same day, and the service is abolished after 16 years. More than 1200 comments were posted on the Naver blog post.
Naver’s real-time search service was first launched in May 2005 under the name of’real-time search rankings’. This is a method that analyzes search words entered through the search box for a certain period of time and shows the search terms with the largest increase in the number of inputs in order, and has played a role in showing interests of real-time netizens at a glance.
However, controversy about the reliability of such a real-time search word service has continued. In particular, during the election period, there were pointed out that the service was politically used, such as suspicion of manipulating real-time search words around the political world.
In addition, in 2019, in the process of appointment of former Minister of Justice Cho Kook, the pros and cons of the two sides competed over the ranking of Naver’s rapidly rising search terms, criticizing whether the original service was “reflecting the flow of user interest”. In addition, it was pointed out that the advertising phrases of companies frequently appear in the ranking of real-time search terms, so they are no different from billboards.
Real-time search terms reorganized to be set according to your desired interests. Photo = Naver real-time search word capture
Then, from 2018, Naver introduced a service to set items by user’s age and interest in search terms, and reorganized them to provide search terms that fit individual interests, but the controversy continued. Earlier, Kakao also abolished the real-time issue search word service of the portal site Daum in February last year due to such controversy.
Ahead of the abolition of such Naver real-time search terms, netizens’ positions are divided.
First, the response that real-time search words, which were useful for identifying disaster situations or important information, disappeared, leading to an expected discomfort, and the opportunity to interact with other people’s opinions disappeared. Followed. In addition, it was argued that it was a precautionary measure with political controversy in mind ahead of the by-election in April.
A netizen commented on Naver’s official blog, saying, “Active search for information is important, but search terms that appear in real time not only become the subject of conversation, but also a medium that forms social consensus.“”It is unfortunate that it will reduce the chances of communicating with other age groups. Maybe I only know one and the two don’t know.”
On the other hand, some views positively view the abolition of real-time search terms. One netizen insisted in the online community, “It was a problem of manipulation of search words that always appeared in the election season, but if you couldn’t perform the function from the beginning, it would be correct to disappear.”
Regarding this, experts interpreted that the dysfunction of the service appears to be raising questions about the maintenance because the dysfunction is greater than the net function.
Popular culture critic Chung Deok-hyun said, “We can’t get all of the information that comes out,” he said. “So, real-time search terms have been a feature that brings out issues intensively so that you can easily notice what is the most important issue.”
“There are positive aspects like this, but it is a situation that raises questions about whether it is functioning as it is practically utilized.” said. “It is possible to manipulate public opinion and, in particular, manipulating public opinion that may occur in the political world can be a serious problem, so it will inevitably be felt as a burden from the portal point of view.”
Reporter Kim Young-eun [email protected]