The Externalities of Search 2.0: The Emerging Privacy Threats when the Drive for the Perfect Search Engine meets Web 2.0

First Monday ◽  
2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zimmer
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Informational Privacy ◽  
Capture Process ◽  
Privacy Threats ◽  
Intellectual Activities

Web search engines have emerged as a ubiquitous and vital tool for the successful navigation of the growing online informational sphere. As Google puts it, the goal is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" and to create the "perfect search engine" that provides only intuitive, personalized, and relevant results. Meanwhile, the so-called Web 2.0 phenomenon has blossomed based, largely, on the faith in the power of the networked masses to capture, process, and mashup one's personal information flows in order to make them more useful, social, and meaningful. The (inevitable) combining of Google's suite of information-seeking products with Web 2.0 infrastructures -- what I call Search 2.0 -- intends to capture the best of both technical systems for the touted benefit of users. By capturing the information flowing across Web 2.0, search engines can better predict users' needs and wants, and deliver more relevant and meaningful results. While intended to enhance mobility in the online sphere, this paper argues that the drive for Search 2.0 necessarily requires the widespread monitoring and aggregation of a users' online personal and intellectual activities, bringing with it particular externalities, such as threats to informational privacy while online.

scholarly journals The Matter of Chance: Auditing Web Search Results Related to the 2020 U.S. Presidential Primary Elections Across Six Search Engines

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110068
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Urman ◽  
Mykola Makhortykh ◽  
Roberto Ulloa
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Primary Elections ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Search Results ◽  
Presidential Primary ◽  
Large Scale Analysis ◽  
Algorithmic Information

We examine how six search engines filter and rank information in relation to the queries on the U.S. 2020 presidential primary elections under the default—that is nonpersonalized—conditions. For that, we utilize an algorithmic auditing methodology that uses virtual agents to conduct large-scale analysis of algorithmic information curation in a controlled environment. Specifically, we look at the text search results for “us elections,” “donald trump,” “joe biden,” “bernie sanders” queries on Google, Baidu, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Yandex, during the 2020 primaries. Our findings indicate substantial differences in the search results between search engines and multiple discrepancies within the results generated for different agents using the same search engine. It highlights that whether users see certain information is decided by chance due to the inherent randomization of search results. We also find that some search engines prioritize different categories of information sources with respect to specific candidates. These observations demonstrate that algorithmic curation of political information can create information inequalities between the search engine users even under nonpersonalized conditions. Such inequalities are particularly troubling considering that search results are highly trusted by the public and can shift the opinions of undecided voters as demonstrated by previous research.

Studying Web Search Engines from a User Perspective

2012 ◽  
pp. 411-437
Author(s):  
Stéphane Chaudiron ◽  
Madjid Ihadjadene
Keyword(s):  
Search Engines ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
User Perspective ◽  
Web Search Engines ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Concept Of Information ◽  
And Behavior

This chapter shows that the wider use of Web search engines, reconsidering the theoretical and methodological frameworks to grasp new information practices. Beginning with an overview of the recent challenges implied by the dynamic nature of the Web, this chapter then traces the information behavior related concepts in order to present the different approaches from the user perspective. The authors pay special attention to the concept of “information practice” and other related concepts such as “use”, “activity”, and “behavior” largely used in the literature but not always strictly defined. The authors provide an overview of user-oriented studies that are meaningful to understand the different contexts of use of electronic information access systems, focusing on five approaches: the system-oriented approaches, the theories of information seeking, the cognitive and psychological approaches, the management science approaches, and the marketing approaches. Future directions of work are then shaped, including social searching and the ethical, cultural, and political dimensions of Web search engines. The authors conclude considering the importance of Critical theory to better understand the role of Web Search engines in our modern society.

Associating Searching on Search Engines to Subsequent Searching on Sites

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Adan Ortiz-Cordova ◽  
Bernard J. Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Web Search Engine ◽  
Search Patterns ◽  
Search Information

In this research study, the authors investigate the association between external searching, which is searching on a web search engine, and internal searching, which is searching on a website. They classify 295,571 external – internal searches where each search is composed of a search engine query that is submitted to a web search engine and then one or more subsequent queries submitted to a commercial website by the same user. The authors examine 891,453 queries from all searches, of which 295,571 were external search queries and 595,882 were internal search queries. They algorithmically classify all queries into states, and then clustered the searching episodes into major searching configurations and identify the most commonly occurring search patterns for both external, internal, and external-to-internal searching episodes. The research implications of this study are that external sessions and internal sessions must be considered as part of a continuous search episode and that online businesses can leverage external search information to more effectively target potential consumers.

Hotels Pricing at Travel Search Engines

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
Anastasios A. Economides ◽  
Antonia Kontaratou
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Tourism Destinations ◽  
Price Analysis

Web 2.0 applications have been increasingly recognized as important information sources for consumers, including the domain of tourism. In the center of the travelers’ interest is the use of these applications in order to compare and choose hotels for their accommodation at various tourism destinations. It is important to investigate the issues related to the presence of the hotels on some of the most dominant tourism search engines and to the prices that they present. This paper compares the search engines and determines whether the cheapest and to the most complete one can be discovered. This paper focuses on analyzing the hotel prices presented on their official websites and on the following eight tourism search engines: Booking.com, Expedia.com, Hotelclub.com, Hotels.com, Orbitz.com, Priceline.com, Travelocity.com, and Venere.com. The data analysis, by the use of the descriptive statistics, showed that only 23% of the hotels examined are found at all the search engines. Furthermore, the price analysis showed that there are differences among the search engines. Although some search engines statistically give lower prices, there is not a single search engine that always gives the lowest price for every hotel.

Web Search Engine Architectures and their Performance Analysis

2011 ◽  
pp. 491-509
Author(s):  
Xiannong Meng
Keyword(s):  
Performance Analysis ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Search ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Performance Measurements ◽  
Web Documents ◽  
System Architectures ◽  
Web Search Engine ◽  
And Performance

This chapter surveys various technologies involved in a Web search engine with an emphasis on performance analysis issues. The aspects of a general-purpose search engine covered in this survey include system architectures, information retrieval theories as the basis of Web search, indexing and ranking of Web documents, relevance feedback and machine learning, personalization, and performance measurements. The objectives of the chapter are to review the theories and technologies pertaining to Web search, and help us understand how Web search engines work and how to use the search engines more effectively and efficiently.

WEBCONTENT VISUALIZER: A VISUALIZATION SYSTEM FOR SEARCH ENGINES IN SEMATIC WEB

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (05) ◽  
pp. 913-931 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIANYONG FANG ◽  
CHRISTIAN JACQUEMIN ◽  
FRÉDÉRIC VERNIER
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Web ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Search Query ◽  
Visualization System ◽  
Xml Documents ◽  
Web Search Engines ◽  
New Generation

Since the results from Semantic Web search engines are highly structured XML documents, they cannot be efficiently visualized with traditional explorers. Therefore, the Semantic Web calls for a new generation of search query visualizers that can rely on document metadata. This paper introduces such a visualization system called WebContent Visualizer that is used to display and browse search engine results. The visualization is organized into three levels: (1) Carousels contain documents with the same ranking, (2) carousels are piled into stacks, one for each date, and (3) these stacks are organized along a meta-carousel to display the results for several dates. Carousel stacks are piles of local carousels with increasing radii to visualize the ranks of classes. For document comparison, colored links connect documents between neighboring classes on the basis of shared entities. Based on these techniques, the interface is made of three collaborative components: an inspector window, a visualization panel, and a detailed dialog component. With this architecture, the system is intended to offer an efficient way to explore the results returned by Semantic Web search engines.

Rethinking gaming: The ethical work of optimization in web search engines

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Ziewitz
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Search ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Ethical Work ◽  
Web Search Engines ◽  
The One ◽  
A Site ◽  
Shifting Boundaries ◽  
Precarious Situation

When measures come to matter, those measured find themselves in a precarious situation. On the one hand, they have a strong incentive to respond to measurement so as to score a favourable rating. On the other hand, too much of an adjustment runs the risk of being flagged and penalized by system operators as an attempt to ‘game the system’. Measures, the story goes, are most useful when they depict those measured as they usually are and not how they intend to be. In this article, I explore the practices and politics of optimization in the case of web search engines. Drawing on materials from ethnographic fieldwork with search engine optimization (SEO) consultants in the United Kingdom, I show how maximizing a website’s visibility in search results involves navigating the shifting boundaries between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ optimization. Specifically, I am interested in the ethical work performed as SEO consultants artfully arrange themselves to cope with moral ambiguities provoked and delegated by the operators of the search engine. Building on studies of ethics as a practical accomplishment, I suggest that the ethicality of optimization has itself become a site of governance and contestation. Studying such practices of ‘being ethical’ not only offers opportunities for rethinking popular tropes like ‘gaming the system’, but also draws attention to often-overlooked struggles for authority at the margins of contemporary ranking schemes.

scholarly journals An exploration into the information-seeking behaviours of engineers and scientists

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 789-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wellings ◽  
Biddy Casselden
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Online Search ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Engine Operation ◽  
The Uk

This article considers findings from Master’s research that investigated the information-seeking behaviours of engineers and scientists in the workplace. The objectives of this research were to establish where engineers and scientists look for information, consider their search preferences and determine the understanding they have of online search engine operation. There is limited current research in these areas looking at engineers and scientists in the workplace. The research was undertaken using a mixed methods research methodology. A survey was conducted with engineers and scientists working in the UK, using an online questionnaire and interviews to obtain quantitative and qualitative data. Due to the small sample size (115: 58 engineers, 57 scientists) this research does not make generalisations about the wider population. The research showed both similarities and differences between engineers’ and scientists’ information-seeking behaviours. The most popular resources used by both engineers and scientists were online search engines, specialist databases and scholar search engines; and the most used sources were from within their own organisation (colleagues and documents). Electronic versions of sources were preferred over print because of their searchability; however, when an item was found it was often printed out to read. Although the main focus of this research was not information literacy it is suggested that there are significant gaps in the understanding of search engine functionality by both engineers and scientists, even though it is the most heavily used resource for information seeking. Whilst this research does not make generalisations about the wider engineer and scientist populations, potential implications for information professionals working with these groups are considered.

scholarly journals Reliability of women epilepsy related information from main web search engines in China?deceitful web search environment and illumination (Preprint)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Zhu ◽  
Xiangmiao Qiu ◽  
Dingwang Wu ◽  
Shidong Chen ◽  
Jiwen Xiong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Efficient System ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Web Search Engines ◽  
Electronic Health

BACKGROUND All electronic health practices like app/software are involved in web search engine due to its convenience for receiving information. The success of electronic health has link with the success of web search engines in field of health. Yet information reliability from search engine results remains to be evaluated. A detail analysis can find out setbacks and bring inspiration. OBJECTIVE Find out reliability of women epilepsy related information from the searching results of main search engines in China. METHODS Six physicians conducted the search work every week. Search key words are one kind of AEDs (valproate acid/oxcarbazepine/levetiracetam/ lamotrigine) plus "huaiyun"/"renshen", both of which means pregnancy in Chinese. The search were conducted in different devices (computer/cellphone), different engines (Baidu/Sogou/360). Top ten results of every search result page were included. Two physicians classified every results into 9 categories according to their contents and also evaluated the reliability. RESULTS A total of 16411 searching results were included. 85.1% of web pages were with advertisement. 55% were categorized into question and answers according to their contents. Only 9% of the searching results are reliable, 50.7% are partly reliable, 40.3% unreliable. With the ranking of the searching results higher, advertisement up and the proportion of those unreliable increase. All contents from hospital websites are unreliable at all and all from academic publishing are reliable. CONCLUSIONS Several first principles must be emphasized to further the use of web search engines in field of healthcare. First, identification of registered physicians and development of an efficient system to guide the patients to physicians guarantee the quality of information provided. Second, corresponding department should restrict the excessive advertisement sale trades in healthcare area by specific regulations to avoid negative impact on patients. Third, information from hospital websites should be carefully judged before embracing them wholeheartedly.

Society on the Web

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Thelwall
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Link Analysis ◽  
Social Web ◽  
Government Information ◽  
News Websites ◽  
The Social ◽  
Web Use ◽  
The Web

This chapter, which argues that the structure of the Web reflects the offline world, making it a valuable lens for exploring society, introduces the theories and issues which make general observations about the Web and then provides examples of investigations into particular topics, such as academic web use. The Web offers unique entrée to free information from Wikipedia to news websites and from government information portals to search engines. Moreover, the two broad approaches to investigating society on the Web are reported, which are based around link analysis and Web 2.0 investigations. Web 2.0 has spawned broad research to probe its effect on several aspects of society. The publishing of personal information on the Web, particularly on the social web, appears likely to continue and expand.

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