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Search engines have become a key part of our everyday lives. Yet there is growing concern with how algorithms, which run just beneath the surface of our interactions online, are affecting society. This timely new edition of Search Engine Society enlightens readers on the forms of bias that algorithms introduce into our knowledge and social spaces, drawing on recent changes to technology, industries, policies, and research. It provides an introduction to the social place of the search engine and addresses crucial questions such as:
*How have search engines changed the way we organize our thoughts about the world, and how we work?
*In what ways are big data and advances in artificial intelligence already influencing what we know of the world and each other?
*To what extent do politics shape search, and does search shape politics?
*What does the future of search portend for education, knowledge, work, privacy, and social power?
While the search engine is starting to disappear from view, it is, at the same time, having an ever greater effect on how we learn about the world and how it learns about us. This book is a must-read for those who wish to understand the future of the social internet and how search shapes it.
About the author
Alexander Halavais is Associate Professor of Social Technologies at Arizona State University.
Summary
Search engines have become a key part of our everyday lives. Yet there is growing concern with how algorithms, which run just beneath the surface of our interactions online, are affecting society.
Report
"Alex Halavais' Search Engine Society instantly became essential reading for all of us who cared how Google was shaping our minds and lives. It's clear, well organized, accessible, and deep. I'm excited to see this new and updated edition. I will assign it in classes and cite it for many years."
Siva Vaidhyanathan, The University of Virginia
