Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Sender: @ (Unverified) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:50:58 -0500 To: undisclosed-recipient:; From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Do Web search engines suppress controversy?
by Susan L. Gerhart
Abstract
Web behavior depends upon three interlocking communities: (1) authors whose Web pages link to other pages; (2) search engines indexing and ranking those pages; and (3) information seekers whose queries and surfing reward authors and support search engines. Systematic suppression of controversial topics would indicate a flaw in the Web's ideology of openness and informativeness. This paper explores search engines' bias by asking: Is a specific well-known controversy revealed in a simple search? Experimental topics include: distance learning, Albert Einstein, St. John's Wort, female astronauts, and Belize. The experiments suggest simple queries tend to overly present the "sunny side" of these topics, with minimal controversy. A more "Objective Web" is analyzed where: (a) Web page authors adopt research citation practices; (b) search engines balance organizational and analytic content; and, (c) searchers practice more wary multi-searching.
Contents
Understanding Web behavior: Politics, technology and users Why does visibility of controversy matter? Case studies of controversial topics Summary of case studies: How much is controversy suppressed? Limits of the experiments Explanations for controversy revealing/suppression General explanations Toward a more objective Web A simulated objective Web Conclusions
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http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_1/gerhart/
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