What do search engines do? And what should they do? These questions seem relatively simple but are actually urgent social and ethical issues. The influence of Google's search engine is enormous. It does not only shape how Internet users find pages on the World Wide Web, but how we think as individuals, how we collectively remember the past, and how we communicate with one another. This book explores the impact of search engines within contemporary digital culture, focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical influence of Google.
Using case studies like Google's role in the rise of fake news, instances of sexist and misogynistic Autocomplete suggestions, and search queries relating to LGBTQ+ values, it offers original evidence to intervene practically in existing debates. It also addresses other understudied aspects of Google's influence, including the profound implications of its revenue generation for wider society. In doing this, this important book helps to evaluate the real cost of search engines on an individual and global scale.
Rosie Graham is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and the Digital at the University of Birmingham, UK and co-director of its Digital Cultures Research Centre.
Anthony Mandal is Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University.
Jenny Kidd is a Reader at Cardiff University, UK, researching across the fields of digital media, culture and the creative industries. She has a particular interest in digital cultural heritage, transmedia, self-representation and immersive storytelling, and has published widely on these themes in, for example, Museums in the New Mediascape (Ashgate 2014), Representation (Routledge 2015), and Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling (Routledge 2018). She has published in related journals including Information, Technology and People and Continuum, and on related themes in International Journal of Heritage Studies, The Journal of Curatorial Studies and Museum and Society. Jenny is Co-Director of the Digital Media and Society research group in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, a committee member of the UK Digital Learning Network and in 2016 was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been an advisor for Welsh Government on digital culture in the curriculum (2018) and has worked closely with the creative sector since 2002 including with BBC Wales, Amguedfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Tate, yello brick, the Tower of London and Imperial War Museums. Jenny has led collaborative immersive media projects including With New Eyes I See (2013) and Traces-Olion (2016).
