We take the use of search engines so much for granted in our daily digital lives that we rarely question their design, how they work, and most importantly, the results of our searches. In the early days of the WWW, successful Internet searches were a challenge for experts. Today, however, anyone can get useful hits from a search engine in a matter of seconds. What is behind this: a gigantic effort. Considering the amount of online content that search engines have to systematically collect and interpret for relevance, it is easy to see why there are only a few search engines – and why the effort is worthwhile for them, even though the external service, i.e. the search, appears to be free for users. To understand how search engines work and why the undisputed market leader, Google, is so successful, it is important to look beyond the technical systems to the business models. It is well known that users are not customers in these models, but rather a means to an end. And the taken-for-granted nature of Internet search easily obscures the cultural and political dimensions of the “search engine” complex. What are the consequences of the nature of the search engine market for the quality of search results and the plurality of perspectives on content on the Internet, which is increasingly becoming a reflection of society itself?
Dirk Lewandowski is Professor of Information Research & Information Retrieval at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and a recognized expert on search engines and their function in the digital society. In this episode of Digitalgespräch, the scientist explains how search engines are technically structured, what significance they have for our use of the Internet, and how the business models of their providers interact with the interests of users and producers of Web content. He explains how Google’s market dominance came about, why it is detrimental to good Internet search, and what options are realistic for reviving real competition among search engines. With hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Lewandowski discusses how the way we all use the Internet affects the design and function of today’s search engines, how generative language models come into play, whether we need a European infrastructure for search engines – and whether we should (re)learn how to search for web content.
Further informationen:
Link to Dirk Lewandowski’s profile at HAW Hamburg: https://www.haw-hamburg.de/en/university/employees/detail/person/person/show/dirk-lewandowski/
Link to Dirk Lewandowski’s book “Understanding Search Engines”: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-22789-9
Link to the Open Search Foundation website: https://opensearchfoundation.org/en/
all episodes of Digitalgespräch
The podcast is in German. At the moment there is no English version or transcript available.
