Library and Academic Services: Source Evaluation guide: Google & Search Engines

Introduction

Google & Search Engines

Google has only existed for about 20 years (Heffernan, 2017). It spawned imitators while billions continue to use it for academic research or to find directions to the nearest restaurant. Understanding how Google works, even a little, will go a long way in evaluating online information better.

Source: Heffernan, V. (2017, November 15). Just Google it: A short history of a newfound verb. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/just-google-it-a-short-history-of-a-newfound-verb/

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Resources

How to Use Google Reverse Image Search to Fact-Check Images (Common Sense Ed)
A quick demo of how Google's reverse image search tool can be used to fact-check and research images. Have you ever wondered about the source or history behind an image? Google image search can help provide answers...

From Gutenberg to Google by Tom Wheeler
Location: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
In this fascinating book, former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler brings to life the two great network revolutions of the past and uses them to help put in perspective the confusion, uncertainty, and even excitement most people face today...
Google's PageRank and Beyond by Amy N. Langville; Carl D. Meyer
Location: eBook
Publication Date: 2012
Why doesn't your home page appear on the first page of search results, even when you query your own name? How do other web pages always appear at the top? What creates these powerful rankings? And how? ...
Google and the Digital Divide by Elad Segev
Location: eBook
Publication Date: 2010
Beneficial to scholars and students in the fields of media and communication, politics and technology, this book outlines the significant role of search engines in general and Google in particular in widening the digital divide between individuals, organisations and states....
The Joy of Search by Daniel M. Russell
Location: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
How to be a great online searcher, demonstrated with step-by-step searches for answers to a series of intriguing questions (for example, "Is that plant poisonous?"). We all know how to look up something online by typing words into a search engine...
Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
Location: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
In Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem...

How Do Online Search Engines Work?

Algorithms and search engine optimization (SEO) are key components in determining why you get particular results in Google and other search engines. It isn't always about how accurate the results are but about how popular that site is that moves it to the top of the pile. Understanding how search engines work will help you understand why you get the results you do.

General Resources on search engine optimization and algorithms

Understand search engine basics (in Computer Literacy for Windows 10)

Get the basics of how search engines work.

Advanced SEO: Search Factors
SEO search factors—the elements that contribute to how and where your site is displayed on the Google results page—impact how your content makes its way to your audience. In this course, Brad Batesole pulls back the curtain on the modern search engine, walking through the goals and intent of searching, how people search...
Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"
As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.
Fighting Fake News With SEO (Medium)
Some concrete suggestions for how search engines can help users separate facts from “alternative facts.”
Kevin Slavin: How Algorithms Shape our World
We live in a world run by algorithms, computer programs that make decisions or solve problems for us. In this riveting, funny talk, Kevin Slavin shows how modern algorithms determine stock prices, espionage tactics, even the movies you watch. But, he asks: If we depend on complex algorithms to manage our daily decisions -- when do we start to lose control?
Understand Search Engine Basics
A short explanation of SEOs (Search Engine Optimization) and some alternatives to Google.
What’s the Deal With Algorithms? (Slate)
Your 101 guide to the computer codes that are shaping the ways we live.
Butler, D. (2013). When Google got flu wrong. Nature (London), 494(7436), 155–156.
Based on research by Google and the CDC, it relies on data mining records of flu-related search terms entered in Google's search engine, combined with computer modelling. [...]several researchers suggest that the problems may be due to widespread media coverage...
Where Do You Find Your News?
News can be gathered and consumed from so many different places - online, newspapers, radio, TV. Whatever your preference, you need to take into account whether you can trust the source. This video will provide tips that you can use to find news from trustworthy news sources.
Why Do Our Brains Love Fake News?
Ever have an argument with someone, and no matter how many facts you provide, you just can’t get that person to see it your way? One big reason for this is cognitive bias, which is a limitation in our thinking that can cause flaws in our judgement.
more...less...
Confirmation bias is a specific type of cognitive bias that motivates us to seek out information we already believe and ignore or minimize facts that threaten what we believe.So how can you overcome confirmation bias? It’s tricky, because brain research shows that once a person believes something, facts don’t do a very good job changing their mind. Studies show that when people are presented with facts that contradict what they believe, the parts of the brain that control reason and rationality go inactive. But, the parts of the brain that process emotion light up like the Fourth of July.
Wired: Here’s How Fake News Works (and How the Internet Can Stop It)
Many fake news peddlers didn’t care if Trump won or lost the election. They only wanted to pocket money. But the consequences of what they did shook the world. This is how it happened.
Zeynep Tufekci: We're Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on Ads
We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are ...

Provide Feedback

Found a broken link? Want to suggest a resource?

Email the Library's general mailbox or email the guide owner to provide feedback for this Library guide. Guide owner information is on the "Getting Started" page of each guide.

You may also want to...