This page gives details of my research. It's divided into four sections - my thesis, my publications (both academic and public-sector consulting work), my conference presentations, and other work which may be of interest.
Search engines are essential components of the World Wide Web; both commercially and in terms of everyday usage, their importance is hard to overstate. This thesis examines the question of why there is bias in search engine results Ð bias that invites users to click on links to large websites, commercial websites, websites based in certain countries, and websites written in certain languages.
In this thesis, the historical development of the search engine industry is traced. Search engines first emerged as prototypical technological startups emanating from Silicon Valley, followed by the acquisition of search engine companies by major US media corporations and their development into portals. The subsequent development of pay-per-click advertising is central to the current industry structure, an oligarchy of virtually integrated companies managing networks of syndicated advertising and traffic distribution. The study also shows a global landscape in which search production is concentrated in and caters for large global advertising markets, leaving the rest of the world with patchy and uneven search results coverage.
The analysis of interviews with senior search engine engineers indicates that issues of quality are addressed in terms of customer service and relevance in their discourse, while the analysis of documents, interviews with search marketers, and participant observation within a search engine marketing firm showed that producers and marketers had complex relationships that combine aspects of collaboration, competition, and indifference.
The results of the study offer a basis for the synthesis of insights of the political economy of media and communication and the social studies of technology tradition, emphasising the importance of culture in constructing and maintaining both local structures and wider systems. In the case of search engines, the evidence indicates that the culture of the technological entrepreneur is very effective in creating a new mega-business, but less successful in encouraging a debate on issues of the public good or public responsibility as they relate to the search engine industry.
These chapters are as submitted to my examination committee. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.
Chapter 1: Bias in Internet Search Engines
This chapter introduces the research question - "Why does bias arise in search engine results?" and briefly discusses how the thesis approaches the question in conceptual and empirical terms.
Chapter 2: The Dynamics of Technological Structuration
This chapter sets out the conceptual framework of the thesis, which is based in part on Wanda Orlikowski's work on technological structuration. Concepts from political economy and from the social construction of technology form part of the overall framework, which stresses the importance of conflict and power in understanding the development of technology.
Chapter 3: Follow the Results
This chapter develops the method of the project, which is split into two levels. The first level, agents and their actions, uses interviews with search engine producers, optimisers, distributors and commentators as its primary material. You see some of the fruits of this in Chapters 6 and 7. The second level, structures, uses primarily documentary evidence such as press releases, financial documentation, press reports and policy documents. The analysis investigates the dynamics of commodification of web content (chapter 4) and the growth and spread (spatialisation) of the industry (chapter 5).
Chapter 4: The History of the Internet Search Engine
I have to admit that this is my very favourite chapter in the thesis, although it was a real bear to write and probably is not as easy to read as it should be. It traces the development of the search engine, and introduces the concept of the "traffic commodity" and "navigational media". A version of this chapter has been published in the volume edited by Spink and Zimmer (see publications, below).
Chapter 5: Finding the Centre
This chapter contains a brief overview of the state of search engines in Japan, China, Germany, and South Africa and also considers how Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have structured their global operations. Obviously this type of work is quite difficult to do - I am always interested in hearing from people who know about the search situation in a range of countries.
Chapter 6: Is Relevance Relevant
This chapter uses theories of discourse analysis investigate the interpretative schemes (Giddens) or technological frames of reference (Orlikowski) of search engine producers. It reveals two major interpretative schemes - those of the market and of science - which together create a conception of quality as both customer satisfaction and relevance. Thus the question of bias, which is central to the research question and to various claims of objectivity by the search engines, is at odds with the perceptions of producers about what makes a quality search. A version of this chapter was published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and is available online (see publications, below).
Chapter 7: Ranking Highly
This chapter looks at the relations between search engine optimisers and search engine producers and is based on my interviews, participant observation at a search engine optimiser, and documentary evidence. The relationship is often presented as adversarial but my analysis showed a range of interactions, since the lines between advertisers/optimisers/spammers can be very blurred.
Chapter 8:Practicing Search
This chapter draws together the threads of the previous four empirical chapters, using the concept of "practice" to relate the structures investigated in the history and geography chapters to the ones revealed in the production and optimisation chapters.
Chapter 9: Conclusion
This chapter reviews the answers to the central research question, discusses the ways in which the conceptual framework has been modified and considers how research into the area can be taken forward.
Thesis Appendices
A brief review of search operations, a literature map, my initial approach letter and interview schedule, and a longer treatment of how people use search in the wider context of the web. An earlier version of this latter piece (Web behaviour) also appears below.
Thesis References
The references for the thesis as a whole are collected here.
2008. "The history of the internet search engine: Navigational media and the traffic commodity," in A. Spink and M. Zimmer, eds., Web Search:Interdisciplinary Perspectives (177-206). Berlin: Springer.
2008. "Internet Ratings Systems," in W. Donsbach, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Communication (2453-2455). Oxford: Blackwell.
2008. "Search Engines," in W. Donsbach, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Communication (4521-4525). Oxford: Blackwell.
2008. With Sonia Livingstone. "Information Literacy," in W. Donsbach, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Communication (2230-2234). Oxford: Blackwell.
2008. With Sonia Livingstone and Nancy Thumim. "Converging traditions of research on media and information literacies: Disciplinary and methodological issues" in J. Coiro, M. Knoebel, C. Lankshear and D.J. Leu, eds., Handbook of Research on New Literacies (103-132). New York and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2007. "The economy of navigation: Search engines, search optimisation, and search results," in M. Machill and M. Beiler, eds. The Rising Power of Search Engines (105-126). Cologne: Herbert on Halem Publishers.
2007. "Is relevance relevant? Markets, science and war: Discourses of search engine quality" in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12(3):article 6. Available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/vancouvering.html
2005. Adult media literacy: A review of the research literature. With Sonia Livingstone and Nancy Thumim. Commissioned by the Office of Communications (Ofcom). London: Ofcom. 86pp.
PDF file at Ofcom
2005. IT managers' guide to Webcasting in local government. Commissioned
by the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA) and Xpedita, Ltd. Published by IDEA. 9pp.
PDF file at IDeA
2005. Digital communications in the marketing mix. Commissioned by the
Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA) and Xpedita, Ltd. Published by IDeA. 9pp.
PDF file at IDeA
2003. Local Government Webcasting Report: Do we, could we, should we? Understanding webcasting in the context of local government service delivery and communication activity. Commissioned by the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA) and Xpedita, Ltd. Published by IDeA. 86pp.
PDF file at Xpedita
2004. New Media? The Political Economy of Internet Search Engines Presented at the
Annual Conference of the International Association of Media & Communications Researchers.
Porto Alegre, Brazil, July 25-30.
PDF file
2006. Web behaviour: Search engines in context. A short paper on how people use search in the wider context of navigating the web (a revised version is included in my Thesis Appendices, above).
PDF file.
2003. Media Power on the Internet Presented to the Research Seminar in Media, Culture & Communications at the LSE.
PDF file
Comments and contacts are always welcome: e.j.van-couvering@lse.ac.uk.