New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

The Reproduction of Racialized Discriminatory Knowledge Search Engines Perpetuate

Miazia Schüler University of Amsterdam, 04.10.2021 In 2010, van Dijck published her essay “Search Engines and the Production of Academic Knowledge,” in which she elaborates on the increasingly growing influence search engines are gaining and argues that “digitized search”...

By on 10/04/21 Comments Off

Screwing around and the value of alternative knowledge platforms  

Through the lens of Stephen Ramsay’s concept of “screwing around”, this commentary looks at the value of alternative knowledge platforms such as Are.na as a tool to counteract the linear and restrictive roads a search engine can lead a...

By on 10/03/21 Comments Off

Is Evgeny Morozov’s The Syllabus the real Google antidote?

In the autumn of 2019, technology critic and writer Evgeny Morozov launched the online information-service “The Syllabus”: a curated expert guide to the digital public sphere, containing a constantly updated selection of books, academic articles, podcasts and videos on...

By Sara Getz on 12/08/20 Comments Off

G is for Google, F is for friendly and I is for innocent

The 11th of August this year Google announced a big change; Google from now on will be part of a new parent company Alphabet which will cover all of Google’s activities. For some this might be a surprising move as Google...

By Lieke Kersten on 09/15/15 Comments Off

Semantic Search Servants: Facebook’s M and the new way of searching the web

“You think I’m weird?” “Kind of.” “Why?” “Well, you seem like a person but you’re just a voice in a computer.” – Theodore meets his new virtual assistant, whom he later falls in love with (Jonze, Her). Facebook M...

By Elias Gorter on 09/15/15 Comments Off

Behind the SERP: Google’s Imperfect Algorithm

Google is undoubtedly the leader in the search engine market. Google’s algorithm, based on crowdsourcing, was the major breakthrough in the whole web search industry. Users consulting Google’s search result pages have shown a strong bias towards the first results on...

By Andrea Fiorentini on 09/12/13 1

App Review: Google Goggles

I have to admit that I do not own the app I'm about to review. In fact, I have never used it. But I want to discuss this app here because I feel that in the long run it...

By Jorrit Schaap on 10/10/11 2

Book review: Peter Olsthoorn – De macht van Google

What does Google know from us? Since search engines are able to track the user’s search queries, personal information can be gathered in order to improve the engine’s accuracy and provide better results. In De macht van Google (The...

By Erik van Mastrigt on 09/17/11 Comments Off

Book Review: The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser

The Filter Bubbler refers to the personalization processes taking place on the Web, which shape what content you see and more important what content you don't get to see. Big players like Google and Facebook feed you what they...

By Jorrit Schaap on 09/17/11 1

The Missing Link: Google Alternatives

“In the greatest leverage of the common user, Google turns traffic and link patterns generated by 2+billion searches a month into the organizing intelligence for a new economy.” – Kevin Kelly (Bruns 2008, 174) Whether users realize it or...

By Ronen Shay on 03/11/11 2

Wikipedia, we have a Google refresh problem!

What did the web crawler say to Wikipedia? I'll update you later! So the question is … just how much later?! I'm wondering because there seems to be a discrepancy between just how fast Wikipedia bots/editors seem to shoot down...

By Isobel Gorman on 10/16/10 7

Google Instant: instantly distracted

A few days ago Google launched its new way of search that promised to be ‘faster than the speed of type’. Instant Search, the new way name, is sort of similar to the earlier search predictions, but this one...

By Philip Man on 09/11/10 4

Rethinking Googlization

In current search engine research the importance of Google as object of study seems to be inevitable. Google seems to be indexing parts of the physical and digital world, which we first thought to be unsearchable. Googlization, the term...

By Harro Heijboer on 12/21/09 2