When search engines stopped being human
Menu interfaces and the rise of the ideological nature of algorithmic search
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13119110 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Niels Kerssens (0000-0002-8564-8118, Utrecht University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 219-237 |
| Publication date | 2017-05-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Internet Histories (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2470-1475 • E-ISSN: 2470-1483 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/24701475.2017.1337666 |
| OpenAlex | W2744331600 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
Algorithmic search is entangled with a positivist ideology biased towards the assumption that neutrality can only be provided when search is performed by computational processes while shielded from human agencies. This article critically examines the ideological nature of algorithmic search, by showing how, between the mid-1970s and late-1980s, long before the birth of algorithmic search by search engines in the 1990s, a transformation from human interfaces to menu interfaces in online search helped encourage and normalise algorithmic ideology at the expense of a more humanistic ideology of search connected to library traditions. Based on a study of a broad corpus of archival materials in which online search appeared as a central object of description and discussion, it argues that the rise of menu interfaces in the 1980s encouraged the positivist nature of algorithmic search by decoupling a democratic service function at the front-end from the editorial function in the back-end, and by discouraging the use of human selection power and intellectual labour in the search process
Algorithm · Epistemology · Function (biology · Ideology · Neutrality · Online search · Political science · Politics · Positivism · Search algorithm · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Cultural Insights and Digital Impacts · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Law · Web Data Mining and Analysis
Filter Bubble
The Relevance of Algorithms
The Relevance of Algorithms
Algorithmic Ideology
What Is Media Archaeology
Personal Web searching in the age of semantic capitalism
The business and politics of search engines
Opening up the black boxes
Search engines and the production of academic knowledge
The Politics of Search
Shaping the Web
Search algorithms, hidden labour and information control
Understanding the promises and premises of online health platforms
| Highly cited | No |
|---|