__/ [ catherine yronwode ] on Friday 18 August 2006 06:58 \__
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>> Is there a googlearchy?
>>
> [...]
>> | A study
>> | released online in advance of publication looks into how the influence
>> | of search engines is affecting the accessibility of online information.
>> | The authors are examining fears that search engines will create a
>> | situation where a self-reinforcing cycle of popularity will create
>> | an Internet in which a limited number of information sources
>> | predominate: "[S]earch engines bias the traffic of users according to
>> | their page ranking strategies, and it has been argued that they create
>> | a vicious cycle that amplifies the dominance of established and
>> | already popular sites. This bias could lead to a dangerous monopoly
>> | of information."
>>
>> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060817-7532.html
>
> Maybe when all the paper libraries and film archives and microfilm
> archives and independent web sites in the world are destroyed there will
> be siomething to worry about ... until then, i think the threat of
> "infomopoly" is just a tempest in a teapot.
>
> cat ("always look on the bright side of life") yronwode
You may be right, Cat. I have just found the following rebuttal:
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17327&ch=infotech
A new study questions the common assumption that search engines control the
hierarchy of the Internet.
|
|
