Table of Contents

List of figures and tables About the author Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Power, communication and the internet Communication and power The emergence of the internet The various faces of the digital divide The online knowledge/power nexus The emergence of the information society The power of interfaces 'Informational politics' online Conclusion Chapter 2: The structure and power of search engines A short history of information search The challenge of the deep web The challenge of the internet infrastructure Information protection and digital 'islands' Interest/internet conflicts Control over informational commons The European answer The long tail of search engines Conclusion Chapter 3: Google and the politics of online searching Google's big idea Google's search engine mechanism Google's customised search Google's additional services Google Scholar Google Translate Google's global control by local use Reinforcing online allegiance Online manipulation and punishment Conclusion Chapter 4: Users and uses of Google's information Methodology Data sources A cross-national comparison Main classification system Reliability of coding: the hidden intention Economic and political value index Variety of uses Specificity of search index Extent of locality Initial predictions Results and analysis Summary and discussion Chapter 5: Mass media channels and the world of Google News Online transformation of media and news Commercial motives and their implications Google World News Dominant online states International concern International network The language dimension Summary and conclusion Chapter 6: Google's global mapping Google Earth and Google Maps Biases in scope The national security dimension Summary and discussion Chapter 7: Conclusion The importance of information and communication The power of the search engine 'Googling' and the politics of online search Information uses in Google and Yahoo! The world of Google News The bias of Google mapping The impact of popularisation mechanisms The future of search engines From personal advisers to global advertisers The future of the information society Chapter 8: Epilogue Appendix A: Search engines statistics Appendix B: Data for statistic analysis Bibliography Index

About the Author

Elad Segev is a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer of Media and Communications at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He dedicated his doctorate work at the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice at Keele University to study search engine biases. His research also deals with technology, primarily the Internet, and its social, political and cultural implications. Additionally, he serves as a visiting lecturer of new media and network theory at Ben Gurion University and Emek Yizrael Academic College in Israel.