Web search engines have emerged as one of the dominant technologies of modern life, leaving few aspects of our everyday activities untouched. Search engines are not just indispensable tools for finding and accessing information online, but have become a defining component of the human condition and can be conceptualized as a complex behavior embedded within an individual's everyday social, cultural, political, and information-seeking activities.
This book investigates Web search from the non-technical perspective, bringing together chapters that represent a range of multidisciplinary theories, models, and ideas about Web searching. They examine the various roles and impacts of Web searching on the social, cultural, political, legal, and informational spheres of our lives, such as the impact on individuals, social groups, modern and postmodern ways of knowing, and public and private life. By critically examining the issues, theories, and formations arising from, and surrounding, Web searching, Web Search: Multidisciplinary Perspectives represents an important contribution to the emerging multidisciplinary body of research on Web search engines.
The new ideas and novel perspectives on Web searching gathered in this volume will prove valuable for research and curricula in the fields of social sciences, communication studies, cultural studies, information science, and related disciplines.