Web Dragons: Inside the Myths of Search Engine Technology

Description

In the eye-blink that has elapsed since the turn of the millennium, the lives of those of us who work with information have been utterly transformed. Pretty well all we need to know is on the web; if not today, then tomorrow. It’s where we learn and play, shop and do business, keep up with old friends and meet new ones. What makes it possible for us to find the stuff we need to know? Search engines.

Search engines—“web dragons”—are the portals through which we access society’s treasure trove of information. How do they stack up against librarians, the gatekeepers over centuries past? What role will libraries play in a world whose information is ruled by the web? How is the web organized? Who controls its contents, and how do they do it? How do search engines work? How can web visibility be exploited by those who want to sell us their wares? What’s coming tomorrow, and can we influence it? We are witnessing the dawn of a new era, starting right now—and this book shows you what it will look like and how it will change your world.

Do you use search engines every day? Are you a developer or a librarian, helping others with their information needs? A researcher or journalist for whom the web has changed the very way you work? An online marketer or site designer, whose career exists because of the web? Whoever you are: if you care about information, this book will open your eyes—and make you blink.

 

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Setting the Scene
According to the Philosophers
Enter the Technologists
The Information Revolution
The World-Wide Web
So What?
Notes and Sources

2. Literature and The Web
Changing Face of Libraries
Metadata
So What?
Notes and Sources

3. Meet the Web
Basic Concepts
Web Pages: Documents and Beyond
Metrology and Scaling
Structure of the Web
So What?
Notes and Sources

4. How to Search
Searching Text
Searching in a Web
Developments in Web Search
So What?
Notes and Sources

5. The Web Wars
Preserving the Ecosystem
Increasing Visibility: Tricks of the Trade
Business, Ethics, and Spam
The Anti-Spam War
So What?
Notes and Sources

6. Who Controls Information?
The Violence of the Archive
Web Democracy
Privacy and Censorship
Copyright and the Public Domain
The Business of Search
So What?
Notes and Sources

7. The Dragons Evolve
Communities
Private Subnetworks
The User as Librarian
Your Computer and the Web
So What?
Notes and Sources

References

Index