Do Web Search Engines Suppress Controversy?
Susan L. Gerhart,
Jan 09, 2004
Interesting article that touches on distance learning by using the David Noble 'digital diploma mill' controversy as one of five examples. The author asks, do we search engines stifle controversial subjects? There is some evidence that some such issues do not show up in simple searches, but this is more a result of social factors, not technological. In the discussion there is an interesting distinction drawn between the 'organizational' web of "companies, universities, trade associations, consortia, alliances, and government agencies", and the 'analytic web', consisting of "full–text (or tables of contents) journals, technical reports and preprints, opinion pages, bibliographies, and pages of links to these." While the former is well interlinked, the latter is not. I think there is more than could be more said about this. Why do we present our analytic works online as dead-end linkless PDF files?
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