The elusive search engine: How search engine use is reflected in survey reports

Abstract

The overall aim of this article is to contribute to a research‐based understanding of the increasing invisibility of web search engines in society and to discussions about the potential impact of this invisibility. It examines how search engine use and online search activities are represented in national and regional reports on internet habits and experience published by public foundations and policy institutes. The elusiveness of search engines is understood through a theoretical perspective from infrastructure theory. National survey reports on internet habits and experience from the United States, UK, and Sweden from 2015 to 2021 are analyzed. The article shows how difficult it is to gain insights into how people search online and the role search engines play in everyday life. The nature of the survey report, which is often used to inform national policy, risks exacerbating the invisibility of search engines: what cannot be measured cannot be discussed at the policy level. This invisibility can lead to insufficient attention being paid to search engines, including their uses and effects, in legislation, in school education, and in the general formation of public knowledge about search engines in society.

JASIST Special Issue Editorial: Re‐orienting search engine research in information science

“…But what questions are addressed in these surveys? In their contribution, Andersson and Sundin (2024) investigate reports on this subject from Sweden, the UK, and the United States, covering the years from 2015 to 2021. Analyzing the questions from a theoretical perspective from infrastructure theory, they find that these surveys further contribute to the invisibility of search engines, as described in earlier research (Andersen, 2018; Andersson, 2017; Haider & Sundin, 2019).…”

“…The article by Renee Morrison (2024) proposes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a theory and method for search engine research. The paper, entitled “Making the invisible visible: Critical Discourse Analysis as a tool for search engine research” is thus primarily a conceptual contribution, but the paper also provides examples of what CDA can contribute in terms of new research questions and new methodological approaches.…”