Search Engines: Oracles of the Information Society

The session will focus on the influence of search engines on individuals, societies, education and politics.


The exponential growth and the decentralized structure of the Internet require automated search solutions which now control our access to information and influence our view of life.


With several billions indexed pages, search engines are not only the biggest storage systems worldwide, they are also used by millions of users every day.


The session will analyze these developments and pay special attention to media monopolies, political implications, censorship, and privacy violations.


Several recent case studies, including but not limited to the Google Book Scan program, Google WiFi, Google Earth, and the self proclaimed support of Open Office and other open software frameworks will be used to explore these monopolies and relationships.