Eszter Hargittai wrote “The Social, Political, Economic, and Cultural Dimensions of Search Engines: An Introduction,” introducing a special issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication:

Overall, the collection of articles in this special section suggests that far from being solely technical phenomena, search engines and their uses are embedded in a myriad of social processes that are important for social scientists to consider in their research in order to understand the social implications of these important tools of our time. Given their popularity, search engines are important brokers of information, and knowing more about how they represent content and how they are used is vital to understanding patterns of information access in a digital age. By looking at individual search actions, the social context of search, and the landscape of search engine results, the articles in this special section offer interesting food for thought and directions for future research concerning the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of search engines.

Eszter Hargittai wrote “The Social, Political, Economic, and Cultural Dimensions of Search Engines: An Introduction,” introducing a special issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication:

Overall, the collection of articles in this special section suggests that far from being solely technical phenomena, search engines and their uses are embedded in a myriad of social processes [...]