From kontakt at renekoenig.eu Wed Sep 12 12:46:05 2012 From: kontakt at renekoenig.eu (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ren=E9_K=F6nig?=) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:46:05 +0200 Subject: [re-search] Facebook plans its own search engine Message-ID: <505067ED.2050706@renekoenig.eu> http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/zuckerberg-we-have-a-team-working-on-search/ Interesting news... From kontakt at renekoenig.eu Wed Sep 12 17:02:49 2012 From: kontakt at renekoenig.eu (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ren=E9_K=F6nig?=) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:02:49 +0200 Subject: [re-search] Initiative "Society of the Query" / YOUR projects on search Message-ID: <5050A419.3080602@renekoenig.eu> Dear list, Geert Lovink and I are currently reviving the initiative "Society of the Query" at the Institute of Network Cultures (read more here: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/re-search/2012/09/10/society-of-the-query-returns/). In the first phase, we simply want to find out what?s "hot" in the field of search engine research. Therefore we?d love to learn more about your work in this field. I was thinking about a blog post which lists relevant projects, e.g. in the format: Project name Time frame Disciplines Involved researchers Website Description Even if you don?t have an entire project on search engines, we?d be interested in your relation to the topic and what you personally regard as an important topic to discuss. Feel free to write to the entire list (I think it would be good for all of us to get to know each others work) or just to me. Hope to hear from you soon! Best, Ren? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From astrid.mager at oeaw.ac.at Fri Sep 14 09:54:43 2012 From: astrid.mager at oeaw.ac.at (astrid mager) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:54:43 +0200 Subject: [re-search] Initiative "Society of the Query" / YOUR projects on search In-Reply-To: <5050A419.3080602@renekoenig.eu> References: <5050A419.3080602@renekoenig.eu> Message-ID: <5052E2C3.7000402@oeaw.ac.at> dear ren?, dear list, it's great to hear that the "society of the query" will be revived!!! & i'm happy to share my project via this mailing list/ the blog :) i'm looking forward to hearing more about other projects/ work in the field of search! - especially from a european perspective! all the best from vienna, astrid *project title & summary : * Glocal Search. Search technology at the intersection of global capitalism and local socio-political cultures Just recently, Google was heavily debated in public discourses due to its modified Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. If that was a result of increased transparency or PR should be left open at this point. What consequences these changes, effective from March 2012 onwards, trigger on a global and on a local level is a central part of the project "Glocal Search". As the title of the project indicates, the central goal of the study is a critical analysis of universal search engines at the intersection of the globalinformation economy and localsocio-political structures. Google's changes of its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, communicated to users via email, perfectly exemplify these tensions. Since March 1, 2012, Google officially aggregates and combines all user data, generated through different Google services including Google Search, Google Maps, Google Mail, YouTube, the social network Google+, etc. The interlinking of data from such heterogeneous services enables Google to generate comprehensive user profiles, which trigger a range of "glocal" implications, such as enhanced personalization and localization of search results, optimization of user-targeted advertising, as well as violations of data protection and questions of regulation. Concretely, these tensions are analyzed on a political (data collection, law, regulation etc.), on an economic (monopoly formation, IT industry, advertising networks etc.), and on a cultural level (privacy, identity, informational self-determination etc.). Google is at the center of the project due to its wide distribution and use, not least in Austria, but other search engines are also dealt with. Conducting media- and policy-analyses, as well as qualitative expert interviews the project examines how Google & co. are negotiated in the Austrian context, and what role media, politics, law, economy, net activists, data protectionists, civil society, and users can/ should play. Moreover, EU directives and German initiatives like the Enquete Commission "Internet and Digital Society" of the German Bundestag, are examined since they heavily influence Austrian developments. Theoretically, the project combines concepts from Science and Technology Studies, Critical Theory, and Technology Assessment. Project results will be presented to the international academic community in form of publications and presentations, but will also serve as a basis for specific options for action directed at various stakeholders. The research project is funded bytheJubil?umsfonds of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB, project number 14702). *disciplines:* science & technology studies, technology assessment, critical new media studies, critical theory, political economy of search engines *involved researchers:* dr. astrid mager *time frame:* 01.03.2012 - 30.06.2015 *websites: * http://www.astridmager.net http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/ebene3/e2-4a.htm#AM Am 12.09.12 17:02, schrieb Ren? K?nig: > Dear list, > > Geert Lovink and I are currently reviving the initiative "Society of > the Query" at the Institute of Network Cultures (read more here: > http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/re-search/2012/09/10/society-of-the-query-returns/). > > In the first phase, we simply want to find out what?s "hot" in the > field of search engine research. Therefore we?d love to learn more > about your work in this field. I was thinking about a blog post which > lists relevant projects, e.g. in the format: > > Project name > > Time frame > > Disciplines > > Involved researchers > > Website > > Description > > > Even if you don?t have an entire project on search engines, we?d be > interested in your relation to the topic and what you personally > regard as an important topic to discuss. Feel free to write to the > entire list (I think it would be good for all of us to get to know > each others work) or just to me. > Hope to hear from you soon! > > Best, > > Ren? > > > _______________________________________________ > re-search mailing list > re-search at listcultures.org > http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/re-search_listcultures.org -- Dr. Astrid Mager Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) Austrian Academy of Sciences A-1030 Vienna, Strohgasse 45/5 astrid.mager at oeaw.ac.at http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/ebene3/d2-4a.htm#AM http://www.astridmager.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dirk.lewandowski at haw-hamburg.de Wed Sep 19 17:18:36 2012 From: dirk.lewandowski at haw-hamburg.de (Dirk Lewandowski) Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:18:36 +0200 Subject: [re-search] Search engine projects at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Message-ID: <168736FD-AA62-4B36-8124-269EE94B842E@haw-hamburg.de> Dear colleagues, At our small research group at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, we?re currently working on several search engine projects: 1. Search engine retrieval effectiveness This is somehow the basic project of our research group. We aim at understanding the quality of search engines? results, concerning relevancy, and other factors. We already did a lot of empirical studies, and conceptual work, as well. Contact: dirk.lewandowski at haw-hamburg.de 2. Software support for evaluating search engines For testing search engines, we developed a software called ?Relevance Assessment Tool? (RAT), which allows for an easy design of tests, and for easy large-scale data collection, as well. We can collect data from all the popular search engines automatically, and collect jurors? judgments through controlled crowdsourcing. For further details, see our publication (in German): http://www.bui.haw-hamburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/lewandowski/doc/RAT_DGI_Lewandowski_Suenkler_preprint.pdf Contact: sebastian.suenkler at haw-hamburg.de 3. Contextual advertising on search engine results pages The basic hypothesis of this project is that a large part of search engine users is not able to distinguish between organic results and advertisements on the search engine results pages of major search engines. The planned study is questionnaire-based, and will be complemented by a lab experiment. Project will start in October. Contact: N.N., dirk.lewandowski at haw-hamburg.de 4. Search engine neutrality The aim of this project is to gain an understanding of the ways search engines can be ?neutral?, and the points where search engine neutrality is at risk (e.g., search engines manipulating organic results, search engines giving suggestions leading to their own offerings). Mainly conceptual work plus an extensive literature. Contact: dirk.lewandowski at haw-hamburg.de 5. Search engines for the disabled This project deals with barrier-free search engines, and the use of search engines by disabled children and adolescents. The aim is to understand special needs by these groups, and focuses on the wide variety of disabilities. Contact: friederike.kerkmann at haw-hamburg.de See http://www.bui.haw-hamburg.de/publikationen.html for a list of publications (all available as preprints, for the published PDF versions, please contact me). If you are interested in collaborating with us, we?ll be happy to hearing from you. Best wishes Dirk -- Prof. Dr. Dirk Lewandowski Hochschule f?r Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) Fakult?t Design Medien Information Department of Information Finkenau 35 D - 22081 Hamburg Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 40-42875 3621 Fax: +49 (0) 3222-1445 301 Skype: dirk.lewandowski Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Dirk_Lew http://www.bui.haw-hamburg.de http://www.bui.haw-hamburg.de/lewandowski.html ********* Associate Editor (Europe), Online Information Review http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1468-4527 ********* Aktuelles Buch: Handbuch Internet-Suchmaschinen, Band 2: Neue Entwicklungen in der Web-Suche http://www.amazon.de/Handbuch-Internet-Suchmaschinen-Neue-Entwicklungen-Web-Suche/dp/3898386511 ********* New book: Web Search Engine Research http://www.amazon.com/Search-Research-Library-Information-Science/dp/1780526369/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kontakt at renekoenig.eu Thu Sep 20 15:53:53 2012 From: kontakt at renekoenig.eu (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ren=E9_K=F6nig?=) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:53:53 +0200 Subject: [re-search] New post: The politics of autocomplete Message-ID: <505B1FF1.1070303@renekoenig.eu> In September 2010 Google introduced autocomplete (also Google Suggest) to its search engine. Based on previous queries, it tries to predict what we want to search for while we are still typing. How does this impact search engine usage and what to do the suggested queries tell us about our societies? Already now it is clear that the suggestions are often problematic. They may violate personal rights and can be politically-loaded and controversial. http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/re-search/2012/09/20/the-politics-of-autocomplete/ Best, Ren? P.S.: If you are interested in contributing to our blog, let me know!