On the Political Economy of Link-based Web Search
Journal: tripleC Communication Capitalism & Critique Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society
Year: 2024

Web search engines arguably form the most popular data-driven systems in contemporary society. They wield a considerable power by functioning as gatekeepers of the Web. Since the late 1990s, search engines have been dominated by the paradigm of link-based web search. In this paper, we critically analyse the Political Economy of the paradigm of link-based web search, drawing upon insights and methodologies from Critical Political Economy. We illustrate how link-based web search has led to phenome