Searching & Filter Bubbles

## Search

A search is done by many users on the World wide web to find the information they seek. Searching involves the

> "exploration of the World Wide Web by following one interesting link to another, usually with a definite objective and a planned search strategy. In comparison surfing is exploration definite in
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> objective but not in strategy, and browsing is exploration without a definite objective or search strategy."
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## Search Engines

Search engines are special sites that are designed to help Internet users find and acquire information on the World Wide Web developed by Tim Berners-Lee.  Search engines exist on nearly every web page and are a key part of what makes the Internet a valuable research tool. Search engines are made up of three major components that make information accessing possible. The first part is known as the Interface. The Interface is the webpage for which the search engine is located, which contains a text box that allows for people to specify what type of information they want the search engine to search for. The second part is known as the Index. The Index is the database that operates behind a web page and represents only a certain part of the Internet. The third and most important part are known as Crawlers. ‘’Crawlers, or sometimes known as Spiders, are programs that ‘’crawl’’ throughout the Internet looking for webpages that they do not already know about and upon obtaining them automatically add them to the Index of the webpage so that they can be easily accessed when the topic is searched again. Crawlers are primary used in crawler based engines which include popular websites such as Google, and provides a large variety of articles based on the search to the user.

## Metasearch Engines

Metasearch Engines are an interesting type of search engines used by users.

> "A metasearch engine is a search tool that uses another search engine’s data to produce their own results from the internet. Metasearch engines take input from a user and simultaneously send outqueries to third party search engines for results. Sufficientdata is gathered, formatted by their ranks and presented to the users."
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### Advantages and Disadvantages

With using metasearch engines the main advantage is that users are allowed to get "results from multiple search engines without having to visit each one."The reason why this serves as an advantage is because it gives a search a broader scope to look at since each search engine’s index differs from each others. However with the advantages that many metasearch engines offer there do exist many disadvantages. Some of these include vulnerably to search spam, constantly updating to change in source engines, and the need to decode different queries forms from different search engines.

## Filter Bubbles

   A filter bubble is when a website guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user. Information about the user is gathered as he/she browses the world wide web. Popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask use algorithms that incorporate the same methodology of a filter bubble. Location, search history, and past click behavior are some of the things that search engines look at in order to deliver an accurate flow of information to the user. Filter bubbles are seen as a violation of data privacy because of the constant collection of data that search engines incorporate into their algorithms. The collected data leaves little anonymity for users of search engines. Filter bubbles will be the backbone of Web 3.0. It will allow users to have a truly personalized search experience.

### References

1. ↑ What is searching? definition and meaning. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/searching.html#ixzz3W7lYbINY
2. ↑ "Architecture of a Metasearch Engine that Supports User Information Needs". Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Information Knowledge Management. Retrieved 1999.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Meta-Search Engines. (2008, May 1). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from http://www.searchenginesearch.blogspot.com/