The SSLIS seminar | The Search Engine

The Search Engine (book chapter draft) – Jutta Haider, Dirk Lewandowski, Olof Sundin.

General-purpose (web) search engines are the often-unnoticed backbone of society’s digital knowledge infrastructure, serving as one of contemporary society’s main gateways to online information. Since the inception of the web, search engines have used their indexing systems and algorithms to organise and rank content, shaping epistemic practices, the (online) economy, and influencing how knowledge is constructed in contemporary society. They have come to shape what we know, how we know it, and increasingly, how content is created in the first place. There is currently a significant surge of interest in search technologies following the generative AI "hype”. While some aspects of search engines remain unchanged, there have also been both incremental and abrupt changes in how search engines function and are used. 

Jutta Haider (SSLIS), Dirk Lewandowski (HAW, Germany) and Olof Sundin (Lund University) present ongoing work with a short textbook entitled "The Search Engine". The book discusses contemporary web search engines, their technological foundations, and their roles in society. It places the search engine on a continuum extending from library catalogues to the growing use of generative AI features, such as Google's AI Overview and AI Mode.

Language: English

Chair: Ola Pilerot

Zoom: https://hb-se.zoom.us/j/66891319632

Jutta Haider’s research profile at University of Borås: https://www.hb.se/en/research/research-portal/researchers/JUHA/

Dirk Lewandowski’s research profile at HAW Hamburg: https://www.haw-hamburg.de/en/university/employees/detail/person/person/show/dirk-lewandowski/

Olof Sundin’s research profile at Lund University: https://www.kultur.lu.se/en/person/OlofSundin/

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Calendar: https://www.hb.se/bibliotekshogskolan/om-bibliotekshogskolan/aktuellt/kalendarium/