Alongside this manipulation of Google’s mysterious algorithms, there’s some really interesting research into how slightly different search terms produce wildly different results. One study looked at the different results returned when people search for information on childhood vaccination. People who were worried that their might be a risk from vaccines (there isn’t) were likely to use search terms that prioritise results from anti vaccination nut jobs that promote myths and other falsehoods:
Ruiz, Jeanette B., and Robert A. Bell. “Understanding Vaccination Resistance: Vaccine Search Term Selection Bias and the Valence of Retrieved Information.” Vaccine 32, no. 44 (October 7, 2014): 5776–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.08.042.
And I thoroughly recommend a very scary paper from the University of California about how search engine rankings can be used to influence political opinions. It is terrifying:
Epstein, Robert, and Ronald E. Robertson. “The Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) and Its Possible Impact on the Outcomes of Elections.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 33 (August 18, 2015): E4512–21. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419828112.
