Welcome back to Trial by Wire! My name is Denton, and today, we're continuing our series on using the Internet by talking about search engines, which people use frequently to get around the Internet. We'll cover how to use search engines and why they may not always give you the answers you want. Let's get started!
A search engine is a website which allows you to search for other websites. The most popular one by far is Google, so much so that "googling" something has become the term for searching for content online. While URLs will link you directly to a website, search engines scan the content of millions of websites and allow you to input search terms which it then uses to attempt to locate websites which match those terms.
Search engines work because of one of the oldest Internet technologies out there: the hyperlink. In addition to content, web pages can contain links to other web pages, both internal to the current site and on external websites. Clicking a hyperlink takes you to the linked web page or even content on the same page. The destination page may also contain hyperlinks linking to additional pages. This creates a network of pages all tied together by links. Search engines operate "crawlers", programs which are designed to find new pages by bouncing around this network, following hyperlinks. This allows the search engine to build an index of pages and their content which then can be analyzed for search results.
In order to get results from a search engine, you have to provide a "query", or a set of parameters for the search engine to use to return your desired results. Being able to construct a useful query is an important skill to have in order to find what you want on the Internet. For example, let's say that I live in Billings, Montana and I want to adopt a husky from a local shelter. If my query is just "dog", I'm going to get a lot of really adorable dog pictures, but all of the results about adoption may be buried. If I try "dog" and "adoption", I can start to narrow my results to adoption listings. For multiple words, the search engine will likely attempt to match as many words as it can, but it won't be restrictive; it will still show results that only match some of your words. To force it to match all of your words, you can either use quotes around the phrase or the word "and" (for example, "dog AND adoption"). The more parameters you give it, the more specific your search results will be. If I search "husky dog adoption billings montana", I'm likely to get more of the results that I want.
Search engines operate on the idea of "ranking" results. The search engine will order its results to your query in the way in which it thinks they're most relevant. For example, if a site matches more of your keywords, it's likely to be higher on the list. However, the algorithms which search engines use are complicated and do not always produce the results you expect. Many websites practice "search engine optimization" or SEO in an attempt to move themselves higher up on search engine results so that you will click on them. Additionally, some sites will pay search engines to get mentioned at the top of the list as advertisements. These will be explicitly marked as ads in the list of results.
There are several different search engines you can use. A popular competitor to Google is Microsoft Bing, which has recently integrated with Microsoft Copilot to leverage AI features in searching. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine which markets itself as the search engine that doesn't track you. Ecosia is a search engine which uses revenue made from ads to plant trees. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
Now that we know a little more about search engines, let's take the time to think about the ethics of them.
My first point here has already been raised when I talked about search results: the first result is not always the most correct result. Search engines are designed to give you the best results as determined by their own criteria. Unfortunately, no human invention is completely safe from bias, so we already know that we can't totally trust the search engine's rankings. However, SEO complicates this issue. A site's SEO attempts can range from legitimately including relevant keywords on the site ("Our pet adoption agency is located in Billings, Montana") to flooding a site with keywords ("husky baby love dog cat pet adopt friend") - this is called "keyword stuffing". Sites will do some crazy things to move themselves up a few spots in your search results and get that sweet sweet web traffic. Understanding search results requires discernment to figure out exactly what you're looking for, and you shouldn't just blindly click the first search result that your search engine produces.
Is all SEO bad? Definitely not; SEO is effectively a requirement for the modern web site to be seen at all on search engines. I recently helped a friend rehost a website at a new URL since he had lost access to the old site, and one of the biggest challenges we faced was trying to get his new site to rank higher than the old site so people would stop clicking on the old one. Legitimate sites want to be found so that you’ll click on them, and search engines have gotten better at filtering out spam sites. However, you should still never completely trust the results that a search engine gives you. The Internet is under various forms of governance, but people frequently use it to push agendas, spread lies, and create strong emotions like fear and anger. Be careful out there.
Next, which search engine should you use? In some cases, it depends on what you want. Google is a tried-and-true search engine which has a massive backlog of web pages and a well-tested search algorithm. It's very likely to give you the search results you want. Bing provides the additional AI functionality which may make it easier for you to provide search queries and understand results. I personally use DuckDuckGo because I support their privacy mission, and I want to reduce the number of trackers following me around on the Internet. Maybe you care about the environment and want your search traffic to count toward that. Ecosia would be a good browser for you.
However, keep in mind that in order for a search engine to work well, it needs a large amount of data. Search engines like Google collect this data through web crawlers, but they also collect information about you as you search in order to provide you better search results.
So, in the original episode recording, I’d included some information here about how tracking works with cookies. After further research, I realized that information is incorrect, so I’m linking to a few articles in the show notes that better explain how it works. Sorry about that, and I hope the articles are useful!
Search engines are a great tool for finding the information you want, but they come with hazards if you aren't careful. Analyzing the results of a search engine query and having trusted sources of information are important to ensure you don't fall prey to some of the less savory websites out there. Search with caution!
Your homework for this week is to try some queries on your search engine of choice! See how specific you can get to find the information you want. Maybe you can get so specific that the search engine can't find any results; that's happened to me a few times. If you're already a search engine whiz, trying looking up "search engine boolean operators" for some more advanced usage to sharpen your searching skills. Think on that, and I'll see you next time!
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