Thinking Critically About Google

In-Class Exercise, Short Assignment

Using 2 excerpts from articles about Google search results, students are encouraged to think about the differences between Google and library databases and how they may impact the research process. 

Steps

  1. Share the excerpts with students, (excerpts available here).
  2. Using the discussion structure of your choosing, prompt students to answer the questions below:
    • What is your experience with Google’s knowledge panels, snippets and other answers provided above the search results?  Do you still look at the other search results?  How likely are you to click through to other websites?  What effects might the presence of these information panels have on the research process?
    • The author of excerpt 2 describes how Google search results are changing in order to keep people on the site longer.  Why do you think Google wants to keep you on their website longer?  How might they benefit from that?  (If discussion stalls, you could display this hint for students.)
    •  Library databases have a very different business model than Google.  Their revenue comes from persuading librarians to purchase databases access for their patrons.  To do this they must have content that is judged to be high quality by librarians and present results that are a good match for the search terms entered.  How might this difference in business model affect the research process of researchers using library databases?

Considerations

  • The first set of questions has potential to set up discussion about the degree to which we trust Google and how often we pause to consider and evaluate the source of information online.  Then the second set of questions invites students to think about ways that the motivations of large corporations might be at odds with our own goals and some reasons why we might not implicitly trust the information they provide.  
  • Google search revenues come from publishers paying Google to put their ads in front of users.  Generally this means a carefully chosen subset of users based on the massive amount of data Google has on their users.  This also strongly incentivizes Google to collect as much information as it can about its users.  At the end of the day, every decision Google makes about its search interface boils down to maximizing ad revenue or gathering more personal data.  The quality of the information presented matters only to the extent that bad press about inaccurate information has potential to harm traffic to their site.  
  • The third set of questions relates to library databases.  We recognize that “business models of library databases” is an area not everyone is familiar with.  If that’s you, reach out to a librarian and we can either answer your questions ahead of the class or pop in as a guest to discuss how these databases are produced and how we choose what databases to buy. 

Resources