search engines without algorithms behind them providing you with this filtered information.

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1 DeBoer 1 Kevin DeBoer Professor Culik English 1190 October 12, 2012 Algorithms Filtering is in our everyday life whether we know of it or not. We are always being tracked down and being watched over, not in a religious sense but within a sense of other believing it is for our better good. Within this current generation and this era of amazing technology, filtering has become easier and easier to accomplish. Whether it could be determining what you want your Pandora radio station to play or who you want to view your Facebook profile, almost everyone has control over what they want to filter. But what about things that get filtered out without our own knowledge? As stated earlier technology makes this easier and easier to do, whether we know about it or not. Over the past years, a tool that everyone has known to love, if not live by, is the internet. Sure you can do almost everything you can think of from the seat of your chair, but what are we being blocked from without us knowing? Being in Professor Culik s class, I have not thought about how what I look up within search engines gets filtered and fed to me on a silver platter without my knowledge. By receiving this filtered information we will eventually form bias s based on this filtered information. And once this begins to happen we will eventually loose grasp of what truly is creditable and what is just a onesided opinion. In order to receive truly unbiased and unfiltered information you will have to use search engines without algorithms behind them providing you with this filtered information. Algorithms are scientific formulas which are a big loop that will cipher through information and put it where it belongs, depending on how it was set up. Algorithms in the terms

2 DeBoer 2 of search engines can be a good thing and could be a bad thing. In the terms of look for credible research it is a horrible thing. By using common search engines like Google or Bing you are subject to have algorithms affecting your search results, this is huge when you re in the search for credible information. The biggest problem with having these search engines is that over time the search engine will begin to filter out information for you because of the preset algorithm that is running in the background. As time will go on, and the more you use this same search engine, it will feed you information that is has been adapting to all of your previous searches. This will end up causing very bias information and does not make any of the research that you just have done be called credible. There are ways around this dilemma, so everyone will still be able to receive credible information within their research. Databases are a key way to escape from falling into this search algorithm giving bias information over time. This is done by having pre-selected text and when a search is done it will give you information based on what your search terms consist of and nothing else. After doing more research about algorithms effecting your search results, I found out information on how sellers online will pay to have their listings ranked higher priority, this goes against algorithms giving you your information based on past research. Most online sellers, however, do not invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to get higher search-results rankings for their listings, but instead prefer paid placements. (Ravi Sen) 1 When I was done reading that portion of information I began to do more research about SEO and how maybe this is the cause of bias information when using search engines. 1 See notes

3 DeBoer 3 Knowing that sellers pay to get their cites ranked higher for buyers to see, they also adapt accordingly to what they try and market to the community. An understanding of buyers' choice of online search strategies can help an online seller to estimate its expected probability of making an online sale, optimize its online pricing, and improve its online promotional and advertising activities. (Sen, King, and Shaw) When I finished all of this research I came to the conclusion of that algorithms will affect your search results, but you can get around that by deleting your web history and by clearing all of your cookies. I do not know of many people who will not do this multiple times a day, because by clearing all of this it will erase all of your past searches and clear all log in information from any other cite to give you an almost clean slate when you begin to search again. And by having this done, you cannot receive bias information. But there is also another population that will not clear all of their history and cookies, and they should rely on databases when they are searching for credible information. But in terms of algorithms affecting your search results by giving you bias information, I have come to believe that this is not true. I have read multiple sources claiming how companies will pay to have their cites shown first in your search results. So this goes completely against the whole topic of algorithms affecting your search results, when it actually comes down to who is paying most to have their cites promoted to be on your top result list. So you are still receiving not as credible and bias information, but not because of algorithms but because of SEO which are a result of money.

4 DeBoer 4 Works Cited 1. Sen, Ravi. Optimal Search Engine Marketing Strategy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., JSTOR. Web. 13 Oct < uid= &uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid= &sid= >. 2. Sen, Ravi, Ruth C. King, and Michael J. Shaw. Buyers' Choice of Online Search Strategy and Its Managerial Implications. Vol. 3. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharp, Inc., JSTOR. Web. 12 Oct < %2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpaid%2Bsearch%2Bengine%2Boptimization%26gw%3Djtx %26prq%3Dsearch%2Bengine%2Boptimization%26Search%3DSearch%2>. 3. Sen, Ravi. Optimal Search Engine Marketing Strategy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharp, Web. 12 Oct < referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,7;journal,29,49;linkingpublicationresults,1:106045,1>.

5 DeBoer 5 Notes Buyers using search engines to look for information tend to trust and follow links displayed in the editorial section of the search-results page. Most on-line sellers, however, do not invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to get higher search-results rankings for their listings, but instead prefer paid placements. They explain that SEO is more expensive than paid placements, produces results that do not justify its cost, and does not consistently lead to high search-results rankings. This implies that sellers would invest in SEO if it were less expensive and its rankings were more consistent. However, even if SEO and paid placement cost the same, and SEO always produced high rankings, paid placement would still be the search engine marketing (SEM) strategy of choice for most on-line sellers. Interestingly, no optimal SEM strategy includes SEO. These findings are especially significant for advertising professionals who have to justify investing in paid placements despite overwhelming evidence that buyers ignore them and follow links in the editorial section of the search-results page. (Ravi)

Kevin DeBoer. Professor Culik. English October 12, Algorithms

Kevin DeBoer. Professor Culik. English October 12, Algorithms DeBoer 1 use flushleft format Kevin DeBoer Professor Culik English 1190 October 12, 2012 Algorithms Filtering is in our everyday life whether we know of it or not We are always being tracked down and being