National Security Agency: Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research (2007)
Filed under manual | Tags: · google, hacking, internet, research, search, security, technology, web
“The manual just released by the NSA following a FOIA request filed in April by MuckRock. The book is filled with advice for using search engines, the Internet Archive and other online tools.” (source)
Publisher Center for Digital Content of the National Security Agency, February 2007
Unclassified in May 2013
643 pages
via Marcell Mars, via Wired
PDF (from NSA.gov)
PDF (mirror at the MuckRock website)
View online
Alexander Halavais: Search Engine Society (2008–)
Filed under book | Tags: · attention, attention economy, censorship, democracy, facebook, google, internet, knowledge, pagerank, privacy, search, web
“Search engines have become a key part of our everyday lives. Yet while much has been written about how to use search engines and how they can be improved, there has been comparatively little exploration of what the social and cultural effects might be. Like all technologies, search engines exist within a larger political, cultural, and economic environment. This volume aims to redress this balance and to address crucial questions such as:
* How have search engines changed the way we organize our thoughts about the world, and how we work?
* What are the ‘search engine wars’, what do they portend for the future of search, and who wins or loses?
* To what extent does political control of search engines, or the political influence of search engines, affect how they are used, misused, and regulated?
* Does the search engine help shape our identities and interactions with others, and what implications does this have for privacy?
Informed members of the information society must understand the social contexts in which search engines have been developed, what that development says about us as a society, and the role of the search engine in the global information environment. This book provides the perfect starting point.”
Publisher Polity, 2008
Digital Media and Society series
ISBN 0745642152, 9780745642154
196 pages
PDF (updated on 2019-12-5)
EPUB (2nd ed., 2017, added on 2019-12-5)
Google Search Quality Rating Guidelines (2007-2012)
Filed under handbook | Tags: · algorithm, google, labour, search, software, software studies, spam, web
Google’s manual for its unseen humans who rate the web. The raters are being hired through Google’s contractors such as Lionbridge, Leapforce and Appen Butler Hill.
Publisher Google, Inc.
43 pages; 125 pages; 161 pages
via Google Search
interview with a Google Search quality rater (searchengineland.com)
discussion (Slashdot)
commentary (v.3.27, searchengineland.com)
commentary (v.3.18, searchenginewatch.com)
commentary (v.2.1, searchengineland.com)
PDF (Version 3.27, June 2012)
PDF (Version 3.18, March 2011)
PDF (Version 2.1, April 2007)