@article{Gerhart_2004, title={Do Web search engines suppress controversy?}, volume={9}, url={https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1111}, DOI={10.5210/fm.v9i1.1111}, abstractNote={ Do Web search engines suppress controversy? by Susan L. Gerhart Web behavior depends upon three interlocking communities: (1) authors whose Web pages link to other pages; (2) search engines indexing and ranking those pages; and (3) information seekers whose queries and surfing reward authors and support search engines. Systematic suppression of controversial topics would indicate a flaw in the Web’s ideology of openness and informativeness. This paper explores search engines’ bias by asking: Is a specific well–known controversy revealed in a simple search? Experimental topics include: distance learning, Albert Einstein, St. John’s Wort, female astronauts, and Belize. The experiments suggest simple queries tend to overly present the "sunny side" of these topics, with minimal controversy. A more "Objective Web" is analyzed where: (a) Web page authors adopt research citation practices; (b) search engines balance organizational and analytic content; and, (c) searchers practice more wary multi–searching. }, number={1}, journal={First Monday}, author={Gerhart, Susan}, year={2004}, month={Jan.} }