Do search engines provide complete pictures of current topics?

Weighting analysis of content aspects of search engine results in Germany and the USA

Abstract

Objective — The goal was to identify potential search engine content bias by comparing pictures of selected current and international events, from Google and Bing across Germany and the US. Criteria were developed for (1) completeness, (2) coverage, and (3) weighting of the particular content aspects.
Methods — Empirical analysis was conducted using a hybrid / cross-functional methodology taken from the social sciences (content analysis) and information science (retrieval tests).
Results — Both Google and Bing (1) do not provide complete coverage in neither Germany nor the US, (2) both do not cover the three most important content aspects on the first three result positions, and (3) there do not seem to be significant differences regarding the weighting of the content aspects. However, these results are somewhat limited, due to the methodology and the evaluation.
Conclusions — The findings indicate that search engine content bias indeed exists. This could have an effect on how public opinions are formed. The topic should be further analyzed, especially in the light of effort required for obtaining results of high quality.

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