Chapter three of Hindman’s ‘Myth and Digital Democracy’ focuses on defining search engines and their affects on the political sphere. He uses the term Googlearchy to characterize particularly Google’s influence. According to both Hindman andhttp://www.alexa.com/topsites, we see that Google is not only the most popular search engine, but also the most popular website. Most people use Google because they are familiar with the site. Hindman states that this may not be the best thing. People use Google to find political websites and may not be finding the most relevant links or ones that give both sides. Google defines what is found during searches and the information could be biased, this in turn can influence the searcher’s political mindset. Yahoo and Microsoft are the other two most popular search engines and Hindman describes this as a monopoly. Some sites can fall to the backburner and ignored by these popular search engines causing the searcher to receive only part of the political sites out there.
In Chapter four, Hindman begins to question the relevance and importance of political websites. He diagrams usage of different age groups and genders to show that not many people are using or even searching for political sites. Since search engines are limiting what is found, these sites can lose importance among all and become irrelevant. Hindman gives detailed reports and uses Google’s dominance as proof of the failure of political websites.
In Chapter four, Hindman begins to question the relevance and importance of political websites. He diagrams usage of different age groups and genders to show that not many people are using or even searching for political sites. Since search engines are limiting what is found, these sites can lose importance among all and become irrelevant. Hindman gives detailed reports and uses Google’s dominance as proof of the failure of political websites.
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