The Evolution of Search Engines

It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us? And is Google Search finally facing a real rival, in the form of A.I.-powered “answer engines”? 

• SOURCES:
  • Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice president at Google.
  • Ryan McDevitt; professor of economics at Duke University.
  • Tim Hwang, media researcher and author; former Google employee.
  • Elizabeth Reid, vice president of Search at Google.
  • Aravind Srinivas, C.E.O. and co-founder of Perplexity.
  • Jeremy Stoppelman, C.E.O. and co-founder of Yelp.

• RESOURCES:
  • “A Fraudster Who Just Can’t Seem to Stop … Selling Eyeglasses,” by David Segal (The New York Times, 2022).
  • Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet, by Tim Hwang (2020).
  • “Complaint: U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC,” by the U.S. Department of Justice (2020).
  • “Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too,” by David Segal (The New York Times, 2016).
  • “‘A’ Business by Any Other Name: Firm Name Choice as a Signal of Firm Quality,” by Ryan C. McDevitt (Journal of Political Economy, 2014).
  • In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, by Steven Levy (2011).
  • “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 1998).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Is Dialysis a Test Case of Medicare for All?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
  • “How Big is My Penis? (And Other Things We Ask Google),” by Freakonomics Radio (2017).