Study shows that internet search engines have the power to swing elections.

Image: Flickr/MoneyBlogNewzAs a society, we are happily ensconced in the internet era. And we're sure that you, oh wonderful blog readers, are among the first to use the internet to find information about candidates come election time. And by and large, we assume the internet search engines we use to find that information are unbiased. But what if they aren't? Could the order of search results skew our perceptions of possible candidates? Well, this paper explores that very scenario. The result? Let's just say that we're happy that Google's motto is "don't be evil."The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections. "Internet search rankings have a significant impact on consumer choices, mainly because users trust and choose higher-ranked results more than lower-ranked results. Given the apparent power of search rankings, we asked whether they could be manipulated to alter the preferences of undecided ...