The Effects of September 11 on the Leading Search Engine

“People who are savvy about how the Internet works don’t even try to find breaking news on the Net.” — Richard W. WigginsThe Effects of September 11 on the Leading Search Engine (First Monday)

Wiggins made this throwaway statement in an article published October 1, 2001. How quickly things change!

In his defense, Wiggins was very quick to publish a thoughtful analysis of the ways Google changed during the crisis, paving the way for the introducton of Google News.

Wiggins was not wrong. I didn’t expect to be able to find breaking news on the internet until I first used Google News.

View Comments

  • Yes, fark and slashdot are good examples of meme-spreading sites. Often I first see a meme there, then it appears on Wired, and then it makes it into the more mainstream publications. But Wikipedia is also becoming a force for organizing breaking news stories.

  • What about meta sites like Fark.com? I often find news items there before any of the major networks have picked them up. There's a lot of be said for a huge network of independent nodes gathering and submitting news stories. If signal/noise ratio is a little higher than on the networks, but it's entertaining noise.

Share
Published by
Dennis G. Jerz

Recent Posts

No interior yet. Getting there. Gotta start somewhere. Low-poly background detail for a medieval theater project. #blender3d

No interior yet. Getting there. Gotta start somewhere. Low-poly background detail for a medieval theater…

5 hours ago

This is manageable. Far better than some semesters.

This is manageable. Far better than some semesters.

23 hours ago

Creating textures for background buildings in a medieval theater simulation project. I can always improve this later. #blender3d

Creating textures for background buildings in a medieval theater simulation project. I can always improve…

2 days ago

Yesterday my stack of unmarked assignments was about 120, so this is not bad.

Nothing in this stack is pressing, but they do include rough drafts of final papers,…

3 days ago

ai, ai, ai: critical thinking and literacy won’t save you

Here’s the underlying problem. We have an operating image of thought, an understanding of what…

3 days ago

Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.

Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.

6 days ago