Abstract

This paper highlights the importance that search engines play in our daily lives as consumers of information. The short but eventful history of search engines has brought about a handful of leading search engines, which dominate their country specific markets. This rapid growth and market dominance highlight the long term sustainability of search engines as an information system (IS). Google is chosen in this position paper as the case of the main search engine and offers a potential for three main areas of fruitful and important IS research: the sustainability of search engine systems, the long terms effect of cannibalisation of vertical search and the implications of search engine bias and competition. These three research areas are argued as the main research problems in need of further study by IS researchers. Contributions to knowledge in these areas can help in sustainability of the industry.

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