‘Google the Gatekeeper: How Search Components Affect Clicks and Attention’

“The contemporary Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) supplements classic blue hyperlinks with complex components. These components produce tensions between searchers, 3rd-party websites, and Google itself over clicks and attention. In this study, we examine 12 SERP components from two categories: (1) extracted results (e.g., featured-snippets) and (2) Google Services (e.g., shopping-ads) to determine their effect on peoples’ behavior.”

Find the paper and full list of authors in the Proceedings of the Seventeenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.