Search engines undoubtedly play a crucial role in the collection and distribution of information across the Web. Their revenue generating capacity has increasingly come under scrutiny with the massive success of Google. However, as important as search engines are, the methodologies they employ and the procedures they run to extract relevant search results remains obscure. Copyright laws that shield their algorithm from the public eye, the lack of transparency and the multifarious issues of privacy have resulted in a call for accountability among popular search engines. To understand the ethics behind search engines it is vital that we dissect the goals and objectives behind search engines.

All major search engines are profit driven businesses. Their ultimate goal is therefore, maximising their profit. The most certain way of achieving this is generally by satisfying customers' requirements. Thus the search for profit yields two more goals, providing quality information and a good user experience. In addition, search engines would rather not offend users - evident from Google's removal of hate website Jew Watch from the top spot for the keyword "jew". It can also be assumed that search engines would be loathe to allow websites with paedophilia pornography, bomb manufacturing or other illegal activities to permeate their search results.

The sources of income for search engines include:

• Charging advertisers for presenting online "banner" ads to users


• Collecting marketing data on consumer behaviour, then selling the data or using it for targeted advertising


• Charging websites to become listed


• Charging websites for better placement in lists


• Charging websites to purchase keywords for themselves


• Charging other search engines to use their catalogue

Each of these revenue alleys have there own potential ethical pitfalls. Marketing research shows that a high ranking on search engines means more page views. Thus, there is always the temptation for search engines to skew results in the favour of an advertiser. Also, the vast amount of information that search engines collect can allow them to make a comprehensive profile of users' interests based on search queries. All of these are worrying in view of the implication this has on personal privacy.

Ethical issues apart, search engines provide invaluable service - traversing through billions of pages and finding (in many cases) the right information. However every detail behind the search results will remain elusive to even the most astute of search engine optimisation experts. Whether a listing is ethical or not can befuddle SEO, so long as there is no independent regulatory body that sets standards and a code of ethics.