Algorithmic Selection on the Internet

The Internet is increasingly permeating daily life with an essential and structuring bundle of innovations: Internet-based applications that operate on algorithmic selection. Automated algorithmic selection is embedded in a variety of services and applied for numerous purposes. Algorithms in search engines or news aggregators select information in general and news in particular; in recommender systems, they suggest music and video entertainment or influence one’s choice of products. They may also suggest friends, partners, and travel routes. Moreover, they are used to automatically produce news articles and messages in social media, to calculate scoring of content and people, and to observe behavior and interests as well as to predict and shape future needs and actions. Although their modes of operation differ in detail, all these applications ...