Writing
Books, articles and public work.
I write about search engines, digital culture, AI and the politics of knowledge. This is a selected record, with the full list held in my University research profile.
Book
Investigating Google’s Search Engine
Ethics, algorithms and the machines built to read us. Published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2023.
View the book
Selected publications
Research in print and online.
The ethical dimensions of Google autocomplete
Big Data & Society, 10(1), 1-5
A ‘History’ of Search Engines: Mapping Technologies of Memory, Learning and Discovery
Society of the Query Reader: Reflections on Web Search
Search Engine Ethics and You: Co-Designing Tools for Public Engagement
SEASON 2025: Book of Abstracts
#FreeWebSearch Charter: Search for the Common Good
Open Search Foundation, co-author
A paper beyond the journal
Google and advertising.
My 2017 article examines how Google's advertising business turns language into a commodity, and what this means for digital culture and fake news. It has been read and cited in academic research, as well as discussed in news coverage, blogs and social media.
Read the open-access article- Article accesses
- 37k
- Academic citations · Dimensions
- 25
- News outlets listed
- 25
- Online attention percentile · Altmetric
- 99th
Publisher snapshot, 28 September 2026. The figures record readership, citations and online attention. News counts can include syndicated copies of one story. The percentile ranks the article against 490,548 tracked articles of a similar age. View the metrics and tracked coverage.
Public engagement and advice
Writing, advice and public conversations.
Journalism and public discussion
I advised journalist Tom Faber on the 2024 Guardian feature “Google says I'm a dead physicist”: is the world's biggest search engine broken? I have also spoken to a public audience at the Natural History Museum in London.
Consultancy and expert advice
I have worked with Canvas8 as a consultant and expert contributor. From 2014 to 2017 I was an academic partner to a Silicon Valley start-up, working on how natural language processing might measure trustworthiness online.
More about advisory workInvited talks and workshops
At CERN in 2023, I ran “The Ethical Aspirations for the Future of Search”, a practical workshop for developers, policymakers, researchers and business leaders. My invited contributions also include a talk at the Open Search Symposium in 2022, a keynote and teaching residency at Lund University in 2024, and a presentation and roundtable at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2022.