Nano Today (2012) 7, 72—75 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nanotoday NEWS AND OPINIONS Information snapshots: What Google searches really tell us about emerging technologies Xuan Liang a,d,∗ , Ashley A. Anderson a,d , Dietram A. Scheufele a,c,d , Dominique Brossard a,c,d , Michael A. Xenos b,d a Department of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin — Madison, USA b Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin — Madison, USA c Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, USA d University of Wisconsin — Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center in Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale, USA Received 25 March 2011; received in revised form 16 December 2011; accepted 5 January 2012 Available online 17 February 2012 KEYWORDS Nanotechnology; Public opinion; Public understanding; Google; Online search results; Internet Summary For most consumers, Google is the window to the (nano) world. At the very least, Google and other search engines are the place where many consumers get the first glimpse of emerging technologies. In order to explore the critical role that online media play as information gateways, we tracked Google search patterns related to nanotechnology over a 17-month period. Our data show that the snippets of websites highlighted in top Google search results present policy themes about nano more than themes about application or social implications. General searches for ‘‘nanotechnology’’ present a neutral tone, while ‘‘risk’’- related search results present a negative tone and ‘‘benefit’’-related searches present a positive tone. The majority of websites appearing in Google searches are non-nano specific sites (e.g., www.sciencedaily.com). We discuss the important implications of Google search results for nanotechnology audiences. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ‘‘Google Web Search result content is likely to play a pivotal role in the formation of nanotechnology knowl- edge and attitudes among the public and — ultimately — regulation and funding policy.’’ (subhead) ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Life Sciences Commu- nication, 320 Hiram Smith Hall, 1545 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Tel.: +1 608 890 2264; fax: +1 608 265 3042. E-mail address: xliang3@wisc.edu (X. Liang). For most consumers, Google is the window to the (nano) world. By far, Google ranks as the most popular search engine, claiming around 64% of all searches [1]. At the very least, Google is the place where many consumers get a first glimpse of emerging technologies. As a result, Google plays a critical role as a gatekeeper of information about new tech- nologies. Google also technically ranks the websites in its search results by looking at the sum of all pages linking to it [2,3]. Furthermore, Google audiences’ search behavior and information processing techniques usually determine which information they pay attention to and find valuable. 1748-0132/$ — see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nantod.2012.01.001