Abstract

This research analyzes the university students perceptions regarding the functioning of search engines. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 university students who previously participated in an experimental search session. Subsequently, we have examined the search behavior data regarding to interview responses to identify beliefs, web page selection criteria, and the operation of cognitive biases in information search. The main fnding is the operation of familiarity, ranking, confrmation and information biases. We have observed the preference by Google in operation with the familiarity bias with the platform. Also, almost every participant have selected the frst results based on trust with the search engine. Consequently, it leads to a low number of queries, regardless of the type of task to be solved.