Engines of the future: Search

"Search engines are the sunlight of the web, showing us what is visible," says Kevin Chang, a computer scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But by their nature, he adds, the beams that guide us also cast deep shadows.Chang is referring to the huge power that search engines wield. With online commerce worth $34 billion a year in the US alone, any bias for or against a company in search results can have a huge effect on its bottom line.