Conference Programme
Explore the online Conference Programme on EasyChair here: SEASON 2026 Conference Programme
Introduction
Welcome and Opening
Rosie Graham (Conference Chair)
Dirk Lewandowski and Sebastian Schultheiß (Local Co-Chairs)
Keynote: Impact of Search Engines on Society: Lessons from Antitrust Cases
Thomas Höppner
Parallel Sessions
Elections in the Age of Algorithms: Evidence of Political Bias in Search Engines and Large Language Models
Íris Damião
Using generative AI instead of search engines? Comparison and implications in the context of five state elections in Germany
Patrick Parschan, Michael V. Reiss, Mario Haim, Kateryna Kasianenko, Ashwin Nagappa, Daniel Angus and Axel Bruns
Restricted (Over)view: Audit of Google’s and Bing’s AI summaries in the context of Swiss popular votes
Corinna Hertweck, Giovanni Astante, Aleksandra Urman, Oliver Marsh, Angela Müller and Aniko Hannak
Emerging frictions: visual generative AI and the prompting practices of trans and nonbinary people
Ben Hogan
Multilingual across multiple platforms: researching the role of language in the everyday
Cecilia Andersson
Chatbot creep: Generative AI in the everyday information practices of young adults
Klara Chlupata
Hello Donauwörth, I’m looking for…: Searching for Administrative Services on Municipal Websites vs. Google
Helena Häußler
Search Engines, AI Assistants, and Everyday Practices in Sports: Behavioral Shifts, Emotional Responses, and Privacy Cynicism among Chilean Football Fans
Pablo Farías
Parallel Sessions
Information Literacy in Conversational Search: Developing a Categorization Scheme for Measuring Information-Literate Behavior in Human-AI Interaction
Joachim Griesbaum, Nicola Hoppe, Beatrix Kreß, Karen Malin Krüger, Bettina Lindner-Bornemann, Anna Mierzecka, Stephan Schlickau and Karsten Senkbeil
Developing Critical Literacy for Entrepreneurial Search Practices in Digital Environment
Thao Laavunen
Navigating the Impact of Generative AI on Information Seeking and Learning in Schools: Insights from Swedish Teachers and Librarians
Olof Sundin and Anna-Lena Godhe
Information Retrieval Literacy in the Age of Generative AI: Bias, Query Formulation, and Prompt Engineering
Shari Thurow
On the Quality and Impact of Google’s AI Overviews
Dirk Lewandowski
Citation Design in AI Overviews: Effects on User Reliance and Source Engagement
Kshitijaa Jaglan, Elsa Lichtenegger, Aleksandra Urman and Aniko Hannak
The Option to Search without AI: How Placing Chatbots in SERP Shapes Search Behavior and Activates Information Avoidance
Alamir Novin
Sessions
Think-Alouds and Results Assessment: A Study of Health Information Seeking Among People Who Use(d) Drugs
Jessalyn Vallade and Meghan Dowell
Visibility by design: Reliability of top domains in search engines for health-related queries
Natalie Tutzer
Generative AI search engines: cognitive authorities on climate change?
Luanne Sinnamon and Alice Li
The Infrastructural and Software Challenges of Independent Search Engine Research
Sebastian Sünkler, Phil Höfer, Philipp Schaer, Aleksandra Urman and Dirk Lewandowski
Poster Session & Refreshments
Librarians as Catalysts for Search Literacy Education in Academic Libraries in Developing Countries
Ihuoma Sandra Babatope
Quantifying the interdisciplinary research field of search engine studies
Veronika Samostrol, Anastasia Murashova and Leonardo Dolgun
Presenting the SUMA-Kit toolkit
Phil Höfer
Promoting information literacy, democratic participation, and digital sovereignty: Library workshops for informed, empowered citizens
Katharina Leyrer
Searching for Pluralism: Bringing Search Engine Research into conversation with Media Pluralism Monitoring.
Lucas Braun
Information Access under Epistemic Uncertainty: Learning from Journalism
Alisa Rieger, Nicolas Mattis and Johanne R. Trippas
Enhancing Dataset Discovery in Open Government Data Portals: AI-Generated Metadata for Improved Information Access
Tobias Siebenlist and Jennifer Gnyp
Revealing the Hidden Success Factors of Scientific Papers: The Case of Table and Figure References.
Fabian Haak and Philipp Schaer
Sounding the Horn: Designing Auditory Misinformation Warnings to Foster Critical Engagement with Podcasts
Konstantin-Asen Yordanov, Alisa Rieger and Ujwal Gadiraju
Using Think-Alouds for Search Term Collection for Search Engine Studies
Meghan Dowell and Jessalyn Vallade
Searching for the Unspeakable? Preliminary Insights from Sexual Health-Related Search Results Across Search Engines in Germany and the United States
Aylin Imeri and Sebastian Sünkler
The Infrastructures of Visual Memory
Robert Musil
Keynote: From Regulation to Research: Navigating the Digital Services Act’s Article 40 in Search Studies
Katrin Weller
Parallel Sessions
Visual Cues and Trust in AI-Generated Search Results: An Eye-Tracking Study on Google AI Overviews
Lisa Eleonora Haase, Marius Brüning Genannt Wolter, Benno Michaelsen, Fabian Schott and Dirk Lewandowski
Comparing Chat and Search for Engaging with News Topics
Alisa Rieger, Vitalii Hirak, Stefan Dietze and Ran Yu
How Users Prompt Generative Search Engines for News and Political Information: An Empirical Taxonomy
Dorian Tsolak and Leona Murray
Synchronous and Sequential Modes of SERP-based Relevance Evaluation
Jacqueline Sachse
Are we being framed? Using integrative framing analysis to audit generative search engine results
Rasmus Helles
Hacking the "wicked problems" of search: A hackathon as a collaborative approach towards capturing query variability
Kateryna Kasianenko, Ashwin Nagappa, Oleg Zendel, Sally Storey, Axel Bruns, Daniel Angus, Kath Albury, Mark Sanderson, Abdul Karim Obeid, Amanda Lawrence, Anand Badola, Chenglong Ma, Ekaterina Tokareva, Fan Yang, Fletcher Scott, Futoon M. Abu Shaqra, India Read, Joanne Kuai, Kun Ran, Khanh Luong, Kieran Hegarty, Madhurima Khirbat, Nuha Abu Onq, Rayane El Masri, Sadia Sharmin, Sara Allawati, Shuoqi Sun, Udiana Dewi, Utami Diah Kusumawati, Xinye Wanyan, Yanheng Fang, Awais Hameed Khan, Bogdan Mamaev, Kacper Sokol, Kyle Herbertson, Johanne Trippas, Damiano Spina and Danula Hettiachchi
Method Impossible? A Reflection on the Fragility of Methodologies and Infrastructures for Search Engine Research
Ashwin Nagappa, Abdul Karim Obeid, Sebastian Sünkler, Kateryna Kasianenko and Daniel Angus
Under a new archival umbrella – the investment in a national search engine and its implications for the use of archives
Ann-Sofie Klareld and Peter Bauer
Responsible Consumption as an Information and Communication Problem for Search Engines
Frans van der Sluis
Parallel Sessions
Modeling the Impact of Search Engine Marketing on User Knowledge Gain
Sebastian Schultheiß
Semantic Multi-Cluster Coverage and LLM Citation Frequency: A Controlled Generative Engine Optimization Experiment
Hadeer Elmalah
Will AI Overviews Reshape Media SEO Strategies? A Longitudinal Analysis of Query Segments and Search Traffic Changes
Tereza Schambergerová
Emancipatory IR: Towards Critical Theories and Practices
Bhaskar Mitra
Chatbot rodeo: a comparative interface of GPT responses exploring context windows and Rogerian psychoanalysis
Renée Ridgway
Search Engines and Generative AI in the Cultural Imaginary
Katherine Parsons
Wrap-Up & Community Meeting
Reflections from the organising team and announcement of SEASON 2027, followed by discussion on advancing the SEASON community. The conference continues on 17 September with a full day of workshops.
Presentations Wrap-Up
Rosie Graham, Dirk Lewandowski and Sebastian Schultheiß
SEASON Community Meeting
Rosie Graham, Dirk Lewandowski and Sebastian Schultheiß
Film Screening
A selection of short films by artist and filmmaker Manu Luksch, exploring themes of algorithmic governance, surveillance, and AI in relation to the conference context.
Short Film Selection: Algo-Rhythm and Others
Rosie Graham
Morning Workshops
Investigating Search: A Hands-on Workshop with the Investigating Search Toolkit
Rosie Graham
How Search Engines Speak – a Foucauldian Framework for SERPs as Epistemological Actants
Katarzyna Kozlowska
Afternoon Workshops
Conducting Search Data Related Studies with the Result Assessment Tool (RAT)
Sebastian Sünkler, Oliver Koop, Sebastian Schultheiß, Björn Quast, Tuhina Kumar and Dirk Lewandowski
Introducing Open and Reproducible Web Search for the Social Sciences
Muhammad Taimoor Khan, Alisa Rieger, Johannes Kiesel, Dimitar Dimitrov and Stefan Dietze
Program subject to change. For the most up-to-date programme, please check the listing on EasyChair.
