  Because search engines provide Internet users with access to important information by directing them to links to available online resources on a plethora of topics, many are inclined to see search engine technology in a positive light; some might also assume, as Noble (2018) and others note, that this technology is “value-neutral.” However, search engines can raise a number of ethical controversies. Before examining these controversies, however, we first briefly discuss the history of search engine technology via categories that, for our purposes, reflect four distinct eras: (i) Pre-Internet, (ii) Internet (pre-Web), (iii) early Web, and (iv) Web 2.0. We will see how technical developments in each era have had some implications for the cluster of ethical issues examined in Section 3.