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We show that, contrary to intuition, empirical data do not support this conclusion; popular sites receive far less traffic than predicted. We discuss a model that accurately predicts traffic data patterns by taking into consideration the topical interests of users and their searching behavior in addition to the way search engines rank pages. The heterogeneity of user interests explains the observed mitigation of search engines\u2019 popularity bias.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0605525103","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2006,8,11]],"date-time":"2006-08-11T00:33:48Z","timestamp":1155256428000},"page":"12684-12689","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":87,"title":["Topical interests and the mitigation of search engine bias"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"103","author":[{"given":"S.","family":"Fortunato","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"*School of Informatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406;"},{"name":"Fakult\u00e4t f\u00fcr Physik, Universit\u00e4t Bielefeld, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany;"},{"name":"Complex Networks Lagrange Laboratory, Institute for Scientific Interchange, 10133 Torino, Italy"}]},{"given":"A.","family":"Flammini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"*School of Informatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406;"}]},{"given":"F.","family":"Menczer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"*School of Informatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406;"},{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405; and"}]},{"given":"A.","family":"Vespignani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"*School of Informatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406;"},{"name":"Complex Networks Lagrange Laboratory, Institute for Scientific Interchange, 10133 Torino, Italy"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2006,8,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_1_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/43601"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-48686-0_1"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1389-1286(00)00083-9"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.287.5461.2115a"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1067014"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.286.5439.509"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_7_2","unstructured":"S. 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