Week 5: Using Search Engines

Lecture

A search engine is a web-based application that crawls the internet, creating indices of websites, usually from the textural information contrained on them. Sited are usually indexed according to keywords.

Types of search engines:

• Google - http://www.google.com/
• Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/
• AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com/
• AlltheWeb - http://www.alltheweb.com/

Problems with Search Engines:

• Too many results
• Limited relevance or quality filtering of results to a search query
• Misuse of the page scoring system
• Including of current "broken" links in a list of results

Some reliable search directories:

• DMOZ- dmoz.org
• Google Directory - directory.google.com
• Yahoo Directory - dir.yahoo.com
• Look Smart - http://www.looksmart.com/
• About - http://www.about.com/

U.S. Search Engine Ranking September 2007:

• Google - 57%
• Yahoo - 23.7%
• Microsoft - 10.3%
• Ask - 4.7%
• Time Warner including AOL - 4.5%

Task

Four strategies:

• Look for an appropriate search engine
• Think of proper keywords for better search results
• Use inverted Commas Around Your Search
• Use advanced search functions to narrow the info down

I used inverted commas to find the answers. The results that came up using this strategy was really good, as the information had the answer hidden in its contents.

Extra Reading

Robert Harris-Web Search Strategies: http://www.virtualsalt.com/howlook.htm

This site provides and overview of the enormous amount of information that Internet contains and it provides details on how and where to search for certain types of information. It also gives tips on searching for information without the use of a search engine.

The History of the Internet: (Chap 4- Search Engines): http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/chap4.htm

This site informs the readers of the history of the internet search engine. It then describes how search engines have developed over the years to become more useful in terms of ability to find information over the web. The site also provides brief tips on how to search topics with the use of various keywords.

Search Engine Optimization for Companies: http://www.websight.net.au/search-engine-optimisation.asp

This site contains information regarding the processes involved in determining whether a small business website is suitable for search engine optimisation.

Week 4: Using the WWW

Lecture

The lecture this week was basically about the internet vs the WWW (World Wide Web).

The difference between the web and the internet is that the web operates via programs that communicate between the computer and the net.

What is WWW?
WWW stands for World wide web which is a universe of accessible information stored on computers throughtout the world. The information is available through a gigantic network caled the internet.

.com - commercial (of a commercial nature)
.org - organisation (non-profit)
.net - network (when .com is not available)
.gov - government
.edu - education

Task

Scotman site: http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/

The Scotsman site tries to look authentic by:

• The advertisements on the page, camvista.com
• There are prizes
• It seems tobe a promotional site with a competition
• Has membership registeration link

Molosia site: http://www.molossia.org/

This site tries tobe authentic by:

• Giving the visitor two options (Teacher click here, click here to enter)
• Has the history of the place
• It is a .org (organisation)
• In the teacher page it clearly shows that it is not an authentic site

Martin Luther King site: http://www.martinlutherking.org/

From lookning at the web address, I expected that this site was made up by an organisation. The contents of this site was expected tobe about Martin Luther King.

After visiting the site, it clearly shows that this was not any site deadicated to Martin Luther King. This site however was the opposite, with its racist made up quotes such as "I'm not a negro tonight".

This site was basically contained racist remarks on the African-American people by using Martin Luther King as the subject.

Extra Reading

A brief history of the internet

The internet is one of the biggest things in our daily lives today. It has changed the way we study and research. The internet was first invented by the navy to have a better communication. It started in the 1980’s and ever since then it has been developed around the world.

History of the World-wide Web

This website talks about the history of computers and the World Web. In the article there are five different chapters. The first chapter talks about the development of computers till the late 1960’s. The second chapter is on going from Arpanet to the Internet. The third chapter is all about the history of electronic mail. The fourth chapter is about search engines and the last chapter gives you a basic insight to basic net data on the internet.