In this week’s lecture (week 9) covered search engines. Students were informed that a search engine is a program that crawls the Internet and retrieves websites depending on what text is included in them. There are, however, problems with search engines in that they can return so many search results, it is practically impossible for somebody to preview them all. Those searches can also be quite irrelevant to what you are looking for. There are many different search engines that can be used and they all have different features. There are different types of searches that can be done and some may benefit your search. These search types include keyword, phrase, Boolean and advanced. We were then advised on certain things that may improve our searching skills (using search tools, several keywords etc).
Workshop
In the workshop for this week, students were to firstly asked to list four strategies that would help us in using search engines according to this website: http://www.monash.com/spidap.html
First of all, I believe the student should know whether they should search directories or a search engine. If the student has a very clear query, a directory will probably return pages that are more relevant to the search. There will be considerably less pages than if the student searched the same query in a search engine which offers a more broad result.
Secondly, students should understand the search engine’s capabilities. Many do not understand symbols and numbers in the way that humans do. The same goes for short and common words such as ‘be’, ‘and’, ‘to’ and ‘or’. While our technology advances, this problem is not as bad as it used to be. However, it is still something to be wary of.
Thirdly, in the interest of retrieving more relevant hits the student should understand what kind of search will work best for what they are looking for. Keyword searches often return very broad results and so it is best to use several words in the query. If your query has more than one meaning (e.g. Jaguar being a cat and a car), you can use a Boolean search to exclude pages that contain information relevant to the meaning you are not looking for.
Finally, the student should understand that he or she is supplying the information to the search engine. If the results being provided by the search engine are not relevant to what the student really wants, then they have to change what is being searched or how they are doing it.
The second task set for students in the workshop for week 9 was a quiz. To complete this quiz, students were to use the searching skills they had gained from the week.
Q1 : What civilisation is associated with the once great city of Machu Picchu the spectacular ruins of which were rediscovered in 1911 ?
A1 : Inca
What I searched : Machu Picchu ruins
Q2 : A saintpaulia is more commonly known as an African _____?
A2 : Violet
What I searched : saintpaulia African
Q3 : Rutherford B. Hayes became President of the USA in 1877 by a margin of only one electoral vote, but what did the initial B stand for ?
A3 : Birchard
What I searched : Rutherford Hayes
Q4 : What was the name of the author who wrote the famous poem the Lady of Shalott ?
A4 : Tennyson (note: I think this question was poorly worded as the only accepted answer was ‘Tennyson’ and not ‘Alfred Tennyson’. It should have been noted that only the surname was required.)
What I searched : Lady of Shalott poem
Q5: What would a conchologist study ?
A5 : Shells
What I searched : def : conchologist
Q6 : What was Gerardus Mercator (AD 1512-1594) famous for making in the 16th century ?
A6 : Maps
What I searched : Gerardus Mercator 16th century
Q7 : Who wrote, but never finished, the opera Turandot ?
A7 : Giacomo Puccini
What I searched : Turandot unfinished
Q8 : Popocatepetl is a famous _______?
A8 : Volcano
What I searched : Popocatepetl
Q9: What is the name of the breed of non barking dog ?
A9 : Basenji
What I searched : “non barking” dog
Q10 : What was the name of the Dutch painter of "Garden of earthly paradise" ?
A10 : Bosch
What I searched : Dutch+Painter+Garden of Earthly Paradise
Q11 : What was the name of the critical European battle that took place in 1815?
A11 : Waterloo
What I searched : European battle 1815
Q12 : What creatures live in a formicary ?
A12 : Ants
What I searched : animals formicary
Q13 : What was the name of the movie company, MGM's, lion ?
A13 : Leo
What I searched : MGM lion name
Q14 : What was the country called Thailand formally known as ?
A14 : Siam
What I searched : Thailand former name
Q15 : What vegetable will a chasseur add to your food ?
A15 : Mushroom
What I searched : Vegetable chasseur
Q16 : Which ape has a name which means "forest man" ?
A16 : Orangutan
What I searched : "forest man"+ape
Q17 : What is the coldest planet in our solar system ?
A17 : Pluto
What I searched : coldest planet
Q18 ; What was Mussolini's first name ?
A18 : Benito
What I searched : Mussolini
Q19 : What type of creature is a skink ?
A19 : Lizard
What I searched : Skink
Q20: What famous leader died in 1821 of arsenic poisoning ?
A20 : Napoleon
What I searched : 1821 arsenic poisoning
For a screenshot of my certificate, see below.
Upon completing this exercise, I have learned that there are many different things to consider when using a search engine. There is a lot of information on the Internet and if you know how to find it through search engines, they are very accessible.
Readings
The first reading for week 9 was about what information is on the Web. This includes the free visible Web, the free invisible Web and paid databases over the Web. It also included information about search engines and how to use them.
The second reading was a guide to using search engines effectively. This included different searching methods and what search engines are best for certain queries.
The third reading included different sites that contain helpful hints and guides to using search engines.
The fourth reading included a guide to how you can find information on the Web as well as a brief history on information on the Internet.
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