week 4 (2b)

What is a search engine?

Internet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. Similar services are provided by "directories," which maintain ordered lists of websites, eg Yahoo!, Lycos etc

How do search engines rate the stuff they find on the internet?

I don't know, tried to look for it on howstuffworks.com - couldn't find a thing. But I did find someone else's answer to the same question:
"Search engines are regularly updated by web crawlers or spiders, an automated browser that continuously scans the web for new web pages and extracting information from them. This information can be a word, a phrase or an entire section of the page. This information is then indexed into a database according to the words extracted from it, titles and other headers are often given special treatment. When a user types in a word the search engine scans this database or cache and finds a list of the web pages that best fit the word or words that were input by the user. Results are also graded on how many links to other sources relating to the topic it contains on its site."


(http://potterblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/week-4-blog-questions.html)

Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

I'll take a wild guess: a web master/ administrator and interpretation.


what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

Google because it comes all languages and it translates. Lycos because that's the first search engine I've ever used.


Can you find some current news stories about search engines? (for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately).

I found an article about an Indian equivalent of google.

(http://www.domain-b.com/infotech/itnews/2007/20070524_stump.html)

week 4 (1)

OK I fess up: essays have already been submitted 3 weeks ago, and this blog should've been penned up ages ago. Hope I don't get into too much trouble. Anyway, back to the tutorial task:

I didn't the library's full-text database search for my essay, I used google scholar. From then on, I had a starting point, and then searched the library collection for the books that were referenced in the articles I've found using google scholar. In my opinion, our library isn't the best there is. Not saying it's bad, but try finding something really "niche" in there, like ninjutsu, and you'll find nothing.

My essay was about the ipod and the key points I've found online were:- (I'm using past tense but that's because I've got hindsight on my side :p)

• ipods aren't exactly that new
• they are as cultural an item as they are materialistic
• you could most probably ricochet them
• ipods can be educational and/or as dangerous as communism
  

week 3

I had a Norwegian pen-friend in high school. We used to regularly meet online and chat or email each other. We've developed quite a friendship but we've actually never met in person. Mainly because we're worlds apart, still I became quite fond of this kind of socialising. You don't really get to know how the other person's voice sounds like, or how they smell (not in a bad way - everyone's got a smell), but still, you get to know their thoughts, their ideas. You can "talk" to them in your underwear, while you're shopping for underwear.

Been using the internet for about 11 years now. At first I was only surfing on the sports websites (nba.com & soccernet.com) because I had seen their ads on tv. Then I discovered how to email and chat. When you come from a big family spread all over the world, it helps keeping in touch. I think IRC and ICQ were the first ones I used, then MSN came along.

I'm not advocating anything, but it is really a different kind of "human" interaction online. I know married couples who've met online.

However, what really influenced me to use the internet more: Napster.

R.I.P Napster.

Week 2

Hi folks,

I'm Jerome. I come from Mauritius; a tiny island off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. This is my first blog and so far it doesn't seem too foreign to me. Don't really know what blogging is but I hope this course will clarify that in the coming weeks.

This is a new form of communication to me. Will try to avoid spelling mistakes, hate spelling mistakes, that's why I don't buy the GC Bulletin. Precision is the essence of communication.

Peace.