Our last lecture focused on how search engines study user habits and characteristics when designing their web searches.
Suppose you had to write a paper for your Biology class on possibilities for life existing on other planets. Working in pairs (once again, different from the previous two groups), your task is to identify four good sources to help you in the assignment.
Your assignment should include:
- A description of how you constructed/refined your successive queries.
- An analysis of why/how the search engine responded to your search terms, relevancy of the sites returned, a comparison of the efficiency of each query.
- The URLs of the sources.
- If you were the instructor of the class and had to give advice to your students on performing the search, without mentioning specific web sites, what would you tell them on how to build the query?
Assignments should be emailed to mailto:itgs.sass@gmail.com before Friday, March 27th.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Constructing queries
User experiences
The following video provides interesting insight on search engine queries and their implications. The speaker is Dr. David Rose, from Yahoo! Search, and it will serve as a basis for our next assignment.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Search engine rankings
During the video that we watched, several key issues related to the inner workings of web search engines are discussed, as well as how web engines process their indexes.
We will use this assignment to try to visualize in a practical way how search engines, in this case Google, have such a powerful influence in how businesses and even individuals fare in society.
Answer the following questions in pairs, which have to be different from the groups you formed for the first assignment, and email them to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson on Wednesday, March 18th.
1) Suppose you want to find out about alternate energy and its applications, so perform a search query on electric cars on Google and one other web search engine and answer the following questions:
a. Compare the two search engines on the four criteria outlined in the video (Length, depth, frequency, types of files indexed)
b. Analyze the results from the first page and explain the reasons for the first four sites to be ranked on each engine.
c. What can you conclude about each search engine’s ranking algorithms?
2) Explain what Pagerank and SEO are and briefly outline how web site owners can utilize strategies to rank higher on search engines.
3) Conduct the following searches on Google:
- Arabian Gulf
- Talentless hack
- Miserable failure
and, with regards to the above searches, explain what “Google bombing” is as well as its potential implications for individuals and organizations.
We will use this assignment to try to visualize in a practical way how search engines, in this case Google, have such a powerful influence in how businesses and even individuals fare in society.
Answer the following questions in pairs, which have to be different from the groups you formed for the first assignment, and email them to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson on Wednesday, March 18th.
1) Suppose you want to find out about alternate energy and its applications, so perform a search query on electric cars on Google and one other web search engine and answer the following questions:
a. Compare the two search engines on the four criteria outlined in the video (Length, depth, frequency, types of files indexed)
b. Analyze the results from the first page and explain the reasons for the first four sites to be ranked on each engine.
c. What can you conclude about each search engine’s ranking algorithms?
2) Explain what Pagerank and SEO are and briefly outline how web site owners can utilize strategies to rank higher on search engines.
3) Conduct the following searches on Google:
- Arabian Gulf
- Talentless hack
- Miserable failure
and, with regards to the above searches, explain what “Google bombing” is as well as its potential implications for individuals and organizations.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Our first topic for analysis and discussion is how search engines work. Search engines have become an essential component of everyday life and their influence is undoubtedly far reaching.
We will learn about the topic by watching the following video from a lecture by Dr. Marti Hearst at the University of California at Berkeley.
There is plenty of information available on the inner workings of search engines. Two such links include: - The Animated Internet: How Search Engines Work - How Internet Search Engines Work at howstuffworks.
We will learn about the topic by watching the following video from a lecture by Dr. Marti Hearst at the University of California at Berkeley.
There is plenty of information available on the inner workings of search engines. Two such links include: - The Animated Internet: How Search Engines Work - How Internet Search Engines Work at howstuffworks.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Assignment: validating statements
Take two statements from the Terra 2050 Videos and, using web search engines, try to assess their validity.
In order to do this, you must write a short document citing the sources used and the reasons why you arrive at a certain conclusion.
All assignments should include:
- Statement.
- Annotated links with a short discussion on how they tend to prove or disprove the statement.
- A brief analysis of the validity of each source.
- A conclusion that sums up the above.
The assignment must be done in pairs, and submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson today. Do not leave the classroom until you have verified with me that your assignment has arrived in my mailbox.
Criteria for grading include:
- Clarity of presentation, including summarization techniques.
- Quality and depth of the analysis.
- Use of valid sources.
In order to do this, you must write a short document citing the sources used and the reasons why you arrive at a certain conclusion.
All assignments should include:
- Statement.
- Annotated links with a short discussion on how they tend to prove or disprove the statement.
- A brief analysis of the validity of each source.
- A conclusion that sums up the above.
The assignment must be done in pairs, and submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson today. Do not leave the classroom until you have verified with me that your assignment has arrived in my mailbox.
Criteria for grading include:
- Clarity of presentation, including summarization techniques.
- Quality and depth of the analysis.
- Use of valid sources.
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