Week Five - Using Search Engines

LECTURE
This weeks lecture was about Search Engines. We learnt about the difference between a Search Engine and a Directory.
There are three catergories of information on the web:
The Free, Visible Web.
The Free, Invisible Web.
Paid Databases over the Web.

There are many different Search Engines on the web, the most common one is Google. Other common ones are Yahoo and Altavista. Search Engines help you to locate information on the topic or interest that you type into the search bar. S0metimes Search Engines can not always be accurate. By typing in one extra or different word that the Search Engine doesnt recognise, can result in displaying websites that you were not looking for.





Directories are Human-Edited. Reviews are added manually to ensure quality, which is why they are different to Search Engines. Some reliable Search Directories are


http://dmoz.org/ & http://directory.google.com/

I learnt that the term 'Boolean' means keywords such as 'not', 'and' 'or', which helps you search for a specific topic. Example 'football not soccer'. This then informs the Search Engine that I do not want things coming up that involve soccer.



TUTORIAL

Four Strategies to help me structure a good search:
1. Useful Keywords - To structure a good search you do not need to include words that are not neccessary. If I was searching for 'the best and worst dressed at the grammy awards' I would not need to use the words 'the, and and at' because they are not needed.
2. Check the relevance rankings - Even though a website may have a ranking of 5/5 stars, it does not mean that it contains relevant information. If you search the term 'cancer' the search engine will rank the site the highest which repeats the word 'cancer' over and over again the highest. This does not neccessarily mean that this is the most suitable site to your search.
3. Concept Based Searching - These search systems try to locate information by determining what you mean, not what you say. It returns hits on documents that are "about" the subject/theme you're exploring, even if the words in the document don't precisely match the words you enter into the query.
4. Refine Your Search - Sites offer 2 different types of searches. 1 is a 'basic' search and the other is an 'advanced' search. In an advanced search you can search on more than one word and are able to search on proper names, on phrases, and on words that are found within a certain proximity to other search terms.

In the quiz I made it up to question 11, therefore this proves that the methods I used in my searching were successful. I used the search engine Google, and mainly typed in keywords for what I was searching for. I disgarded Boolean words such as 'and, or, the' which gave me better results. I also looked at the websites information and took note on whether they were spoofs or not, this helped me to make the decision whether the information on them would be accurate or not.

I have found that there is a lot of fake websites out there on the Internet, and when I am conducting my research in the future I know what to look out for to decide whether the website is genuine or not. I will now get more accurate results in my search as I have learnt more tips and found out more ways of searching for what I want (not just through Google).

Reading 1 - Web Search Strategies.
This article covers finding what you want on the internet and how to determine whether what you find is good enough or not. There are different categories on the web such as the free visible web, the free invisible web and paid databases over the web. It discusses the search tool types and suggests tips on where to start your search.

Reading 2 - History of the Internet
This article gives the history on:
Directories
Search Engines
Databases
Library Catalogues
In 1990, the first search engine was developed at McGill University.

Reading 3 - Search Engine Optimisation
This article talks about search engine optimisation in small businesses. The program provides recommendations from a small business marketing company for small business websites, relating keywords that people type into search engines to match the small business's website theme or text content. It records the small business's websites ranking, therefore the business's can measure their progress. It gathers quality links from other websites which are of similar theme to the business's.

Week Four - Using the WWW

LECTURE
This lecture I learnt more about the World Wide Web; the history of the web, web protocols and web browsers. I was taught the difference between the Net and the Web. On the Net you find computers, but on the Net you find documents, sounds, videos, etc. The Net came before the Web, and started in 1961 when the first paper on packet switching theory was published. The Web was developed by Tim Berners-Lee (a researcher at CERN) in 1989. The WWW is information stored on computers around the world. The information becomes available and can be accessed through the Internet. Web browers are programs that are used so that people can access the Internet. These programs are Internet Explorer, Firefox or Neoplanet.


TUTORIAL
The first site - www.haggishunt.scotsman.com , is a site trying to sell webcams. It has attempted to appear authentic by using bribes such as 'join now -free!' and by having a section titled 'Haggis Cams' where it shows screen shots of people but when you click on the links it takes you to a page where it has links for other websites.
Clues that give this site away as a spoof is;
1. Too many adds
2. Does not give a clear indication of what the website is about
3. It has competitons, but no place for you to enter your name and details - therefore there really is no competiton.
4. The dialogue is not accurate

The second site - www.molossia.org, is also a spoof. The clues that give it away are;
1. Too many advertisements
2. .org is not a proper url
3. In small text at the bottom it has - copyright by 'ministry of propaganda'
4. There are a lot of spelling mistakes on the site

In the website www.martinlutherking.org, I expect to see information on Martin Luther King, the history of him and the values he has bought to the world.
My first impressions of the site is that it had too many advertisements, this indicating to me that the site isnt genuine. The website also didn't look very professional. It doesnt have a publisher or any small print at the bottom that indicates the legal rights that the site has. The font varies too much and doesnt look professional.

After researching Martin Luther King, I found other websites which appeared genuine and had no advertisements, misleading information or scams. This made the other website appear very fake and I can now tell the difference between sites that are genuine and sites that arent.

Reading 1 - This reading gave a descrption of the history of the Internet. It talks about how the internet has revolutionized the world.

Reading 2- This website also talks about the history of the internet. It discusses inventions and innovations.

Week Three - Using Online Libraries and Databases

LECTURE
In todays lecture, the Lecturer talked about Online Libraries & Databases. She discussed the convenience of online databases, compared to actual Libraries. Online Libraries are a lot more convenient as the journals are up to date, it is easy for making notes as you can copy and paste and you can access them at anytime of the day or night. I found out that more than half of the content on the web is hidden and not accessible through search engines such as Google. Types of Online Libraries include:

•Online Text Repositories
•Online Journals
•Electronic Books
•Musical
•Artworks

To reference an online library you have to use APA format.

Online Databases are similar to Online Libraries, but they are more accessible to the public, as they can be retrieved through search engines. The disadvantages of online databases is that most of them require a subscription, they are difficult to navigate and there is lots of advertising.

TUTORIAL
In this weeks tutorial, we had to research the topic 'economic impact of global warming on business' in the ECU Library's Online Database. When researching this topic I found an article titled 'Report weighs global-warming effects on N.H. economy'. This article is about the effects that global warming has on the town of New Hampshire. It explains that soon there will be less and less tourists coming to visit their town, because of global warming. There is a 50 percent reduction in skiers, as the season is starting later and snow is now coming down as rain.

http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.ecu.edu.au/pqdweb?index=13&did=1319237771&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1207190634&clientId=7582

10 useful functions/search tips from ECU Library:
1. Use the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in front of words to show specifically what you are looking for. Example - Football - soccer. This shows that you want to search everything 'football' but not 'soccer'.
2. Use double quotation marks " " to make sure that the search is conducted exactly how you typed it in.
3. Put the most important keyword first.
4. Type in lower case, if you type in uppercase your search results will all come back with an exact match (they will all be in uppercase)
5. Use truncation (or stemming) and wildcards (e.g., *) . The search engine will then look for variation in spelling. Example - colo*r returns color (American spelling) and colour (British spelling)
6.Combine phrases with keywords, using the double quotes and the plus (+) and/or minus (-) signs
7. When searching within a document for the location of your keyword(s), use the "find" command on that page
8. Know the default (basic) settings your search engine uses (OR or AND). This will have an effect on how you configure your search statement because, if you don't use any signs (+, -, " "), the engine will default to its own settings
9. Know whether or not the search engine you are using maintains a stop word list
10. In Boolean searches, always enclose OR statements in parentheses

When visiting the website http://www.medlineplus.gov/, I researched the mental condition 'Schizophrenia' because I wasn't quite sure on what the condition was exactly. I found out that it is a lifelong brain disorder, and people that have it hear voices and see things that arent really there.

Article 1 - Finding what you want on the web
This article by Bill Thompson talks about the alternative ways of searching for topics rather than always using search engines such as Google. He states the fact that he now uses search tools such as web indexes, directories and gateways to non-web resources.

Article 2 - This page gave me some search tips. This will help me a lot in my researching as I will get different results by using these tips.

Week Two - Applications Skills

LECTURE

In todays lecture, we talked about Microsoft programs, the difference between Vista and XP, Internet Browsers and common PC tasks.

TUTORIAL

In todays tutorial, we carried out exercises to help us with our understanding of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Knowing how to use these applications is important as it helps you to complete tasks to the best of your knowledge. The Microsoft Office range is very pivotal to oneself, as it is used everyday by certain people i.e in offices, and without these applications, business and organisations would be lost.

Microsoft Word has many uses. Whether you are using it for something fun like writing out invitations, or something more important like writing a formal letter, it is important to know how to use it.

Microsoft Excel is used mostly to produce Tables and Graphs. It is more complicated to use than Microsoft Word, as it invloves data entering and the keeping of records. There are functions on Excel that can help you to produce graphs and and charts, which also is used daily in many organisations and businesses.

Knowing how to access the Internet is a skill which must be learnt by anyone wanting to research and/or browse topics and websites. Without the internet it will be a lot harder to research topics and find out information. The Internet has many uses such as using it for leisure, research, accessing accounts etc.