This is certainly a controversial technology but based on such a great concept. If the information being shared was legally able to be shared - for example Open Source software - then this is a great technology to allow users to share files.
It's interesting to note how this technology has devleoped from being one guy's idea to share MP3 files and become something much bigger that often happens without being aware.
Leaving the issue of copyrighted MP3 files aside - this concept offers a lot in terms of cost effectiveness and reaching a wider audience. I downloaded a free online MMORPG game the other day and found it interesting that while a number of download options were given, they all were P2P. I thought this was a great way to offer something to a target market in a way that they could relate - P2P download for a free online game - which enhances the appeal and thus creates a wider audience for the product.
Other downloads I've noticed opting more towards P2P than straight forward 'click here and download from our server' are Podcasts. Another great example of sharing information without the fear of copyright infringement.
However, like anything that is free, there can be a downside. It's not like walking into a store and buying off the shelf software, you can't always see what you are getting. P2P downloads can be a source of nasty viruses, spy ware, Trojans and creatures of the nastier side of the Internet. These are usually found in copyrighted software being illegally distributed which makes it harder to control. After all if you are doing something illegally then you can't really complain that you got ripped off.
Looking at the development of this technology over the past 5 years and then to the future, I feel that this technology is an integral part to the way the internet will develop. In keeping with my view that the internet has become about interaction rather than simply a database of information to be retrieved, P2P technology suggests by it's very nature of sharing information amongst a community of users, that it will used more effectively in the future.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Module 5: Information Ecologies
"We define an information ecology to be a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment." Bonnie A. Nardi & Vicki L. O'Day (retrieved 28 May 2008)
What is an information ecology. Let's break it down - off to dictionary.com to look up some meanings.
information - knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance
ecology - the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.
Looking at the dictionary meanings on the words, my interpretation of this term is below:
This could be interpreted as being thought of as being the way of the future for people to communicate. The sharing of information may become the secondary focus as the development of the human aspect of the internet becomes more important. For me, the communication aspect is important, but the key word is 'interact'. People are interacting via websites, instant messenger, chat rooms, blogs, wikis, website for the key purpose of sharing or seeking information.
I can see how this could be applied to something such as blogging. As technology has developed to make it possible for anyone to create online journals on any topic, different roles have evolved in the Internet community and the information available has become broader, deeper and more accessible. Sites such as Wikipedia have made it possible for one person to have many roles - researcher, writer, authority, consumer. Sites such as Blinklist and del.ic.ious make it possible to quickly bookmark noteworthy sites on wide range of topics, and then categorize and rate them to share with other like minded users.
This is an interesting concept - my take on it is that it suggests that technology and human interaction work together to create the environment which is the internet as we currently view it. As technology changes so do the roles of the users.
"Indeed, it is difficult not to include humans as an informational component of any ecosystem". Dr David Casagrande, Assistant Professor of Environmental Anthropology (retrived 28 May 2008)
If I'm looking for directions on how to get somewhere, I go to Google Maps. If I want to know if a product I'm considering buying is all that and more, I'll search for reviews and feedback. When I'm writing an assignment for my uni courses, I'll turn to the web to find reference materials and additional information. I'm in the process of creating my own website and I have a personal blog for the key reason that I want to share information about myself to either potential clients (website) or to my friends and family on my recent adventures (blog). My decision to interact via these methods to seek and information helps to support the evolution on the human component of the evolution of the internet and the cyber environment.
"Information Foraging .... assumes that people, when possible, will modify their strategies or the structure of the environment to maximize their rate of gaining valuable information." Peter Pirolli and Stuart K. Card (retrieved 28 May 2008)
What is an information ecology. Let's break it down - off to dictionary.com to look up some meanings.
information - knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance
ecology - the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.
Looking at the dictionary meanings on the words, my interpretation of this term is below:
The internet can be interpreted as being an infinite database of people interacting with one another to seek or share information. This forum, the internet as a whole, is dealing with the relations and interactions between people within a cyber environment.
This could be interpreted as being thought of as being the way of the future for people to communicate. The sharing of information may become the secondary focus as the development of the human aspect of the internet becomes more important. For me, the communication aspect is important, but the key word is 'interact'. People are interacting via websites, instant messenger, chat rooms, blogs, wikis, website for the key purpose of sharing or seeking information.
I can see how this could be applied to something such as blogging. As technology has developed to make it possible for anyone to create online journals on any topic, different roles have evolved in the Internet community and the information available has become broader, deeper and more accessible. Sites such as Wikipedia have made it possible for one person to have many roles - researcher, writer, authority, consumer. Sites such as Blinklist and del.ic.ious make it possible to quickly bookmark noteworthy sites on wide range of topics, and then categorize and rate them to share with other like minded users.
This is an interesting concept - my take on it is that it suggests that technology and human interaction work together to create the environment which is the internet as we currently view it. As technology changes so do the roles of the users.
"Indeed, it is difficult not to include humans as an informational component of any ecosystem". Dr David Casagrande, Assistant Professor of Environmental Anthropology (retrived 28 May 2008)
If I'm looking for directions on how to get somewhere, I go to Google Maps. If I want to know if a product I'm considering buying is all that and more, I'll search for reviews and feedback. When I'm writing an assignment for my uni courses, I'll turn to the web to find reference materials and additional information. I'm in the process of creating my own website and I have a personal blog for the key reason that I want to share information about myself to either potential clients (website) or to my friends and family on my recent adventures (blog). My decision to interact via these methods to seek and information helps to support the evolution on the human component of the evolution of the internet and the cyber environment.
"Information Foraging .... assumes that people, when possible, will modify their strategies or the structure of the environment to maximize their rate of gaining valuable information." Peter Pirolli and Stuart K. Card (retrieved 28 May 2008)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Module 4: Evaluating the Web
This is where I am kind of regretting my choice for the searching evaluation now! Mmmm Red Velvet Cake sure is tasty but it's not going to come up well in this evaluation.
The three best hits from the .edu search aren't going to offer a lot of depth or validity. Two of the three sites are student sites. To get the most out of this task I'll be using the second site:
What's Cooking for the Holidays?
A Celebration of Georgia Piedmont Baking Traditions
which actually is listed as "Untitled Document"
Annotation
The page on the University of West Georgia site, What's Cooking for the Holidays is part of an oral history project conducted by the University's Center for Public History, in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. The project is to document the types of baking conducted in that local region. Dr Ann McCleary, a member of the faculty at the University of West Georgia whose research interests focuses American social and cultural history, is the contact for the project. This site outlines baking traditions of the local region and interviews with women who have upheld these values with traditional methods and recipes. One aspect of the project was to develop a cookbook and website detailing the recipes and the author's memories of the recipe and traditions behind it to educate others and to place value on the traditions and the role of women in the local history of that region. The site contains many recipes considered to traditional southern food such as Red Velvet Cake, Sweet Potato Pie and Old Time Chocolate Pie.
1. in terms of your own future use, which 'body ' of information (ie. the original 'snapshot' of the site, or your own, annotated, analytical version) would be most useful to refer back to?
The original 'snapshot' of the site doesn't capture the depth and any relevant background information. The above analytical snapshot gives a much broader view and is more useful as a resource tool.
2. In term of external users (i.e. if you included this site as a hyperlink or resource on a website) which body of information would best help them judge if the site was useful or of interest to them?
In terms of a recipe for Red Velvet Cake, all searches at all stages of the task have provided this information. In terms of the history of Red Velvet Cake, and Southern baking, the analytical snapshot gives a broad overview and will help the user establish quickly whether the site is worth perusing.
The three best hits from the .edu search aren't going to offer a lot of depth or validity. Two of the three sites are student sites. To get the most out of this task I'll be using the second site:
What's Cooking for the Holidays?
A Celebration of Georgia Piedmont Baking Traditions
which actually is listed as "Untitled Document"
Annotation
The page on the University of West Georgia site, What's Cooking for the Holidays is part of an oral history project conducted by the University's Center for Public History, in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. The project is to document the types of baking conducted in that local region. Dr Ann McCleary, a member of the faculty at the University of West Georgia whose research interests focuses American social and cultural history, is the contact for the project. This site outlines baking traditions of the local region and interviews with women who have upheld these values with traditional methods and recipes. One aspect of the project was to develop a cookbook and website detailing the recipes and the author's memories of the recipe and traditions behind it to educate others and to place value on the traditions and the role of women in the local history of that region. The site contains many recipes considered to traditional southern food such as Red Velvet Cake, Sweet Potato Pie and Old Time Chocolate Pie.
1. in terms of your own future use, which 'body ' of information (ie. the original 'snapshot' of the site, or your own, annotated, analytical version) would be most useful to refer back to?
The original 'snapshot' of the site doesn't capture the depth and any relevant background information. The above analytical snapshot gives a much broader view and is more useful as a resource tool.
2. In term of external users (i.e. if you included this site as a hyperlink or resource on a website) which body of information would best help them judge if the site was useful or of interest to them?
In terms of a recipe for Red Velvet Cake, all searches at all stages of the task have provided this information. In terms of the history of Red Velvet Cake, and Southern baking, the analytical snapshot gives a broad overview and will help the user establish quickly whether the site is worth perusing.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Module 4: Searching the web - organising search information task
Whenever organising and computers come up in the same context I always think of Filemaker. Just an aside to lead us into what will undoubtedly be an exciting blog entry about organising search information.
Author: Dr. Ann McCleary
Institution: University of West Georgia
Screen Shot:
SOURCE: Center for Public History, University of West Georgia
Author: Jamie Limongelli
Institution: Towson University
Screen Shot:
SOURCE: Towson University, Tiger Student pages
For this task, I'm going to stick with using Google as my tool because it best meets my needs in terms of the type of information I need. I'm going to stick with the last search I did in the previous task where my search criteria was
red +velvet +cake +recipe site:edu
The desired result is a recipe for Red Velvet Cake. Let's go see what we can find. I have chosen the sites listed below as they all meet the criteria of providing a recipe for Red Velvet Cake.
Source One:
Google search results summary:
The Food Resource - Red Velvet Cake Recipe
This page is from http://food.oregonstate.edu/ which generally contains images, links, references, and instructional materials on food and their resource.
food.oregonstate.edu/recipes/cake-wal.html - 3k - Cached - Similar pages
URL: http://food.oregonstate.edu/recipes/cake-wal.html
Author: ZoeAnn Holmes
Institution: Oregon State Univeristy
Screen Shot:
SOURCE: Food Resource Nutrition and Food Management, Oregon State University
Source Two:
Google search results summary: Untitled Document
The recipe for Eloise Merrell's Caramel Cake is a traditional family recipe, ... She would not let us leave until we had a piece of her Red Velvet Cake. ...
www.westga.edu/~history/centerbakingwhatscookingforholidays.htm - 20k - Cached - Similar pages
Author: Dr. Ann McCleary
Institution: University of West Georgia
Screen Shot:
SOURCE: Center for Public History, University of West Georgia
Source Three:
Google search results summary:
Jamie's Recipe Page
Red Velvet Cake. Ingredients:. 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder. 2 ounces red food coloring; 1 cup buttermilk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon vanilla ...
tiger.towson.edu/users/jlimon1/recipe.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
Author: Jamie Limongelli
Institution: Towson University
Screen Shot:
SOURCE: Towson University, Tiger Student pages
So now I have three recipes for Red Velvet Cake. I have bookmarked the pages and saved the .html files to my Study folder to access later off line.
For this task I used Google as my search engine of choice. All searches and search summaries are brought to you by the letter G and Google, retrieved on 25 May 2008.
Module 4: Searching the web - boolean searching task
I was previously vaguely aware of the boolean logic relating to internet seraches. It isn't something I've thought about it years but I remember back in the mid to late 90's it was much more common as it was the way to ensure a greater chance of accuracy in the hits.
My key words are red velvet cake.
Looking at what I want to achieve in my search - a recipe for Red Velvet Cake. The task is to think about the best way to search for this information using the following criteria:
the biggest number of hits relating to these key words
Type the words 'red + velvet + cake' into the Google search engine. This generates 1,270,000 hits.
information most relevant to what you ACTUALLY wanted to look for!
Type the words 'red + velvet + cake +recipe' into the Google search engine. This narrows the hits down to 96,800 hits.
information coming only from university sources
I used the Advanced Search functionality of Google for this one - searching on red velvet cake recipe site:.edu. This changed the game plan completely - and I was surprised that relevant hits actually came up (I mean come on, I am looking for a recipe!!). 814 hits were returned from eductional sites across the world.
I posted my findings on the forum and also found a wealth of information in terms of links and other people's experiences. It seems the key to getting what you want is to know how to look for it. It's interesting to see how small changes to search habits (restricting fields or sites) can have such a dramatic difference on number of hits and related information.
My key words are red velvet cake.
Looking at what I want to achieve in my search - a recipe for Red Velvet Cake. The task is to think about the best way to search for this information using the following criteria:
the biggest number of hits relating to these key words
Type the words 'red + velvet + cake' into the Google search engine. This generates 1,270,000 hits.
information most relevant to what you ACTUALLY wanted to look for!
Type the words 'red + velvet + cake +recipe' into the Google search engine. This narrows the hits down to 96,800 hits.
information coming only from university sources
I used the Advanced Search functionality of Google for this one - searching on red velvet cake recipe site:.edu. This changed the game plan completely - and I was surprised that relevant hits actually came up (I mean come on, I am looking for a recipe!!). 814 hits were returned from eductional sites across the world.
I posted my findings on the forum and also found a wealth of information in terms of links and other people's experiences. It seems the key to getting what you want is to know how to look for it. It's interesting to see how small changes to search habits (restricting fields or sites) can have such a dramatic difference on number of hits and related information.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Module 4: Searching the web – search engine task
Searching the web - search it good. Searching the web - search it real good.
Using an internet search engine is something most people take for granted and do dozens of times a day. Using it effectively is probably another matter altogether.
Task One: Choose your most commonly used internet search engine and do a search with words of your choosing.
I chose Google as it's my search engine of choice and my key words are Red Velvet Cake (my favourite cake and I'm looking for a recipe). I received 1,270,000 hits on this search.
The top 5 pages found are listed below.
Red velvet cake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Red velvet cake is a type of rich and sweet cake, with a distinctive dark red to bright red or red-brown color. Common ingredients include buttermilk, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
Red Velvet Cake Recipe - Recipes and Information
Red velvet cake recipe - recipes and a little history about red velvet cake. Several recipes from the forum, including history of the red velvet cake or ...
southernfood.about.com/cs/chocolatecakes/a/redvelvet_cake.htm - 26k - Cached - Similar pages
Recipes : Southern Red Velvet Cake : Food Network
Southern Red Velvet Cake. Vegetable oil for the pans 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon fine salt ...
www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23379,00.html - 84k - Cached - Similar pages
Red Velvet Cake Recipe & Photo - Joyofbaking.com
It is very dramatic looking with its bright red color sharply contrasted by a white frosting.
www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html - 45k - Cached - Similar pages
Yahoo! Directory AU & NZ > Red Velvet Cake Recipes
Index of recipes for red velvet cake, the bright red layered cake made with white frosting. Includes versions with cream cheese frosting, cooked frosting, ...
au.dir.yahoo.com/.../Cooking/Recipes/Specific_Courses_and_Dishes/Desserts_and_Sweets/Cakes/Red_Velvet_Cake/ - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
Task Two: Using copernicus or similar, set it up to search at least three search engines (including one that will search the 'deep web') and repeat eactly the same search
Using Copernic and searching across 12 search engines (AltaVista, AOLSearch, Ask.com, Copernic, Enhance Interactive, alltheweb.com, Live Search, Lycos, Mamma.com, MIVA, Netscape Netcenter and Yahoo), the search produced fewer results as shown below:
Search: red velvet cake
Category: The Web
Matches: 41 result(s)
The top 5 pages found are listed below.
Red velvet cake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Red velvet cake is a type of rich and sweet cake, with a distinctive dark red to bright red or red-brown color. Common ingredients include buttermilk, ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake - 93%
Result found by: FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Netscape Netcenter, Ask.com, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Live Search
About.com: Red Velvet Cake Recipes
Red velvet cake recipe - recipes and a little history about red velvet cake. Several recipes from the forum, including history of the red ...
http://southernfood.about.com/cs/chocolatecakes/a/redvelvet_cake.htm - 92%
Result found by: FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Netscape Netcenter, Ask.com, Yahoo!, AltaVista
Red Velvet Cake Recipe - Red Velvet Cake
This red velvet cake recipe is made with cocoa, red food coloring, vinegar, and buttermilk. ... A red velvet cake recipe from our forum. INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup ...
http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/blbb146.htm - 91%
Result found by: FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Yahoo!, AltaVista, Live Search
Recipes : Southern Red Velvet Cake : Food Network
Southern Red Velvet Cake. Vegetable oil for the pans 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon fine salt ...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_23379,00.html - 85%
Result found by: Netscape Netcenter, Ask.com, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Live Search
Red velvet cake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The most typical frosting for a red velvet cake is a butter roux icing also ... Allrecipes Red Velvet Cake Recipe with Buttercream Frosting ...
http://rc12.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=15KPjg1m1St5auwuf0L_iXEbqUkwwB4Ju0-shsCph4bKMo8gEeIPYuPa7By_VIYu1mnw-kvoST-tFnOqz2n_-UFBCMQVuXGOD2yt2QwNhsbfqxG4QTl_V5mqy82pAfaXIeZ16hPeGOnviddtv5KS8c89NKnkLarq4zrozjlKVNSKyJnF9w7Q2MLJoSvPokgdqRJMJNDvJfYMbMzTjRKccZi4khyby6YWJFN2-T1nBu_w7vuAxJzv2cJ9of6Ljwu7-o - 85%
Result found by: Lycos
The top 2 hits are the same both both searching methods. Using Copernic I noticed that some pages or sites were displayed more than once. The first hit and fifth hit link to the same page and yet the percentage of relevancy is 8% lower for the fifth hit. The second and third hits are also for the same site, yet different pages.
For the search I was doing, I think Google provided the best results. Even though Google provided a ridiculously high number of hits, the first page of results was more than enough to provide me with the information I was looking for.
It is important to assess what information you need to gather and then decide the best searching method to achieve the best results. I was looking for a recipe which is easily accessible information. As another quick example, searching on my name to find my home page - this was the first hit that Google gave me and the third from Copernic.
All search information on this page retrieved from Google.com on 25 May 2008.
Using an internet search engine is something most people take for granted and do dozens of times a day. Using it effectively is probably another matter altogether.
Task One: Choose your most commonly used internet search engine and do a search with words of your choosing.
I chose Google as it's my search engine of choice and my key words are Red Velvet Cake (my favourite cake and I'm looking for a recipe). I received 1,270,000 hits on this search.
The top 5 pages found are listed below.
Red velvet cake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Red velvet cake is a type of rich and sweet cake, with a distinctive dark red to bright red or red-brown color. Common ingredients include buttermilk, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
Red Velvet Cake Recipe - Recipes and Information
Red velvet cake recipe - recipes and a little history about red velvet cake. Several recipes from the forum, including history of the red velvet cake or ...
southernfood.about.com/cs/chocolatecakes/a/redvelvet_cake.htm - 26k - Cached - Similar pages
Recipes : Southern Red Velvet Cake : Food Network
Southern Red Velvet Cake. Vegetable oil for the pans 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon fine salt ...
www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23379,00.html - 84k - Cached - Similar pages
Red Velvet Cake Recipe & Photo - Joyofbaking.com
It is very dramatic looking with its bright red color sharply contrasted by a white frosting.
www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html - 45k - Cached - Similar pages
Yahoo! Directory AU & NZ > Red Velvet Cake Recipes
Index of recipes for red velvet cake, the bright red layered cake made with white frosting. Includes versions with cream cheese frosting, cooked frosting, ...
au.dir.yahoo.com/.../Cooking/Recipes/Specific_Courses_and_Dishes/Desserts_and_Sweets/Cakes/Red_Velvet_Cake/ - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
Task Two: Using copernicus or similar, set it up to search at least three search engines (including one that will search the 'deep web') and repeat eactly the same search
Using Copernic and searching across 12 search engines (AltaVista, AOLSearch, Ask.com, Copernic, Enhance Interactive, alltheweb.com, Live Search, Lycos, Mamma.com, MIVA, Netscape Netcenter and Yahoo), the search produced fewer results as shown below:
Search: red velvet cake
Category: The Web
Matches: 41 result(s)
The top 5 pages found are listed below.
Red velvet cake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Red velvet cake is a type of rich and sweet cake, with a distinctive dark red to bright red or red-brown color. Common ingredients include buttermilk, ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake - 93%
Result found by: FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Netscape Netcenter, Ask.com, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Live Search
About.com: Red Velvet Cake Recipes
Red velvet cake recipe - recipes and a little history about red velvet cake. Several recipes from the forum, including history of the red ...
http://southernfood.about.com/cs/chocolatecakes/a/redvelvet_cake.htm - 92%
Result found by: FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Netscape Netcenter, Ask.com, Yahoo!, AltaVista
Red Velvet Cake Recipe - Red Velvet Cake
This red velvet cake recipe is made with cocoa, red food coloring, vinegar, and buttermilk. ... A red velvet cake recipe from our forum. INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup ...
http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/blbb146.htm - 91%
Result found by: FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Yahoo!, AltaVista, Live Search
Recipes : Southern Red Velvet Cake : Food Network
Southern Red Velvet Cake. Vegetable oil for the pans 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon fine salt ...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_23379,00.html - 85%
Result found by: Netscape Netcenter, Ask.com, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Live Search
Red velvet cake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The most typical frosting for a red velvet cake is a butter roux icing also ... Allrecipes Red Velvet Cake Recipe with Buttercream Frosting ...
http://rc12.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=15KPjg1m1St5auwuf0L_iXEbqUkwwB4Ju0-shsCph4bKMo8gEeIPYuPa7By_VIYu1mnw-kvoST-tFnOqz2n_-UFBCMQVuXGOD2yt2QwNhsbfqxG4QTl_V5mqy82pAfaXIeZ16hPeGOnviddtv5KS8c89NKnkLarq4zrozjlKVNSKyJnF9w7Q2MLJoSvPokgdqRJMJNDvJfYMbMzTjRKccZi4khyby6YWJFN2-T1nBu_w7vuAxJzv2cJ9of6Ljwu7-o - 85%
Result found by: Lycos
The top 2 hits are the same both both searching methods. Using Copernic I noticed that some pages or sites were displayed more than once. The first hit and fifth hit link to the same page and yet the percentage of relevancy is 8% lower for the fifth hit. The second and third hits are also for the same site, yet different pages.
For the search I was doing, I think Google provided the best results. Even though Google provided a ridiculously high number of hits, the first page of results was more than enough to provide me with the information I was looking for.
It is important to assess what information you need to gather and then decide the best searching method to achieve the best results. I was looking for a recipe which is easily accessible information. As another quick example, searching on my name to find my home page - this was the first hit that Google gave me and the third from Copernic.
All search information on this page retrieved from Google.com on 25 May 2008.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Module 4: Tools for using the Web
For this task I have opted to download Copernic Desktop Search and Windows Media Player.
Copernic Desktop Search
My experience of searches has previously been limited to Windows default search funcitionality available through Explorer.
I downloaded the Copernic Desktop Search (Copernic) software and installed it. I admit, I didn't get it at first, I was treating it in the same way I would the Windows search functionality. Ok, that was probably my first mistake.
Once I got the hang of it - just type in key word or words, limit the search if applicable and I was off and running. I could even search for that key word on the web just by clicking the neato Web button.
Features of the software:
I like the visual aspect of the user interface.
I liked this tool, I liked it a lot! I will be keeping it installed and absolutely using it in future.
Windows Media Player
I haven't really used Windows Media Player (WMP) - I know it comes installed with every Windows OS computer but I tend to use other tools that do the same job. I downloaded the latest version of WMP and went in to see what was going on.
Features I found interesting:
One key feature that really stood out for me with both these desktop applications is the ease and accesiblity in which they interact with the internet - it become such an accepted functionality.
Copernic Desktop Search
My experience of searches has previously been limited to Windows default search funcitionality available through Explorer.
I downloaded the Copernic Desktop Search (Copernic) software and installed it. I admit, I didn't get it at first, I was treating it in the same way I would the Windows search functionality. Ok, that was probably my first mistake.
Once I got the hang of it - just type in key word or words, limit the search if applicable and I was off and running. I could even search for that key word on the web just by clicking the neato Web button.
Features of the software:
- ability to search from the task bar
- limit file types to search on - emails, files, music, pictures, videos, contacts, favourites, history or all of these categories.
- apply same keyword search to the web without retyping - just click the web button and it will open the browser and display the findings
- allows user to save searches
I like the visual aspect of the user interface.
I liked this tool, I liked it a lot! I will be keeping it installed and absolutely using it in future.
Windows Media Player
I haven't really used Windows Media Player (WMP) - I know it comes installed with every Windows OS computer but I tend to use other tools that do the same job. I downloaded the latest version of WMP and went in to see what was going on.
Features I found interesting:
- Immediately prompted to search for media files on my computer
- Main options - Now Playing, Library, Rip, Burn, Sync and Guide - key features immediately accessible and easy to use whatever your knowledge level maybe.
- Ability to search the internet for Media from the application.
- Ability to resize window and change skins with minimal clicks.
One key feature that really stood out for me with both these desktop applications is the ease and accesiblity in which they interact with the internet - it become such an accepted functionality.
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