My report was on search engines. The title of the article was "Search Sites Shocking Secrets" by Jesse Berst. Berst describes search engines as the most important part of the web. According to Searchterms.com, the term "sex" is what most people search the web for. Media Metrix reported in May 1998 that the most popular search engine was Yahoo followed by Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and Alta Vista. But, a search engines popularity doesn't determine its quality. Berst suggests that there's factors such as branding, advertising, and free services that effect a search engines popularity. Berst also states that search sites: are poor at their core job, getting worse, and their doing it deliberately.

Secret No. 1: Search sites are out of date and incomplete and they can't even sort out pages they've indexed.

Secret No. 2: Companies use a variety of tricks to make a site show up at the top of the search results page.

Secret No. 3: Many search sites are deliberately letting things deteriorate. Most sites are de-emphasizing search technology, spending the money on marketing and advertising instead.

Secret No. 4: Some search sites sell their rankings. Companies can pay money to guarantee that its site shows up first when you run a search on certain words.

Secret No. 5: Some search engines deliberately exclude valuable sites from their listings.

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Q: Why do you feel that "business" is not good for search engines?Dr.James

A: Like Berst stated, "most sites are de-emphasizing search technology, spending the money on marketing and advertising instead." "But they're getting worse at search...We depend on them. And they're screwing us by neglecting their most important job" suggested Berst.

Q: How do you feel about companies like Yahoo boycotting web pages that contain information on certain topics just because they're competitors?Russ Muramatsuand Evelyn Moss

A: The business world is competative and by putting information from a competitors site would be a form of free advertisment. A business has to do whatever it takes to stay above water.

Q: Do you think that there will ever be a search engine that is all encompassing?Cory Egami

A: Probably not, people prefer different search engines. Competiton between search engines is good, it makes on or the other try harder to out do the rest of the competition which benefits us.

Q: Why do different search engines come up with different results to a search?Hyechin Kim

A: I think it's because different search engines index differently. It all depends how up to date a site is and if they boycott sites like Yahoo.

Q: Do you have any tips on how I can narrow down my search?Sheri Lieberman

A: I think you have to know what your looking for. In search engines like Infoseek, once you've done a search you're able to do a search within a search to narrow things down.

Q: Are search engines in alliance with each other? Or do they pay each other to advertise each other's pages?Valerie Iihuma

A: It can go both ways. Sites may have to pay to be on another sites page. If you are a smaller and more unknown site, it may pay to be on a more popular search engine site. It may also be that they help each other out. Like they say, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."

Q: How do you feel about search engines? Do they help people really find what they need?Craig Kawamura

A: I think search engines are great. I don't know how else you could find a site unless you knew the address. Search engines don't always find what your looking for. But, if it doesn't it has sites similar to your topic. From this you may find sources you wouldn't have thought of.

Q: What's your favorite search engine? Why?George Pederson,Carole Agmata, and Wilfred Lee

A: I use infoseek the most. It just seems that after trying a lot of search engines it seems that it finds what I'm looking for most of the time.

Q: How do search engines work?Sean Marrs

A: Search engins just index information with keywords. By typing in a keyword, the search engine matches it to its indexed files.

Q: Why are search engines the most important part of the web?Jocelyn Manibusan

A: Without search engines you wouldn't be able to find sites unless you had the right address for a certain site. Search engines let you "surf" the web.

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My second oral presentation went a little better. I knew what was expected and I was prepared for it. I learned a lot about search engines and their importance and how they're not doing their job to the best of their ability. As for the questions and answer period, I thought it wasn't so bad (it could've been worse). The questions were mainly based on my opinion so it wasn't as hard to answer. For me, oral presentations are just a bit stressful, thoughts get mixed up and words just don't come out right. But it's done now!

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My suggestion to future generations is to keep up with your work, check the due dates periodically, and enjoy what you learn because it's going to affect you in one way or another.

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