Report 2: Web Search Engines and Me
A couple of searches and thoughts by me

She firsts talks about what search engines are and how they differ. She also talks about which search engines she prefers and why. This was done in her section labeledWhat's it like to use a search engine. She then talks about how the different search engines helped or created more work for her. "Yahoo uses only approved categories, not keywords like most other search engines." This fact made searching for things harder for her because she thought that all search engines were the same. Now with her new found knowledge she has chosen her favorites because of their ease of use and their options. Her "favorite searchers are Infoseek and Lycos and Alta Vista. They are pretty word specific and find things somewhat quickly." She also described options that come with different search engines. Lycos will find sounds, pictures, people and in your desired category with a clickable menu for you to chose what you want. Alta Vista is her favorite because it gives you a list of related topics and you can chose not to include them in your search. Her example was that she was searching for surfing. Related subjects such as web and wind and sky surfing came up. She could then check off any one of these that she didn't want information on.

She also speaks of the pride in her work and being able to learn HTML so well. If knowledge is power she has truly been empowered. She didn't seem to have any problems and I attribute this to her search for knowledge and the fact the she knew enough to look at the tips or help pages that are attached to the search engines.

Jill begins her report with a brief explanation of what a search engine is. She then talks about how easy it is to use a search engine. Jill also gave some advice which was to keep trying and experiment because eventually you will find what you are looking for.

Jill didn't seem to have any problem with the search engines but was surprised at how different her results were for each search engine. She then attributed some of the difference to the fact that her class had registered their pages to one of them. She then talks about what she has learned from this experience with search engines. She feels that they are easy to use and that the information that you seek is only a click away.

I like her explanation of a search engine. She describes it as a last resort when she has no idea where to find what she needs on the web. She also says that it is a "must tool for anyone that wants to surf the web and not get lost in the process with this that they don't want. This will help narrow down what you are looking for." She then talks about how she started using search engines and gives a little advice or warning about them. She says that it is very easy to get side tracked when using a search engine. There are so many related topics and you might start looking at some that lead you away from your original topic. Sometimes this is good and other times you just can't afford to waste too much time like this.

Shawna didn't seem to have any problems with her search engines. She has learned the value of using them and has acquired a different perspective about the web.

All three of the reports that I looked at didn't have any problems with search engines except determining what kind of information they wanted. They fixed this problem via using multiple search engines for better information. I have found that using Metasearch does this for you in a way. You type in your words that you want to search for and it will enter them in a few of the most used search engines. You then choose which ones you want to use and click on them. From these reports I have found that a common thing in that they don't seem to like using Yahoo very much. My data supports this in that I too didn't find Yahoo very helpful. Only once did it out perform Excite but I feel that it is still useful in that to get a well rounded search you should use as many search engines as possible.

Back to top

e-mail me