Web Search Engines and Me
Cruising the Internet via Search Engines"
This report is written by MaryElizabeth U Pacheco
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Table of Contents |
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1. Data Collection
My Results and Reactions of Utilizing Search Engines
Search Engines are an excellent mode of transportation for cruising the Internet in a quick, safe and user-friendly manner. Search Engines assist a traveler by narrowing down a topic search by means of direct links or references to the entered topic or topic words. This report is based on
many hours of clicking through the Internet through Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser and The Microsoft Network Service Provider. The following search engines were used to complete this report: Excite, Yahoo, Infoseek, and Lycos. All of these engines were magnificent; however, I favored Infoseek and Yahoo. The following data sheets will illustrate the effectiveness, usefulness and as well as the affectiveness of the user of search engines. The topics I choose to search via the search engines were web page authoring, home schooling, kids crafts, automobile maintenance software, and search engines.
Search Report Data Sheets
First Search:
"web page authoring"Search Engines:
Excite and Yahoo|
1. Day, Date, Location |
Tuesday, November 11, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am in a rather happy, calm and relaxed mood, perhaps because this is my first search and I have not experienced any disappointment or difficulty connecting the internet. All is as well, as can be. |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Excite |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Web page authoring". I choose to start my first search on web page authoring for several reasons. First, I am excited about learning to publish homepages. Secondly, I am looking for assistance to change the appearance of my homepage and complete it. Lastly, previous web searching has been unsuccessful under the search of homepages. The search for homepages led me to peoples' personal homepages that did not contain the information I was seeking. |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expected at least 5000 hits |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
The search engine came up with 82,818 hits |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
I was truly amazed with the actual hits compared to my projected hit expectancy. Although there were approximately 77,818.00 more hits than projected. I was sure there were going to be many hits because this subject matter is popular and necessary. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
The proportion that was relevant to my search on web page authoring was approximately 100%. I estimated that 100% of the hits were relevant. I scanned through the top of the list to about the middle then I viewed the last 20 entries of the entire list and found that the subject matter was getting away from what I was looking for, but it was still regarding web page authoring. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I felt satisfied with the inquires that were presented to me, however, it was kind of overwhelming. I started my first search in a rather happy, calm and relaxing mood. I do believe that my mood is somewhat responsible for the way I searched and browsed the internet because I was happy and excited about the subject content that I linked to many, many of the links. I also believe that the subject influenced my search strategy because of the simple fact that I was interested in the content therefore I wanted and needed to learn more therefore I linked to many more leads. I made use of the search engine help documents because I needed more information. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience from -3 to + 3 stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
Overall my search experience was great, as I expected. Here are my ratings. +2 pleasant +3 satisfied +2 valuable +1 clarifying +2 hopeful |
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1. Day, Date, Location |
Tuesday, November 11, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am in a good, cheerful mood--in fact I am happy |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Yahoo |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"web page authoring" I chose these words for the simple fact that I am interested in |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
After the first search results with Excite, I assumed there should be at least 10,000 hits |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
This search came up with 6 categories and 482 sites |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
I was rather surprised with the way the results were reported in this search engine. I am not sure if these results are black and white meaning are the additional links that I clicked on from a site included in this numbers. I like the way Excite reports their findings for this particular assignment. I am sure I will not have a problem using this search engine for anything other than this assignment |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
After reviewing the results, I found that 1 category out of the 6 was what I was looking for. This category related to the designing and creating of web pages, the other five pertained to software review for such programs as Claris Works. After further viewing of the sites, I found that at least 85% of the results was what I was looking for. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I had no problem with the outcome or even the way the results that were reported. I like the way this search engine reported its findings because the smaller number psychologically makes you think there are less links to scroll or visit rather than the high numbers from Excite. The topic was very influential to my search strategies. The results from Excite gave me the feeling of overwhelms. I think my mood in some way affects my methods and attitudes of searching and browsing the results I was presented with. I think if I was upset and tired that I would not appreciate the large database presented by Excite. In this particular search, I did not take advantage of the search engine instructions and help documents because the results look very simple and self-explanatory. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall search experience is as follows +3 pleasant +3 satisfied +3 extremely valuable +3 clarifying +3 hopeful |
Second Search:
"home schooling"Search Engines:
Infoseek and Yahoo|
1. Day, Date, Location |
Tuesday, November 11, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am still in a happy-go-lucky mood. After the second search with Yahoo on "web page authoring", I feel energized to continue my cruising the web. I am hoping the resources are similar for my next search |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Infoseek |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Home schooling", I chose these particular words because for a couple of years, I have been contemplating doing home schooling with my children. When I was first interested in the concept, the information at the libraries was very limited. What better way and time to seek information on the internet |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expected to get about 100 hits or 2 categories |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
Wow!, Infoseek reported 13,314,128 pages |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
Oh my goodness, when I saw the results posted, my first thoughts were, "I can't believe it", and then my next thought was "do I have scroll through the entire list". I was extremely surprised with the amount of information that is available today on this topic; it was only about a year ago that I could not find much information on this topic. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluation of the hits...I am still trying to get over the amount of hits presented. The search came up with a very large number of findings so I needed to narrow down the search. I clicked on to the related topic box that contained 4 categories. As a result the findings were much more narrowed and less. I was further able to click on to a yet broader topic when I was presented with another list of categories. The new list contained 7 categories and 580 findings of which 1 of them was exactly what I was looking for. This topic was "home schooling regulations" After clicking on regulations, the results were narrowed down even further. I now had 6 sites all sites were relevant to my search. If only I entered that in from the beginning than my search would have been right on the nose. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I still believe that my mood does in some way affect the way that I perform my search. I think that if I was tired or not at peace than I would get very irritated and perhaps not even be interested in continuing the search. Yes, I believe the topic is very influential to my search. If the topic was not something that I was interested in than I would not even bother with the search. When I started this assignment I knew that in order for me to get the best out of this report, I needed to plan and find topic that were important, useful and relevant to me. I did not make use of search engine instructions or help documents however; I made use of the boxes presented with related topics to narrow down my search. The related topic linked me to exactly where I need to go. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall ratings for my search experience. +2 pleasant +3 very satisfied +3 extremely valuable +2 clarifying +2 hopeful |
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1. Day, Date, Location |
Tuesday, November 11, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
My mood has not changed. I am still happy-go-lucky. |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Yahoo |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Home schooling regulations" I chose these words because in my previous search, I entered in "home schooling", as I was flooded with hits. I also wondered what would of happen if I had entered home schooling with regulations the first time around. I modified this search slightly from the previous search. I performed 2 searches using this particular search engine. The second search was "home schooling" |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I figure that I would get at least 500 hits because the previous search engine reported 580 findings on the subject of regulations. (Please note the first search was "home schooling regulations" both searches were performed in Yahoo.) Furthermore, I expect to get at least 12,000 hits for "home schooling" |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
Yahoo reported 1 site, 0 categories for "home schooling regulations", but it found 9 categories and 144 sites with the key words "home schooling" only without regulations. |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
I was amazed that yahoo was very limited with hits/findings of "home schooling regulations" compared to Info seek which came up with 9 categories. I was also amazed that Infoseek had a category specifically for regulations whereas Yahoo did not. One word makes a huge difference in searching it can either be very useful or not so useful |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluations of the hits. The first search with "home schooling regulations" was very useful and relevant. I can conclude this because the search came up with only 1 site which after linking to it I found it was one of the same sites reported by Infoseek. The second search with "home schooling" was larger in number. The proportions that was not as relevant because the topic needed to be much narrower which would have been to added regulations and the hits reported would be 1 the only one found by Yahoo. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
My mood was affected by the search conducted in the Infoseek search engine. I was excited to find that this search engine contained a category of regulations thus I looked forward to see if Yahoo also had the same category which I found out it did not. The findings from Infoseek's search influenced my search strategy for Yahoo. There were no help documents or instructions available this time around. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall ratings for this search experience. +2 pleasant +2 satisfied +2 valuable +2 clarifying +2 hopeful I found the search with Infoseek much better and useful for the topic: "home schooling (+) (-) regulations. |
Third Search:
"kids crafts"Search Engines:
Excite and Yahoo|
1. Day, Date, Location |
Tuesday, November 11, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
My mood is beginning to change somewhat; I am getting tired because I have spent many hours on the internet thus far. This will be my last search for the day; I will probably resume tomorrow or Saturday. I am getting tired and my eyes are getting heavy. |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Excite |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Kids crafts"--I choose these particular words because I enjoy working on crafts with my children during our free time. This particular search engine provided me with word selections. After I entered in "kids crafts" and return the engine presented me with a list of 10 choices of which I needed to select a word. I choose "crafts" again and was once again was presented with a list of 10 words this time I selected "handmade". My search topic looked like this: "kids crafts + crafts + handmade" |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expect to get at least 700 hits |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
In this particular finding, I could not determine the number of hits that were being reported. I am not sure if this was so because it kept on providing me with choices to narrow down my subjects, for example 10 topic like crafts, handcraft etc. I selected handcrafts and was led to top 40 web sites; I could not determine how many web sites were found in all. |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
I can tell, I am getting tired because after I was presented with many more choices I just wanted to select one that was really good and that I wanted to link to, which I did find one. My reactions cannot be captured. I am still trying to figure out exactly how I feel about the expected hits and actual hits. I thought that for sure there were going to be at least 500 hits, but I don't have a number to compare the actual with the expected. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluations of the hits, I am kind of relieved that there were not to much hits because I am getting tired of linking and waiting and so forth. This search engine provided me with the top 40 web sites that was relative to "kids crafts +crafts +handmade. Of the 40 reported I chose to link to 1 of them, which was marked at 87%. I was happy that I choose this particular link because as I scrolled through her site I like everything that I saw and placed it in my favorites |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I pleased with the selection I choose "Auntie Annie's Craft Page", but I am still puzzled over the exactly how many hits were reported by this search engine. As I mentioned earlier, I am getting tired and therefore, I believe that a person's mood very much so affects their search strategy. After all of the hits were presented I scanned through the list and linked to the second on the top 40 list because it looked more like what I was looking for. I made use of the search engine instructions because in order for me to get were I was going I needed help because I was getting nowhere. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience
stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall search experience with this search engine and topic. -3 stressful +2 satisfied +3 valuable +1 confusing +2 hopeful |
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1. Day, Date, Location |
Tuesday, November 11, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am beginning this search in a tired mood. I would rather resume this project later, but I believe that if I continue this search at a later time then my reactions and findings will be very different from the first search on "kids crafts" |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Lycos |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Kids crafts" I entered in the exact same statement because I have learned from the search on "home schooling" not to expect the search to be better or more narrow second time around because each search engine is unique. This particular search engine also uses the Boolean method. After entering in "kid crafts" the search engine presented mw with 6 related topic. The search title was displayed as "kids crafts AND handmade". I chose this particular statement because I am a crafter and enjoy working on crafts with my children. |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I am expecting at least 40 site hits |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
I got 3 hits of which where from related topic. After linking to the related topic I found these hits to be useless. |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
I am surprised that there is a big difference in the number of hits expected and actually found. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluation of the hits...I was rather unhappy with this search engine. The homepage was beautiful and I gave me the sense of "completeness", but I had to change and refine my search about 3 times. The results presented were 3 web sites, all of which were not relevant to my search. I found this out by reading the information provided and linking to the sites. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I was beginning to lose hope in this search engine because I needed to change my wording at least 3 times. The first entry was "kids crafts" then it was changed to reflect "handmade crafts by kids" still not hits so I changed it to "kids craft handmade by kids" still no luck. I utilized the refine search and the help instructions to no avail. The last resort or link I clicked to was Barnes and Nobles Bookstore, which provided me with reference material. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall rating experience for this search engine +2 stressful +3 dissatisfied +2 wasted +1 confusing +2 discouraging. I don't think my mood had anything to do with this rating, rather this experience affected my mood. |
Fourth Search:
"automobile maintenance software"Search Engines:
Yahoo and Excite|
1. Day, Date, Location |
Wednesday, November 12, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am in a happy and cheerful mood probably because I am almost done with this assignment |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Yahoo |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Automobile maintenance software". I chose these particular words because I was looking for an easier way to maintain my husband bookkeeping for his side business--auto mechanic. Please note that I clicked on computers, then software in addition to the "automobile maintenance software" key words. |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expect to get at least 20 hits |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
I number of hits I actually got were 50 |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
My reactions to hits results are excited because I'll have at least 50 links that I can check when I started out with 0. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluation of the hits, of the 50 presented only 4 programs were relevant to my search. I found this out by linking to and clicking to all 50 of the findings |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I am not surprise with the results, though I wish there were a larger selection of software that I could choose from and compare. I think my mood helped me to accept and appreciate the fact that there are only 50 hits, it also influenced me to search all 50 links. I did not make use of the search engine instructions for the simple reason that my keywords were sufficient enough to produce results. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall rating of this search experience. +3 pleasant +2 satisfied +3 valuable +2 clarifying +2 hopeful |
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1. Day, Date, Location |
Wednesday, November 12, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am still in a happy and relaxed mood perhaps because I just started to work on this assignment today and that my first search was successful. |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Excite |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Automobile maintenance software" As, I have previously mentioned, I chose these particular words because I am looking for a computer program that will assist my spouse in his automotive business. Please note here too, I clicked on computers, then shareware and the word phrase--"automobile maintenance software" |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expected at least 10 hits being that I got 50 hits from Yahoo's search results |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
This search came up with 10 sites |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
Boy, did I make a got guess or what? I was surprised that I expected 10 and got 10. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluation of the hits from this search. I was rather disappointed because all 10 of the hits I was provided with were irrelevant to my topic. I found this out simply by clicking onto the links and by reading the summaries. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I felt a little disappointed but nothing major. I believe my mood did influence my search, but I also believe that my previous search also influence this search because I was excited with the results from the first search that I felt I was going to experience the same number if "relevant" hits. I made use of the search engine helps and instructions because I have found in previous searches that using these tools helps the searching process. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall experience for this search is +1 pleasant -2 dissatisfied -2 wasted +1clarifying +1 hopeful |
Fifth Search:
"search engines"Search Engines:
Infoseek and Lycos|
1. Day, Date, Location |
Thursday, November 13, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I am in a good mood. I am probably happy that this is my final search to complete this report |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Infoseek |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
The words in typed in for the final search was "search engines" I chose this particular phrase because I wanted to learn more about search engines and confirm the information that I already learned from hear say. After entering in "Search Engines" is click on the related topics which was on "search engines" |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expected at least 4,000,000 hits |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
I got 5,845,449 |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
My estimation and actual counts were pretty close. I am somewhat glad that there is so much information on search engines available, however, I am rather overwhelmed with that about of hits. After I pressed refine search, the list was reduced to 32 pages/site. Amen to that. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluations of the hits, to be frank I did not search the entire results because the first 50 pages were very relevant to my search. The topic that was reported on the first 50 pages were information about search engines. The different search engines that are available and reporting pages to the search engine companies. Because there were so many hits, I refined the search to just "search engines" and the hits were narrowed down to 32 pages/sites |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
I was not surprised that there was a wealth of information regarding search engines, but I started to feel tired when I scrolled the first 50 pages. I do think that my mood did influence the way I dealt with the information. I began to feel tired and overwhelmed that I was no longer interested in surfing the internet any longer. The topic, indeed, influenced my search strategy, which is why I selected 1 of 6 related topics so that I could narrow my search down to exactly what I was looking for. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall experience with this search, +1 pleasant +3 satisfied +3 valuable +2 clarifying +3 hopeful |
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1. Day, Date, Location |
Thursday, November 13, 1997, Home Office |
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2. My mood or affective state |
I took a short break, so right now I am feeling rather stable and passive. |
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3. Name of Search Engine |
Lycos |
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4. Search Statement I typed in and why I chose these particular words |
"Search engines". This is my second search on search engines. Again, I choose these particular words because I was interest in learning about it. This report is on search engines so what better way to complete this report than by learning factual points in addition to my personal experience. |
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5. Number of expected hits or results |
I expected to get at least 5,000,000 hits since the first search came up with 5,845,449 |
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6. Number of hits actually gotten |
I could not tell exactly how many hits were found because this search engine did not list its finding like many of the other search engines, for example, Infoseek. |
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7. My reactions to 5/6 results |
I felt rather disturbed that I could not mathematically compare the findings because this search engine did not report is findings in a clear-cut way like Infoseek. |
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8.My evaluation of the hits: What proportions were relevant and how I found this out |
My evaluation of the hits, I have scrolled through the first 40 pages. More than 75% of the hits on the first 40 pages were relevant to my search because not only did it contain the keep words, I clicked on to many of the links and found it was what I was looking for. |
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9.How I felt about it. Did my mood influence how I searched or browsed? Did the topic influence my search strategy? Did I make use of search engine instructions or help documents? Why? |
My mood had a positive influence, when I first started this search I felt overwhelmed with the number of hits that were reported, but after I refined the search, I felt better and more enthusiastic about the search. Yes, the topic influenced my search, because of my interest in the subject matter and because I was almost done. I made use of the help documents and tips that this search engine provided because I wanted to minimize excessive searching. |
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10. Ratings for each search experience stressful pleasant dissatisfied satisfied wasted valuable confusing clarifying discouraging hopeful |
My overall reactions of this search experience +3 pleasant +3 satisfied +3 valuable +2 clarifying +3 hopeful |
Back to Top
2. Prior Generational Reports on Search Engines
Speaking From Experience
Kathy Morifuji's Report 3 on Web Search Engines
- According to Kathy, a search engine is "like a library catalog system." It's a tool used to obtain an infinite amount of information. Kathy had quite a good experience with using search engines. She noted that her greatest challenge was in finding the right terms, or phrases to use. Kathy had summarized the works of Grant Muranaka's and Francine Fukuda. Kathy pointed out the importance and usefulness of "refine search" which was also mentioned by Grant. Another useful tip mentioned in Kathy's report was the technique of "bookmarking" and reading subtitles. Kathy defined the different types of search engines for example, Alta Vista, which contains articles from newsgroups and Excite, which is a general search engine. Kathy discussed her difficulty with narrowing down her search words and which search engine to use. She dealt with there challenges by adding more words to her search and trying differ search engines because each search engines produces different results. Kathy discovered that each search engine had a special purpose or function
- Again, Kathy mentioned that she found narrowing down her search words and which search engine to use to be challenging. She also mentioned that she developed an "online personality". She like myself can become very impatient waiting for responses. I tended to get irritated when the search engine servers were busy. I think it is safe to say that my experience and Kathy's experience were quite positive and productive as well as helpful and useful.
Through my own experience of using search engines I found that I favored using Infoseek, because I felt that this particular search engine provided the requestor with a lot of leads and starting points all though not all hits were relevant it did not come up empty handed. As for which search engine to use, it will depend on the individual's experience with a particular search engine. Infoseek also provided the researcher with helpful leads and categories like computers, education, and travel to name a few. Reviewing the data I collected, this data does in some way support Kathy's claim of the difficulty or the importance of narrowing down a particular search and that each search engine has a special function. I, too, agree with Kathy, I found that each search engine had a particular individual quality to them.
Ginger Andrew's Report 3 on Web Search Engines
- Ginger Andrews report states that search engines main task is to search and retrieve whatever information is imputed by you. The major component that performs the search is called "Damon robots. Damon robots main function is to search the Web in its entirety to collect and classify new data into specific word type categories. Damon robots will eventually locate and process a web page or site that has not yet been registered. The availability of search engines makes it so convenient for future generations to conduct research. There are several search engines of which Lycos, Infoseek, Yahoo, Excite and Magellen are the ones that are frequently utilized. Each of these search engines work differently. According to Ginger, if you are interested in the way that each search engine works, you can refer to the tip section. Ginger also noted a major difference with Yahoo; this particular search engine uses only categories not keywords like most of the other search engines. Lastly, Ginger pointed out the different approaches used by 2 of the most popular search engines: Yahoo, and Excite. Yahoo searches a request by means of categorization. On the other hand, Excite puts it's Damon robots to work for you searching all documents by learning the key words and other related words. The only problem I found Ginger mentioned was using Yahoo. Apparently, Yahoo did not produce the results that Ginger was looking for; this is not uncommon. Perhaps, this is why people develop preferences for a particular search engine. Ginger solved this problem by not using this search engine. She used Lycos instead.
- Ginger is entitled to dislike Yahoo. I, on the other hand, liked Yahoo. Although Ginger's claims are true, I had no problem with the hits that Yahoo located. Many of them were relevant, perhaps because the searches I input were more categories oriented. According to Ginger, Lycos works swiftly; my experience with this search engine was contrary. I found myself being impatient and unsatisfied with the hits it produced if any. I believe that each search engine has a unique quality. In order to discover its quality the researcher must have plenty of time to try their search using different search engines. By doing this, a person is able to get an array of information or leads.
Jami Kaneshi's Report 3 on Web Search Engines
- Jami's report on search engines was very thorough. She mentioned the difference between search engines and their function or purposes. Thus far, there is a consensus that a search engine is a tool for searching for a particular subject or topic, or any word for that matter. There are difference that exist between search engines, for example, how and what kind of information they look for. Some search engines are used for general purpose, while others are used for special purpose collections. Still some of them will run a thorough scan of an entire page while others just scan the indexes and URL addresses or by categories. Another consensus exists here, Jami like the rest of us found waiting for pages to load a problem. Another small problem Jami experienced was keying in word phrases. She had no problem correcting this small inconvenience that she encountered. If she had to waste more than 10 seconds for a page to load, she'd just press that "ol' stop" button and continue on her merry way cruising the internet checking out the other links.
- Jami like Ginger, Kathy, and myself did not experience any real problems other than patience and good word choice. We did not find ourselves lost or not knowing where to begin. We knew how to utilize the bookmark features or favorites. Through our experiences we were able to narrow down which particular search engine we favored. The data that I collected support Jami's views, that time is of essence and search engines are a valuable tool for this generation and upcoming generations. Through trial and error, we will be able to better our "searches" and our "lives".
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3. Conclusion
What does it all mean?
