Report 3: What Are Web Search Engines?
Search Engines Are...
In my experiences with search engines, I define them as a tool
for an infinite amount of information. It is a place where you
can search on any topic you are interested in. And the results
you get are lists of different pages you can visit and read their
information. A search engine is like a library catolog system.
However, the amount of information is much greater.
My Experience Using the Search Engines
My experience with the search engines was quite good. I like how
they have it set up where you can just easily type topics you are
interested in and then just click on search. And Whalla! You got
yourself tons of information on your subject. I think the
hardest part about the search engines is what key words are best
to use to get the correct information you are seeking. In my
experience I wanted to find about hula chants and the history
behind them. My first attempt was to search in Yahoo with the key
words "hula chants", but it took too long to hook up to the host,
so I stopped the search. Next, I tried searching in Magellan
with the words "Hula chants",I did get a list,however, none of
the pages were directly related to the hula chants. Instead I
got pages on slack key guitar, Hawai'i hotels, and Island Music.
Finally, I searched in Lycos with the words,"History Hula
Chants," Now I was getting somewhere. I accessed a few pages on
hula chants. So analyzing this process, I found it most
difficult to narrow down your search words and which search
engine to use. The different search engines seem to have
different types of information.
Other Generations Thoughts on Search Engines
Grant Muranaka's
decided to begin his search in Lycos. He chose the topic dreams. He found
out there were thousands of documents on dreams. He thought, "it would take
me forever to find the information I was looking for, so I went to the end
of the page and hit refine search to include the word dream analycos into
my search."
Francine
Fukuda did her search on traffic and parking. She ended up with so much
information and did not know where to begin. Some of her suggestions were
to read the subtitles and bookmark the ones you find interesting.
Different Types of Search Engines
AltaVista is one type of search
engines that contains articles from newsgroups. Looking for things to
buy?! Check it out!
Excite'sgeneral purpose is
a general search engine which has incorporated summaries of tons of web
pages, reviews of the most recent Usenet news, and it also includes reviews
of web sites created by professionals in the journalist field and many
others! Check it out!!!
Using different Search Engines to find Traffic Psychology
The three search engines I chose to use to find information on Traffic
Psychology were, Infoseek, Yahoo, and Excite. My search began in
Infoseek. I searched by typing in "Traffic Psychology," the got no
matching web pages to my topic. The pages it found dealt with either
Traffic or Psychology separately.
Since, I had no luck on Infoseek, I tried Yahoo and got much better
results. It gave me a listing of Dr. James' and the Traffic Psychology
students' web pages, along with a few web pages of some Doctors.
I then tried searching on Excite. I seemed to have gotten similar
results or listings as what Yahoo provided me with.
My goal was to find other web pages on the internet, besides the pages
done by the students at U.H. However, I seemed to have no luck in doing so.
What I learned using the Internet
Search Engines
Before taking this class I would not have been able to explain what a
search engine was or how it works. I thought all search engines were able
to access the same information and web pages. However, I discovered that
each search engine had a special purpose. This helped me in narrowing
down which search engine to use for the appropriate topic I was searching.
The Web
As I use the Web more and more I learn so much about how it works and
what it can provide me with. The web is an excellent resource for any
type of topic you are interested in.
My Online Personality
I noticed as I was using the Internet I developed an online personality
that is much different from my real personality. I usually have a lot of
patience in my daily life because I worked as an after-school leader and
had to supervise third and fourth grade children. While working there
you have to have extreme patience and understanding. However, as I sit
in front of my computer doing my reports I notice I have no patience what
so ever. Let's first begin with trying to log in to Unix. At the
beginning of the class I tried dialing up from home on to Unix. But, it
took so long that I often fell asleep waiting for my computer to hook
up. So I finally got an account with
FlexNet. And boy did that make life easier. I now had no problem
getting into my Unix and CSS account. Secondly, my patience was put to
the test when I would click on to a person's page and it would take too
long to load because they have lots of images that take up a lot of
time. I noticed if the page took longer that 15 seconds to load, I would
simply go on to another person's page.
Click on to my other reports:
Report 1
Report 2
Report 3
Report 4
Return to My Home Page
e-mail me