PSU Northern Tier

Alice C

You'll find completed assignments and links to useful sites here.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

What is the text entered into the search box?
great pyramid at giza
For the basic search, how many results are returned?

google: about 7,770,000

yahoo: about 6,907,000

ask: about 2,277,000
Using the first 10 results, how many appear to be useful?

google: 6

yahoo: 7

ask: 6
Make links to three sites that appear to be useful.

yahoo: Pyramids

google: NOVA Online

ask: National Geographic
Refine your search by using the advanced search features. What did you do to refine your search?

exact phrase: great pyramid of giza
Are the results returned significantly different in number or content?

google: Yes, there were roughly only 155,000 results listed

yahoo: only 125,000 results listed

ask: only 125,200 results listed
Compare and contrast the homepages for each of the search engines. What features do you like/dislike about them?

Google and Ask homepages are very straightforward, no clutter. I like that when I'm in a hurry. However, Yahoo's homepage is very cluttered with current event

links and ads. I don't mind the current event links when I have time to browse - sometimes I get off task and start checking news stories when I should be working on something more constructive!
Compare and contrast the results pages for each of the search engines. What features do you like/dislike about them?

I like Ask's arrangement of the suggestions for modifying your search listed along the left margin and image, video and enclycopedia links listed on the right margin.

Google and Yahoo's results pages were pretty much the same - I'm not thrilled with the sponsor links listed first.
Which of the three do you find best? Why?

For quick school stuff, I liked Ask's result page. FOr most stuff, though, I'd use Google because its homepage is uncluttered and straighforward and its searches yield a lot of resuts.