PSU Northern Tier

 

Michelle F

Your assignment is to choose a topic relevant to your subject area and search for useful information on it using the three search engines.   Please use the same search text on each search!  You will use the basic and advanced searches.  As you work, please answer the following questions on your wiki page for each search engine:
 
  1. What is the text entered into the search box?  Greek Mythology
     
  2. For the basic search, how many results are returned? Google came up with 2, 560,000 results, Ask had 1, 821,000, and Yahoo found
    5,860,000 results.
     
  3. Using the first 10 results, how many appear to be useful? It appeared that Google had 6 very useful sites, Ask had 5 and Yahoo had 7.
     
     
  4. Make links to three sites that appear to be useful.
     
    www.mythweb.com/
    www.greekmythology.com/
    www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/greek_myth.html
     
  5. Refine your search by using the advanced search features.  What did you do to refine your search?
    I limited it to Gods and Goddesses and stories in order to eliminate the educational theories and controversies that may result in a general search.
     
     
  6. Are the results returned significantly different in number or content?  Yes, only 267,000 results compared to the original 2,560,000.
     
  7. Compare and contrast the homepages for each of the search engines.  What features do you like/dislike about them?
    I agree with what was pointed out in class - Yahoo appears too "busy" and although is still simple to use, it's a bit overwhelming whereas Google and Ask are much more simplified.  Comparing Ask to Google, I like that Ask has some very basic tabs available (i.e. images and web) to help clarify your basic search; Google has the same feature but it's not as convenient nor eye catching as Ask.  Now, although Yahoo is "busy," for those that are more internet savvy, there certainly are many options and features for those that utilize the internet often.  Because I do not, and usually when I want to research something quickly, I want to search and leave - Yahoo would offer too much for me to be appealing.
     
  8. Compare and contrast the results pages for each of the search engines. 
    What features do you like/dislike about them? Actually I found them all to be very similar as far as results and appearance - the main difference appears to be in the initial search page comparing simplicity and usefulness.
     
  9. Which of the three do you find best?  Why?
    I guess offhand I would have to say Google.  It's simple to use, especially for those of us that are not on the internet all that much, and it had several very useful sites upon the initial search.  Although I like the physical appearance of Ask, the results were less substantial.  Basically, if I am on the internet to search a topic, the results are more important to me than the appearance which gives Google the edge over Ask, however, Yahoo resulted the most useful results, but their main page seemed cluttered.  Again, that may not hinder the experienced internet user, but for those of us that don't want to navigate through all of the news and gobbledygook that appears on its home page, I would choose a more basic format.
     

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