Practical 4&5

Long long time since I post.. But I am back here for practical 4&5!

Activity 1

1. Based on this research topic, choose relevant keywords to search for relevant 3 resources.

The relevant keywords I chose are 'Impact', 'Alcoholism', 'Society'


2. What are the keywords that you would use?

Keywords:

'Impact', 'Alcoholism', 'Society.


3. List the variations to your keywords.

Keyword Keyword variations

Impact Effect, Influence, Result

Alcoholism Alcohol abuse, dipsomania

Society Community


4. Write down the search phrases that include the keyword and variations as identified above.

(impact OR effect* OR influence OR result*) AND (Alcoholism OR Dipsomania) AND (Society* OR Community*)


5. Use the following search facilities to search for the 3 resources:

(Refer to Lecture notes 4 & 5)

· Search engine (use only one example)

· Meta search engine (use only one example)

· Subject directory (use only one example)


Within each category of search facility, there are many examples to select from. Identity the ones you like best and use them for your search.


Search Engine: Google

Keywords Used: (Impact OR Effect* OR Influence OR Result*) AND (Alcoholism OR Dipsomania) AND (Society* OR Community*)

URL of the resource: http://www.greatalcoholismhelp.com/category/alcoholism-society/

Comments on Search Result: Total hit of 322,000(Searching using Impact of Alcoholism on Society returns 17,100,000 hits). By searching using this keyword, it has narrowed down the results by a lot. This has helped me alot in searching for the resources required as I realise the resources are more relevant to what I am searching for.


Meta Search Engine: Metacrawler

Keywords Used: Impact of Alcoholism on Society

URL of the resource: http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/homework/a/blsociety.htm

Comments on Search Result:Total hit of 71. MetaCrawler has helped alot, as it tranmits search terms simultaneously to several search engines, it had results which were previously not found in the first few pages of Google.


Subject Directory: Yahoo Directoy

Keywords Used: - (Searched by browsing the categories)

URL of the resource: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/alcoholism/article_em.htm

Comments on Search Result:Total hit of 33. The Subject Directory helps alot as it categorizes the topics. There is a topic under Alcoholism and this is very useful as all the webpages under it are related. Unlike using a Search Engine, the related webpages that I am searching for are narrowed down and it does not give many redundant results.

Compare the search results. Identify 2 characteristics that make all 3 search facilities similar or different from one another.

One main characteristic that makes a search engine, meta search engine and search directory different is that search engines and meta search engines are machine compiled while a search directory is human compiled. As it is human compiled, it is more reliable. However, there is a drawback to this as well as it needs to be approved and thus, would take some time before the website appears in the subject directory.

The main difference between a search engine and a meta search engine is the way it searches for information. A meta search engine would search a series of other great engines and directories all at the same time and only returns the best results.

Do you find any strength/weakness of each of them, in terms of search capability?

The search engine returns a large amount of hits, which gives the user a wider choice. However, what it returns might not always be relevant. Thus, one might need to sift through quite a few pages of results before finding what is needed.

The meta search engine searches a series of other engines and returns only the best results. This would ensure it returns the most reliable search results. However, compared to a search engine, there are lesser results.

A search directory is more reliable as it is human compiled. However, there is a drawback to this as well as it needs to be approved and thus, would take some time before the website appears in the subject directory.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I feel that the search engine would fit my need most as it gives me a wider choice and if I need to, I can use the search techniques (such as AND, OR " ") to narrow down the results.