Resources

General, Multithreaded, and Categorical Search Engines: A Comparison

Searching Search Engines: A Results Comparison

Site Evaluation

I examined the three types of search engines on several criteria such as organization, user friendliness, and display of results. Prior to completing this assignment, I had a general search engine preference. However, after visiting other sites, I am more inclined to use a different one! Here are my observations.

General Search Engines

Google – The main page of this search engine is user friendly and easy to navigate. There is limited use of words that are centered on the page with a white background. There are different categories that a user may choose to use such as “Web” and “Images”. There is also an advanced search option, a way to change preferences, and also change language. In order to find tips on how to search more efficiently, it takes some time locate this information. You must click on “About Google”, and then click on “Help”, and so on. It would be more useful to have a direct link from the main page. When searching with my keyword, the results page listed how many results, time, sponsored links, and then the first 10 results that all had information pertaining to my topic.
Yahoo – The main page of this search engine has a more interactive interface. The actual search engine is at the top of the page and it too has different categories to search within. In order to access search tips, you must scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Help” – on this page there is a tutorial on Yahoo! Search. However, the majority of the page is loaded with news, entertainment, weather, classifieds, etc. When searching with my keyword, this results page mirrored that of Google; it too has sponsored sites, amount of results, time, etc. But it is only until this page can you do advanced search or change preferences. And at the bottom of the page has other suggested key words.
Ask – The main page of this search engine is again different from the other two. It is user friendly – does not have a lot of distractions for the user. It does not have different categories, preferences, or language options. However, it has a side bar that links to the news, weather, sports, encyclopedia, etc. In addition, I do see how to find search tips. When searching with my keyword, the results page was a little different from the two. First of all, now it allows the user to perform categorical searches and change preferences. Sponsored links are listed within results. There is a sidebar that allows the user to narrow or expand their search.

☺ When comparing the three results page from each of these search engines, there are some similarities and differences. First of all three search engines listed results that pertained to school bullying, parents, and teachers. However, only the Ask results page listed several sites about the definition of bullying. In addition, only the Google and Yahoo listed news stories about bullying. In addition Ask was the only search engines whose top listed sites discussed prevention methods.

Multi-threaded Search Engine

Metacrawler – The main page of this search engine is simple and straightforward; there are not many distracters. The user is able to search within different categories, do an advanced search, and change preferences. It also has links to popular searches. Finding search tips is easy once you go to the bottom of the screen and click “Tools & Tips”. When searching with my keyword, the results page lists the sites it has pulled from multiple search engines, but the user is able to limit these results by selecting specific ones. In addition, each result states from which engine it came from. In addition the right-hand column lists different search words to guide the user. In terms of what types of results surface, it covers all of the topics listed in the three search engines above, which should be no surprise! There is even some overlapping of course. However, there are no sponsored links that are listed on the page. In addition, where the general search engines had thousands of results, this one only listed 89!

Categorical Search Engine

BUBL – The main page of this search engine is pretty simple to understand. The user is able to type in a keyword to search, but is also able to search by alphabet, by subject, country, and types. There is also a list of larger groups of pooled information like the arts, religion, and technology. The user is able to access advanced search criteria, but I am unsure on how to obtain information on search tips. I tried several ways to find information on bullying, but came up empty handed. I tried to search under education itself, specifically research and policies. I looked under schools and only found bullying in terms of in the workplace and on more serious crimes like drugs and weapons. I looked under violence, harassment, bullying, and I could not find anything! While this search engines certainly breaks the information into defined categories, I was unable to locate sometime so general like bullying. In addition, I noticed there were about 15 to 20 results in each of my search attempts.

I searched five search engines with the same subject keyword: The First Thanksgiving. I then selected one webpage from each results page and did a brief evaluation of them. Here are my observations.

Google: I initially typed this in quotes, but after taking those out I found this wonderful website!

Ø http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/the_pilgrims__first_thanksgivi.html

Ø Target Audience: 2^nd/3^rd grade

Ø Content Area: social studies

Ø Type: general grade level class

Ø Topic: Thanksgiving

Ø This was just a wonderful site not only for Thanksgiving, but just for early childhood education in general. For thanksgiving, there was information on what to discuss, ideas for planning, songs to sing, and resources as well. In addition, it gave ideas on how to incorporate Thanksgiving into the different subjects like math, art, and language arts. The website was easy to navigate and clearly organized and has simple pictures. My one complaint was that the user will have to scroll down a lot.

Yahoo: I just typed in the keyword without quotes

Ø http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/

Ø Target Audience: 2^nd/3^rd grade

Ø Content Area: social studies

Ø Type: general grade level class

Ø Topic: Thanksgiving

Ø This was also another wonderful site, not only for the children, but also for teachers. This site for Thanksgiving was interactive for students because they were able to view a power point, explore ships, and make the voyage. In addition, this description of Thanksgiving, compared to the site above, got more in depth with the Indians and the Pilgrims. There are also additional resources and guides for teachers. Within this site, there are several links to other lesson plans and materials.

MSN: I just typed in the keywords without quotations. The results page listed several results, but I went to suggested topics and selected “First Thanksgiving Lesson Plans”. However, the websites they listed were either not working or were excerpts from encyclopedias. For instance…

Ø http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569242/Thanksgiving_Day.html

Ø Target Audience: 2^nd/3^rd grade

Ø Content Area: social studies

Ø Type: general grade level class

Ø Topic: Thanksgiving

Ø This was a very dry and short description of the holiday. It discussed a little about a lot of topics such as date, images associated with it, and origins. But it also discusses more irrelevant topics such as football and retail stores. While this may be more fun and interesting for adults curious about traditions, this certainly is not the best educational resources. I fail to understand why it is listed under lesson plans.

Dogpile: I just typed in the keywords without quotations. Many of the results listed were irrelevant – there were term papers and recipes and ancestry sites. So then I typed it in with quotation marks. The results did not change much, but I under these results, I found the site I used when searching within the Yahoo site! I went to the list of suggested searches and selected “Thanksgiving History”. I found a website that I have mixed feelings about

Ø http://wilstar.com/holidays/thanksgv.htm

Ø Target Audience: 2^nd/3^rd grade

Ø Content Area: social studies

Ø Type: general grade level class

Ø Topic: Thanksgiving

Ø The thing I liked about this website was that is was interactive for the students. There was a link to a quiz about Thanksgiving testing their knowledge about dates, places, and important people. This could be served as a pre-test to measure knowledge or even an assessment after the lesson. There is also a link to the Thanksgiving story that will answer all the quiz objectives. However, the site was very plain and did not have many pictures to engage the students – it was basically just words and A LOT of pop ups and advertisements.

Ask: I just typed in the keywords without quotations. All of the sites I have listed above were found on this webpage! In order to find something different, I went to some suggested topics and selected “Origin on Thanksgiving” and found this neat site:

Ø http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1083

Ø Target Audience: 2^nd/3^rd grade

Ø Content Area: social studies

Ø Type: general grade level class

Ø Topic: Thanksgiving

Ø There were many things I liked about this site. It was more information based rather than filled with fun activities for the students. It explained a lot of the history surrounding the pilgrims, Indians, and the Mayflower. It talked a lot about what was served on the first Thanksgiving compared to the traditions we use today. It also was interactive for the students in two ways. First, there were some questions about a pilgrim’s daily life and background that if you clicked on, a constructed answer of how a pilgrim might answer would appear. In addition, there was a short video clip discussing the origins. There was some modern things as well such as the Macy’s Parade in New York, but this certainly was not the focus.

To complete this assignment, I had to locate an educational website that offered resources such as lesson plans. After doing this, I filled out a website evaluation form. It was a thorough process and the criteria contained things such as design and pedagogy. After scoring each objective, I was able to compute the total score and assign a percentage value. Although this particular webpage received a failing grade, there were elements of it that I found useful and important.