How can I find it?

BIT 330 Class Notes – September 14, 2009

I. Signing Up for Assignments

• Login to Wikidot, then return to www.howcanifindit.com
• Direct your browser to the bottom of the assignment page and click “Edit”
• Enter your username into the slot you would like in following format
  • [ [*user insert username] ]

II. Twitter Updates

• Get a twitter account
• Watch out for assignment update/reminders on Twitter
• Use Twitter as a resource to send questions to Prof. Scott Moore

III. Search Process

• Future of Search: Tools for search are constantly being updated
  • Experts used to be the only wielders of information, “the old way”
  • Experts are now You & Me, the world of wikis supports this new era of information
• Search Tools: search engines interacts with document(s)
  • Process: Query from User > Interacts with Document Set > Output Query Results > Possible Further Interaction between User and Engine
• Search Engines Technology – almost all search engines are “Default And”
  • General rule, add “more” to end of query to get more broad results
  • Google Spider – Program to constantly search for new information as it is published online, constantly keeping Google on the cutting edge of information awareness online
  • Directory/Meta-Search Engines – Gathers information about websites, does not keep whole website on database
  • Main 3 Engines we will look at: Google, Bing, Ask
• Search Terms and Operators
  • ~ [tilda]: searches for synonyms
  • “ ”: phrase search
  • –: terms to exclude
  • +: search exactly as is
• Evaluating a Search Engine’s Performance
  • Query results will have an undefined return of both relevant and irrelevant results
  • All results of a search engine query are the retrieved results

1. Now there will be some relevant documents that are not returned and some irrelevant articles that will be retrieved

• Search Experience – How to judge the relevance of a search engine - Important for Exam!
  • Query – automation, variety & usefulness of special queries
  • Results – content, format of results, delivery form
  • Subset of Web – opacity, target, quality of coverage
  • Searchable Information – how frequently is the information updated?
  • Search Engine – quality of search experience, responsiveness