Chris Horan, Amilton Pires, Jake RosatoProf. McGonagle

IT101-013

A search engine is an “information retrieval system” designed to help find information on the internet and other computer systems.

Search engines shorten the time required to find information and the limit the amount of information needed for presentation with specific relevance to the topic.

They also allow for information to be sorted and presented without information overload.

Search Engines work by uses 3 methods while accumulating information. These three methods are: Querying, Ranking, Indexing.

Querying is a when a search engine interfaces with groups of information and allows the user to specify what criteria it has for their search. The search engine then begins to sort out information and find related/matching groups according to the users criteria.

Ranking is when a search engine looks for exact matches of the criteria within the group of information selected by the user.

The search engine looks for exact matches to the criteria, but will become less lenient about matches if there is little exact information and it can become more beneficial to the search to include more results.

Indexing is when a search engine uses previously recorded or accumulated data on a subject and then relates the information back to the user based on their entered criteria.

Here is a “low tech” look at the way search engines work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kygHnEwchFA

The Most popular search engines on the internet today are Google©, Yahoo©, MSN©, AOL©, and Ask©.

•Today with the technology available in public search engines, college students take advantage of this information

•Alternative research method

•Search engines are more convenient when conducting research

•Saves time

•Students no longer are limited to researching in textbooks

•Many of the textbooks in a typical library can be found on the internet through search engines in PDF documents

•Search engines have changed internet lingo

•“Google”-(verb) to search, to look for

• Make researching easier not only for students but also the general public

•Great tool for those who do not have access to a library when conducting research

• Great tool for general research (online shopping, advice, how-to manuals, etc.)

•Search engines have had a major impact in the stock market

•Current Stock Prices: Google- 644.01 Yahoo- 29.03

•Google buys YouTube at $1.65 Billion and creates an online empire

•Google stock price continues to slowly increase

•Has started a trend in investment in online search engines

•Is used in the business world for research in market trend and potential advice in investment opportunity

4% of all results are for risky sites Top 5 have links to dangerous sites AOL-safest (2.9%) Yahoo-riskiest (5.4%) Scams- 3.2% of sponsored results Improving with security software Aug. 2006- AOL releases info on searchers

Spyware, adware, scams Sites can save/show personal information Less use of libraries Relying on search engines

•http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3462911

•http://www.yahoo.com/finance

•http://www.wikipedia.org/searchengines

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kygHnEwchFA