I must admit I never gave any real thought to the inner workings of search engines even as a student of computer science. The reading of chapter 3 by Badke reveals technical details in reference to search engines and how they work. Half way through the chapter where Badke talks about how Boolean logic can be used with keyword search reminded me of a statement reiterated in a few of my CST classes. This statement said that, “A program is only as smart as its programmer.” In this situation database searching using kewords requires applying proper logic for maximum efficiency, as it is a algorithmic program tool. I must admit, it’s really easy to forget this when it comes to Google. Google spoils us when we interact with Google search as if it’s human. The stunning thing here is that it actually provides useful information relevant to us most times. So when Badke says, “Garbage in, garbage out” is not exactly true outside the realm of database search. Because so many people use Google I believe the search engine links certain questions such as, “How do I cook a bowl of rice?” to pages or websites where someone actually answers this question through its data processing.
I agree with the quote you mentioned, “A program is only as smart as it’s programmer”. As much as I learned just recently from the Badke book, I did know a couple things abut researching. I realized researching is a skill acquired when my classmates were having difficulty finding journal articles. When I sat down with them to search, I was able to show them how to filter searches, increase the amount of databases that were being searched, and explaining that less is more. Research skills are definitely skills that come with practice and experience.