Tag Archives: google

Google, reading response.

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According to James Grimmelmann, “Whoever controls search engines has enormous influence on us all.” As I started reading The Google Dilemma, that sentence immediately reminded me of earlier in the class when Gatekeeping was discussed.  Throughout the semester we tried different search engines, yet they all seemed to keep track of what we searched.  The Talentless Hack section of the article goes into detail about this.  It also mentions Google’s system, which is called PageRank that goes around the web counting links where the pages with the most links will be displayed higher in its results.  This was accidentally discovered by a college student named Adam Mathes.  He then wrote a blog discovering a technique he called Googlebombing, which I found very interesting.

google boogle

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The Google Dilemma was actually entertaining to read. My favorite part was “Search Jew”. What made me enjoy reading it was the honesty of it. It gave both sides to the story: although Google didn’t necessarily say those things, the algorithms are created by the programmers. It reminds me of most things in life how they cover things by “going around it”. Then, it explains how google in fact is sort if like a gatekeeper. They may not specifically pick what shoes up but their algorithms look for specific criteria which suggests which results pop up. This does not necessarily mean that the best or most accurate information pops up. In fact, that is where my aggravation comes from when googling something. The most common websites appear with the most searched results, leaving me with no scholarly, accurate information.

Journal on Library vs Internet.

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I performed a search for “data brokers” using Google and a couple of relevant results did float to the top.  I had to sift through a lot of questionable websites because they didn’t have an author or too strong of a bias, which brought their credibility into question. Another reason I doubted their credibility was because they weren’t really backing up their statements with any data or research.   While on the other hand when I used EBSCO there was less skepticism on my part when looking at the results, mainly because a lot of creditable information floated to the top.  While using EBSCO I did refine the search by adding privacy to one of the subject fields to make the search more specific.  I did find about a couple similar articles between the internet search and the library database search but about two of the results had a pay wall while using the internet search engine, the library database search allowed me to bypass a couple of pay walls since it was linked to the school’s account.

Badke:Chapter 3

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When reflecting back on my prior experiences utilizing search engines such as Google, I always thought it was best to be specific as possible, so that whatever results that would pop up, would be as remotely  close to my topic as it can. Unfortunately, this greatly limited my resources. I often found that the more specific I got, the fewer pieces of text I had to work with, and as a student writer, having more pieces to work with is always a pls. It opens up your horizons, and allows you to see different point of views to strengthen your writing. after using the “AND” and “OR” method, I was able to get a decent amount of research. will be using this technique from now on.

Badke Chapter 3

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From beginning to end of chapter 3 in the book “Research Strategies by William Badke” I was in absolute awe as I kept reading. I have been searching databases for a very long time; I also knew that the use of “keywords” are very important when searching databases. But from reading this chapter it took it to a whole new level. Badke imparted so much information in this chapter that will be  very helpful to me especially as college student.

I do researches regurlarly  and never knew that I was actualy doing it incorrectly, especially when searching for  information pertaining to a specific research topic; In fact, most of the times I usually just google the information needed using a lot of keywords. It never occurred to me that keyword must be very specific and words such as AND, NOT and OR plays a huge part in getting much better and specific results when searching databases.

In this chapter I think Badke was extremely thorough  in divulging valuable, resourceful information that will help me and many other students.

Just google it…

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Wow. That was my initial response reading halfway through Badke, Chapter 3. As often and frequently we say “google it”, googling something can actual get intense. Secondly, I believe this topic will help me greatly now and in the future and would have hoped they would teach you this BEFORE completing 3 years of college!! I actually did try some of the ways to search, using the OR method or the AND method, however, it didn’t quite work. Then I realized that Badke explains that certain search engines use different symbols, whether it’d be parenthesis or asterisks. He said to look in the HELP tab of the search engine, but I had no luck. Maybe we can try to do it in class. I do want to point out that Badke touched on a topic that I recently found out on my own. He says to try to minimize term words when trying to pinpoint a search goal. I agree greatly. What happens is people tend to think that the more precise you are in your search engines, the more accurately your results would be. Well after becoming frustrated this semester, with over 10 research assignments to do, I realized that when you use less words you come across a greater amount of information, leading you to greater possibilities. Authors should really considering including these search methods into writer’s guide books, such as “Rules of Thumb”.