Chris Nolan: More then a Man

I found Chris Nolan’s presentation on web search-engines enlightening. In fact, I would have considered myself a research guru prior to Thursday’s class, but leaving I definitely felt humbled. It absolutely amazed me, how I was completely oblivious to Google’s advanced searched options, especially since I use Google at least twenty times a day. I was also surprised to find the “I’m feeling Lucky” tab which is located right next to the search button. I didn’t know this gave the option of immediately going to the website I typed into the search bar just as if it was the same website typed into the address bar. I also was unaware of how search engines function. I always assumed that the pages appeared because they were purchased to be listed so high. Instead, I surprised to see that the websites were aligned according to how many times that particular page has been cited through a link by other pages. I thought it was extremely innovative to measure the “usefulness” of a webpage through these means. But then again, useful information has a tendency to slip through the cracks but I think this system is still extremely beneficial especially with regards to finding scholarly information. I also was surprised to hear that Mr. Nolan thinks it is worth time to search past the first couple pages of a website. Personally, I usually check out the first few hits to see if there is any pertinent information and if there isn’t then I generally refine my search. But it was also good to hear that I’m not the only person with this poor research methodology, but I definitely will try to implement a more scholarly and thorough research the next opportunity I get. I was also surprised that the endings of the websites URL have such significance: gov = government, edu = educational, and org = non-profit organization. I was also oblivious to the fact that searches can be refined to search for websites exclusively ending in a particular end. I also didn’t know that these could make the search more legitimate by searching for only relevant scholarly websites. Today, I now realize that I definitely need to exercise caution when researching, as it is easy to be swayed into biased opinions. With all of the research capabilities provided by Google, it is no wonder why Google is the most popular search engine with 50% which beats second place Yahoo by nearly 25%. Anyways, I personally would like to thank Mr. Nolan for the presentation; it was the best this year.