Reflection #5

Reflection #5

First Part: How much do you know about information literacy?

Take the following quiz to see if you are:

Somewhat Savvy (0-5 points)

Moderately Savvy (6-10 points)

Downright Nerdy (10+ points)

1.    List 4 major search engines and major directory.

A)    Google

B)   Yahoo

C)   Baidu

D)   …

I do not know what is directory…

Key:

Baidu(Chinese), Bing, Blekko, Google, Volunia, WireDoo, Yahoo!, Yebol…(from Wikipedia)

2.    What is a blog?

I think blog is an internet dairy, where you can write down your ideas or feelings on it and others can share their comment with you.

Key: Blog is short for weblog – it is literally a log of the Web.

3.    Why might you use quotation marks when conducting a search?

I have no idea…

Key: Use “quotation marks” to ensure your keywords appear in your search results in the order you have specified. You would use them if you wanted to research a given phrase. For example, if you conduct a search for global warming, a search WITHOUT quotation marks would find sites that include the words “global” AND “warming” – the words do not have to appear together and you will get more hits than you probably want.

4.    URL is an acronym for…

I have no idea…

Key: Uniform Resource Locator.

5.    Identity three Boolean search terms.

I do not know Boolean…

Key: AND, OR, NOT

6.    How do you find the owner or publisher of a Web site?

Google it…

Key: Go to ww.easywhois.com and enter the URL of the site you would like to research.

7.    Identity these extensions and what they represent:

.org à organization

.com à company

.sch à school (used outside of US)

.k12 àmost US school sites

.edu à education US higher ed

.gov à government US government (add country code for outside US)

.ac à higher ed outside of US usually used with country code, example, “.ac.uk”

.net ànetwork

.mil à US military

.co à cooperation Company (if paired with a country code, example “.co.uk” the state of Colorado or the country, Columbia)

8.    How do you find out who is linked to your school’s Web site?

Click on it…

Key: Go to Google: www.google.com and do a link: command search. In the search box type link:your school’s address.

9.    What clues in a Web address might indicate you are on a personal Web site?

See the extensions

Key: Look for a tilde “~” or the “%” sign or a personal name “jdoe” or the word “user” after the domain name and the first forward slash “/“

10. How could you conduct a search for the following: a list of Web sites of all the academic institutions in South Africa?

Google them

Key: Go to Google: www.google.com and type site:ac.za in the search box

11. How do you find the history of any given Web site?

Google it

Key: Use the Wayback Machine. Go to www.archive.org and type the URL of the web site you would like to research into the search box.

12. How would you conduct a search for the following: US higher education Web sites that contain the word turtle?

Google it with the key word turtle

Key: Go to Google: www.google.com and type “site:edu + turtle” in the search box.

13. How do sites get to the top of a result list in Google?

It depends on the frequency of hits.

Key: One factor Google uses to rank sites is popularity. It counts the number of links from sites all around the Web. For example, if a large number of sites has a specific keyword somewhere on their Web site along with a link to a particular site, Google counts the number of times the keyword appears along with the number of links to a particular site. The higher number of links to a site, the higher Google will rank that site on a list of results. There are several additional factors as well, including but not limited to the title of the site, the site’s meta information and the actual content of the site.

I think I am a somewhat savvy....Do you want to try it yourself?

Second Part: Meta -Web Information

     I choose All About Explorers as an example

     a) Dissect the structure : http://allaboutexplorers.com/

     1) The domain name is found after the http:// and www. to the first forward slash /. For example in the URL www.novemberlearning.com, novemberlearning.com is the domain name.
A domain name can sometimes provide clues about the quality of information of a site or tell you what a site is about.

           According to 1), the domain name of “All About Explorers” should be “allaboutexplorers”.

       2) .com and .net are examples of extensions. Extensions are an important part of domain names. You probably know quite a few already. Extensions are intended to show the type of establishment that owns and publishes the domain.

           According to 2), the extension in the domain name is .com, which means company.

       3) You may or may not recognize the domain name or extension of a URL. Keep reading past the first forward slash / for more clues. If you are on a personal page the information you are reading may or may not be trustworthy.
A personal page is a web site created by an individual. The web site may contain useful information, links to important resources and helpful facts, but sometimes these pages offer highly biased opinions.
The presence of a name in the URL such as jdoe and a tilde ~ or % or the word users or people or members frequently means you are on a personal web site.
          According to 3), this site may be not a personal web site.
 
     b) Examining a web site's external links is an important step in validating Internet information. In validating, ask three questions:
1. Who is linked to the web site? Look to see what other groups or individuals have linked to the site. Are they universities, schools or commercial sites? Read the URLs and titles of external links carefully. Look to see if there is a pattern in the types of sites linked.
This website is linked to some publications, media, educational blogs and other websites.
Publications: http://www.tonibuzzeo.com/bookscollaboration.html
This link does not look like a personal web site, since the domain name is the name of the web site and the extension is .com which means company and after the first / is a normal name.
Media: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/books/16libr.html?_r=0
This is linked to The New York Times, so I think this link is creditable.
Educational Blogs: http://kcaise.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/exploring-allaboutexplorers-com/
This link starts with kcaise not www, I do not know how to define it.
Other websites: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/iii-websites-to-validate/
This link also starts with novemberlearning not www. Does it mean personal? But otherwise it is normal and creditable.

2. What is the purpose of the link? Why have groups or individuals chosen to link to this site? Web authors choose to link to other sites for specific purposes. Speculate on what those purposes might be.
These links are references of this web site. And this All About Explorers does not have the copyright of others, but they are helpful to learn this page, so they are linked there. And one more reason I guess is to help explain some terminology in the page.

3. What do other sites say about the information on the site? Gain perspective about a web site by reading what another site tells you about it.  Cross-reference information and look for hidden bias.

 c) About advertisments: 
    I do notice every time I search a topic there are lots of advertisements come out. I think it may be the main income of a web site. I understand that fund is needed to run a web site, but I really hate some popping advertisements, especially when you want to click on the given one, once you click on it there will be an advertisement substitute it and you have to go to the ad page then turn back.

     d) How those information get sorted
Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com
Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to crawler-based listings for its main results. These came from Google until February 2004. Now, Yahoo uses its own search technology. Learn more in this recent review from our SearchDay newsletter, which also provides some updated submission details.
In addition to excellent search results, you can use tabs above the search box on the Yahoo home page to seek images, Yellow Page listings or use Yahoo's excellent shopping search engine. Or visit the Yahoo Search home page, where even more specialized search options are offered.
The Yahoo Directory still survives. You'll notice "category" links below some of the sites lists in response to a keyword search. When offered, these will take you to a list of web sites that have been reviewed and approved by a human editor.
It's also possible to do a pure search of just the human-compiled Yahoo Directory, which is how the old or "classic" Yahoo used to work. To do this, search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed to the regular Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get both directory category links ("Related Directory Categories") and "Directory Results," which are the top web site matches drawn from all categories of the Yahoo Directory.
Sites pay a fee to be included in the Yahoo Directory's commercial listings, though they must meet editor approval before being accepted. Non-commercial content is accepted for free. Yahoo's content acquisition program also offers paid inclusion, where sites can also pay to be included in Yahoo's crawler-based results. This doesn't guarantee ranking, Yahoo promises. The CAP program also bring in content from non-profit organizations for free.
Like Google, Yahoo sells paid placement advertising links that appear on its own site and which are distributed to others. Yahoo purchased Overture in October 2003.
Overture was formerly called GoTo until late 2001. More about it can be found on the Paid Listings Search Engines page. Overture purchased AllTheWeb (see below) in March 2003 and acquired AltaVista (see below) in April 2003. Now Yahoo owns these, gained as from its purchase of Overture.
Technology AltaVista and AllTheWeb was combined with that of Inktomi, a crawler-based search engine that grew out UC Berkeley and then launched as its own company in 1996, to make the current Yahoo crawler. Yahoo purchased Inktomi in March 2003.
Getting Listed: Read the Submitting To Yahoo section of Search Engine Watch's Essentials Of Search Engine Submission guide for more information on appearing in Yahoo's own editorial results. Read the Overture section of Search Engine Watch's Essentials Of Search Engine Submission guide for more information on Overture's paid listings program.

Search Engine Watch members have access to the How Yahoo Works section of the web site, which provides in-depth coverage of how Yahoo gathers listings. The How Overture Works page, which provides in-depth coverage of how cost-per-click ads can be placed with Overture.

HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com
HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler-based search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in one place.
HotBot's "choose a search engine" interface was introduced in December 2002. However, HotBot has a long history as a search brand before this date.
HotBot debuted in May 1996, it gained a strong following among serious searchers for the quality and comprehensiveness of its crawler-based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time. It also caught the attention of experienced web users and techies, especially for the unusual colors and interface it continues to sport today.
HotBot gained more notoriety when it switched over to using Direct Hit's "clickthrough" results for its main listings in 1999. Direct Hit was then one of the "hot" search engines that had recently appeared. Unfortunately, the quality of Direct Hit's results couldn't match those of another "hot" player that had debuted at the same time, Google. HotBot's popularity began to drop.
Even worse, HotBot also suffered by being owned by Lycos (now Terra Lycos). Lycos had acquired HotBot when it purchased Wired Digital in October 1998. Lycos failed to make search a priority on its flagship Lycos site as well as HotBot through much of 1999 and 2000, as it focused instead on adding "portal" features. The company refocused on search in late 2001, making significant improvements to the Lycos site and, as noted, reworked the HotBot site at the end of 2002.

Getting Listed: For the main editorial listings at HotBot, you need to be listed with the three major crawlers that it can query. Follow the links for these crawlers on this page, where they are mentioned.

AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com
AltaVista opened in December 1995 and for several years was the "Google" of its day, in terms of providing relevant results and having a loyal group of users that loved the service.
Sadly, an attempt to turn AltaVista into a portal site in 1998 saw the company lose track of the importance of search. Over time, relevancy dropped, as did the freshness of AltaVista's listings and the crawler's coverage of the web.
Today, AltaVista is once again focused on search. Results come from Yahoo, and tabs above the search box let you go beyond web search to find images, MP3/Audio, Video, human category listings and news results. If you want a lighter-feel than Yahoo but to still have Yahoo's results, AltaVista is worth considering.
AltaVista was originally owned by Digital, then taken over by Compaq, when that company purchased Digital in 1998. AltaVista was later spun off into a private company, controlled by CMGI. Overture purchasing the search engine in April 2003, then it later became part of Yahoo when Yahoo bought Overture.  

Third Part: Author

I typed "All About Explorers" into easrwhois and then comes out:　

That is really easy to use! And I can tell from it that this website is registered by FastDomain company and others in charge. Also the created time and the expited time. 
　

Fourth Part:  Purpose

Try to chase the history, so I found:

Also I notice that:

  

In conclusion, I think this website is creditable because, first of all, it has a normal domain name and a normal operator; second of all, it is mainly focusing on sharing teaching resources; last but not least, it has a clear history. From all the steps, I learned that a website is not a simple thing, it includes thousands of details that we may not pay attention before. As the example of a martinlutherking website, it does look normal and clear but once a child click it, it may spend inappropriate information which is not supposed to show to a child. Especially nowadays, we have bunch of information once we type a key word in Google or other search machine, how to identify them is still a troublesome problem. A child would not spend their time on indentifying a website is proper or not. I have to say I am very impressive at this course, I learned a lot of a different world.