Module 4

Using the info sphere: taking & organising

tools for using the web : searching the web : evaluating the web

Tools for using the Web

The aim in this task is both to introduce (or re-familiarise yourself) with additional programs you might wish to use, and also to put them into use as tools that might be helpful for your assignment 1.

In your learning log record which programs you downloaded and note which (if any) facets you think might prove useful.

1. Adobe's pdf reader:
Although a already have this application I do think that the PDF reader supplied by Macintosh called Preview is easier to use, it my be that I am more accustom to using it.
2. Flash/Shockwave Players:
The page to test if Adobe Shockwave and Flash Player are installed on your machine is quite intuitive and is located here. I have already installed Flash Player at an earlier date but I did not have a copy of Shockwave. I mainly use Firefox to browse so when the site was loaded below my bookmark tool bar I saw (please click on image for a larger version)

After I clicked on the install button I was taken to a window that advised me that no plugins were missing . Interesting given that I had just been informed that I don't have shockwave installed.

3. Media Players:
I have already installed and use Quicktime and Windows Media Player but I have never heard of Real Player so I downloaded a copy. I'm not sure that I will ever use this media player but it my come in handy on day.

4. Search Manager/Combiners:
we were asked to look at example Glooton for Mac and Windows but it appears that this web site is just an advertisement for a french company who produce web sites, I did use a translator site and didn't fined any useful web tools. After searching around the net I think this site was at one point useful:-)

5. Bookmark Manager:
I am greatly appreciative of finding a bookmark manager (this should keep the wife happy she hates my endless bookmarks in the tool bar)
I tried the suggested URL Manager Pro Mac but I didnt like the fact that I could not try the application before I was required to purchase it, I did and search through Version Tracker and found WebnoteHappy Lite its quite easy to use but I dont think its an app I will use.

6. Offline Browser/Copier:
As far as I can tell from the Page Sucker web site which is the recommended tool for offline browsing the app has not been updated since 2002 and appears to be quite old. The issue of offline browsing is no longer relevant with current broadband deals from ISP's.

Searching the Web

Choose your most commonly used internet search engine and do a search with words of your choosing.
I decided to do a search with the keyword 'surfing'.

record the first hit and number of hits in your learning log
First hit was google images
Results 1 - 10 of about 63,800,000 for surfing

Using copernicus or similar, set it up to search at least three se arch engines (including one that will search the 'deep web') and repeat eactly the same search
Garry Ried suggested in the thread RE: No sherlock, No Copernic in the unit disscusion board to view the UC Berkeley site where the meta search tool www.surfwax.com was suggested to be "A better than average set of search engines.Can mix with educational, US Govt tools, and news sources, or many other categories." so given my subject matter I decided to try it out. The initial search returned 201,000,000 pages clearly a lot more than Google with first hit being a CNN article titled 'Layoff Worries Keep Many From Taking Vacations, Experts Say'.Interesting given that I searched 'surfing'


record the number of hits in your learning log, and compare to your first search. What differences did you notice? Why? Which search, on first glance gave you the most promising results?

Surfwax returned 201,000,000 pages where Google returned 63,400,000. The main difference I noticed was the fact that Google listed images above the actual pages. I think it is hard to say what search results were more 'promising', I do think that both ways of searching have a place. I think if my search was aimed at retriving information Surfwax would appear to yield the most promising results.

save at least the first 5 hits of both searches.

As you can see from the images above Google's results included I mages, www.surfingaustralia.com, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfing, www.surfingmagazine.com and then video results for surfing.
Surfwax returned Wikipedia for the top two followed by a Sand Diego surf report then answers.comand lastly a photo page.

Taking the same key words of your last search, think about how you would best search for the following:

• the biggest number of hits relating to these key words

• information most relevant to what you ACTUALLY wanted to look for!

• information coming only from university sources

Discuss your strategies with the class and record the exact search terms you used in your learning log

The search results during this exercise have been larger by around 50% using the site Surfwax.com
when searching for broad results with a large cross section of both academic and informal entertainment sites both Google and Surfwax.com delivered similar results. when searching for information coming from University sources the site Google Scholar had results that the other search engines had not retrieved.
The clusty search tool was recommended by another student so searching with Boolean techniques I added some more criteria to my search surfing+waves with the following results

When I searched with the key words surfing and waves my results were subtlety different

Evaluating the Web

First, work through the following short, but clear tutorial on evaluating and understanding the information that you find. (You should also see that managing information is closely tied to evaluation: how you store, keep track of and otherwise 'manage' your surfing results is very important.)
Next, choose your best 'source' or site from the three you used in the last task, then evaluate it according to the tutorial below.
Ohio SU net.Tutor
This source should be appropriate for your annotated sites in your Concept Reflection & Research Assessment if you haven't yet completed it. In any case, the source should be relevant to this unit.
In your own words, write an annotation for the source which could communicate to a reader both your 'judgement' of the site according to what you have learnt from the tutorial, and also the following information:
the reliability and authority of the site / source / article
the main ideas or subjects discussed in the articlethe purpose for which the site was written (this might include any apparent external interest, intellectual motivation or contextual information)

The site I have chosen for annotation is
http://www.surfing-waves.com/

The above mentioned site provides relevant information in regards to the sport of surfing including surf maps with a global context which is great for the traveling surfer. There is quite an extensive forum with views and opinions from topics such as surf travel to associated hardware involved in the sport of surfing. I found the section of basic rules to surfing quite informing and educational. This site is to educate and inform whilst creating a sense of community. It is quite hard to verify who the author of the site is although attached to the privacy policy and terms of service there is a mailing address pointing to WA Australia. The content of this site appears to be unbiased and information is displayed in a transparent manner with news being updated regularly adding to the currency of the site. The value of this site is recognize by around 80 pages linking to http://www.surfing-waves.com/ through Google although it returned a delicious a result of no public bookmarks I still believe the content is valuable.

Compare your final analysis and annotation with the material you saved for the last task, and think about these questions (you may wish to discuss these questions in your group)

in terms of your own future use, which 'body ' of information (ie. the original 'snapshot' of the site, or your own, annotated, analytical version) would be most useful to refer back to?

In term of external users (i.e. if you included this site as a hyperlink or resource on a website) which body of information would best help them judge if the site was useful or of interest to them?

Record your reflections in your learning log