Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Module 4: A way to search - 'Boolean'

The 'Boolean' searching logic on the internet is something that I've been using without knowing of its origins. I also didn't know how to use it properly until I read the tutorials.

I used 'Google' as my search engine for all the tasks on the 'Boolean' logic.

TASK: We have to record the hits to the words 'advanced internet users':

'Advanced Internet Users' as all the words with the following results:
About 113,000,000 for advanced internet users. (0.24 seconds)

With Boolean logic operators 'OR' and 'AND':
About 267,000,000 for advanced and internet and users. (0.17 seconds)
About 282,000,000 for advanced or internet or users. (0.35 seconds)
About 282,000,000 for advanced and internet or users. (0.13 seconds)
About 282,000,000 for advanced or internet and users. (0.20 seconds)

With Boolean logic Keyword Searching:
About 102,000,000 for +advanced+internet+users. (0.06 seconds)
About 104,000,000 for +advanced +internet +users. (0.04 seconds) (space between words)

With user fill in template:
About 13,700 for advanced internet users "advanced internet users". (0.06 seconds)

I think that the best way to look for anything in the internet is to refine the search as much as possible. We can look at searching in various ways:

  1. Do we just want as many 'hits' as possible and then go through the websites and filter information or;
  2. Do we want to have less hits with more relevant information that the search engine filters for us.
Personally, I prefer the search engine to filter the information for me. It makes life much easier.


TASK: We have to record hits by attaching a skill based to the words 'advanced internet users'

I've interpreted the 'skills-based' part of this question as a particular skill in advanced internet use. The skill I will use is 'Web Design'.

With Boolean logic operators 'OR' and 'AND':
About 76,700,000 for advanced internet users and web design. (0.15 seconds)
About 38,100,000 for web design and advanced internet users. (0.14 seconds)

With Boolean logic Keyword Searching:
About 37,700,000 for advanced +internet +users +web +design. (0.12 seconds)

With user fill in template:
About 1,180,000 for advanced internet users "web design ". (0.13 seconds)
About 792 for web design "advanced internet users ". (0.10 seconds)

Here again, the 'user fill template' was the best result with less hits and more relevant websites for the search.


TASK: We have to search universities for the words 'advanced internet users' and record the results.

For this task, I've only used the '
user fill in template' search to get results. From all my previous tasks, I think that searching the internet this way gets the best and most relevant websites.

Search in general for 'university', 'education', 'college' and 'teach' with the following results:
About 298 for university "advanced internet users ". (0.70 seconds)
About 350 for education "advanced internet users". (0.62 seconds)
About 194 for college "advanced internet users". (0.43 seconds)
About 195 for Teach "advanced internet users". (0.41 seconds)
Very relevant information and websites were displayed in the above search.

Search for Curtin:
About 53 for curtin "advanced internet users". (0.56 seconds)

The narrowing of the search to 'Curtin' resulted in very relevant and useful results as well. Most websites were about the NET11 course and the student weblogs.

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