1a. The title of the web page I am defaulted to is "Apple- Start", and its URL is "http://www.apple.com/startpage/".
1b. This appeared because this is the default home page for the Apple Safari web browser. To change this, I would go to the "Safari" menu located on the top left corner, click on "Preferences," and then click on the "General" tab where I should find the "Home Page" label. I could then click on the edit field to change my home page.
2. Yes, I can change the appearance of web pages within my browser. To do this, I would go to the "Safari" menu located on the top left corner, click on "Preferences," and then click on the "Appearance" tab. I am given the options of changing "standard font" and "fixed-width font." I would want to change the font for the purposes of usability and readability. Changing the font to a larger size could be especially helpful for those with visual disabilities.
3. The default search engine associated with my web browser is "Google." I would get to it by clicking on the text box located in the upper-right hand corner next to the magnifying glass. I would type in a word or phrase and then press enter. The Google search results should appear next.
4a. I had 69,400,000 matches. I would estimate that about 75% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
4b. I had 25,200 matches. I would estimate that about 25% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
Bing (w/o quotation marks): I had 3,180,000,000 matches. I would estimate that about 60% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
Bing (w/ quotation marks): I had 349 matches. I would estimate that about 40% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
AltaVista (w/o quotation marks): I had 3,140,000,000 matches. I would estimate that about 60% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
AltaVista (w/ quotation marks): I had 349 matches. I would estimate that about 40% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
Teoma (w/o quotation marks): I had 44,000,000 matches. I would estimate that about 70% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
Teoma (w/ quotation marks): I had 49 matches. I would estimate that about less than 5% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
BlowSearch (w/o quotation marks): I had 70 matches. I would estimate that about 15% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
BlowSearch (w/ quotation marks): I had 10 matches. I would estimate that about 70% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
Kartoo (w/o quotation marks): I had 15 matches. I would estimate that about 20% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
Kartoo (w/ quotation marks): I had 10 matches. I would estimate that about 60% of the searches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
5. The number of hits are not consistent across search engines. A possible reason for these differences is that some search engines index more web pages than others. Therefore, it is unlikely that two or more search engines will have exactly the same collection of web pages to search through. If I am trying to narrow the number of matches of my search, then I would use Bing or AltaVista. I would be wary of using BlowSearch or Kartoo because the number of matches they provide are too few.
6. Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. I would call it an "answer engine" since it does "dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods" rather than by "searching the web."
7a. A metasite takes search results from a variety of search engines. For example, Dogpile shows search results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing. A regular search site looks through its own collection of web pages that they have indexed.
7b. Dogpile does not reveal how many matches it finds. The matches are organized by relevance and overlap among the three search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) that Dogpile uses. If the web page is found on all three search engines, then it will appear at the top of the results page in Dogpile.
7c. I would estimate that about 60% of the matches actually relate to learning how to make web pages.
8a. I had 213,000,000 matches. The matches are organized by relevance to the keywords used in the search.
8b. The matches on Mamma do not rely so much on organizing how well they overlap among the different search engines that it uses. Therefore, it seems that the results place a heavier emphasis on relevance to the search.
9a. I am using the Google search engine. Yes, there is a way to search specifically for multimedia.
9b. By clicking on the "Play" tab, I can search for music, books, movies, android apps, and devices. By clicking on the "YouTube" tab, I can search for videos.
9c. I did a search for the song, "Chariot," by Gavin DeGraw, and had 4,140 matches.
9d. I did not see any warnings, disclaimers, or other information provided about using the results.
10. Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/search-home
blogs: http://www.icerocket.com/
scholarly/academic publications: http://www.jstor.org/
books: http://www.bookfinder.com/
images: http://compfight.com/
video: http://www.blinkx.com/
music: http://mixturtle.com/