1. Click on the "Home" button in your browser.
a. What is the title and URL of the web page you are defaulted to? After forcing my "Home" button to be visible, my "Home" is the Internet Movie Database www.imdb.com
b. Why did this appear? How can you change this default setting so that another web page automatically loads when you launch the web browser? A very long time ago, my mediaphile self set this. In Chrome, if you go to the far right menu and go down to the "Settings" there is a section for "Appearance". This is where the Home button can be activated and the homepage can be set.
2. Can you change the appearance of web pages within your browser (e.g., the font face and size)? If so, how? Why would you want to?
3. What's the default search engine associated with your web browser? How do you get to it?
4. Head to Google (http://www.google.com).
a. In the search box, type in learning to make web pages and click on the "Search" button. How many matches did you get? The Google search resulted in "About 222,000,000" results. (It took about 0.45 seconds.)
Visit a couple of the sites in the search results list. Can you estimate how many of the searches actually relate to learning to make web pages? In skipping the several ads, Codecademy was the first in the search. HTML & CSS tutorials and Khan Academy both show at the top of the search. After that the sites seem to get less from a structured group educating the masses and more to a user generated space, with How to Build Websites the site appears nice, but seems to be more of a personal blog with user comments than a framed tutorial.b. Return to the front page of Google. In the search box, type in "learning to make web pages" (with quotation marks) and click on the "Search" button. How many matches did you get? Link to a couple of the sites in the search results list. Can you estimate how many of the searches actually relate to learning to make web pages? The modified search in resulted in 8,220 results. (It took 0.26 seconds.) Sites are seriously more user-generated. It appears that there are considerably fewer sites that are associated with web design academies. These sites, including our own course websites and an individual named "Ethan" who took this course in 2015 appear. They include:
5. Are the number of hits consistent across search engines? If not, what do you think accounts for the differences? After looking at each of the above search engines, in what cases would you use a search engine that is not your current default (most likely Google)?
Google and AltaVista seem to be the most consistent. While Bing comes in third. The only thing that would motivate me to move beyond a Google search (which I think is terribly used--go beyond the first or second page of hits!) would be to cover my bases and approach a search from a different perspective.
6. Take a look at Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/). Is this a search engine? If not, what would you call it? If you decide that it is, list the reasons that you would classify it as a search engine.
This site is an encyclopedia. Using the categories creates a more guided experience through the use of the search engine. It seems to be difficult to access precise information. In using the "Culture & Media" section of the site, the automatic film was "Goodfellas". When I searched for a different film "The Ridiculous 6" definitions, pronunciations, and histories for "ridiculous" came up, but not the film. I think with user experience this site could be a wealth of knowledge, for many disciplines.
7. Head to Dogpile.
a. What is the main difference between a metasite and a regular search site?It appears that the data gathered by a metasearch site covers all options. With a broader basis for the search, it brings in pages that identify with the terms and adds "design" and what it assumes I am looking for in "free" as well. There are a number of results that seem minimally relevant to my initial search.
b. Do a search for learning to make web pages. How many matches did you get? How are the matches organized?They are jumbled with more ads dropped in between batches of search results. I could not identify a number of search results.
c. Visit a couple of the sites in the search results list. Can you estimate how many of the searches actually relate to learning to make web pages?I believe that many relate in some way to generating searches, but come from questionable origins.
8. Next, head to Mamma (http://www.mamma.com).
a. Do a search for learning to make web pages. How many matches did you get? How are the matches organized?Like several of the other search sites, Mamma has brought several options from user generated sites. At this point, eHow has come up several times. This page talks to the points that have been searched for, but does not actually actively teach a user how to generate code. Instead, it discusses using another service that offers tutorials on web design--w3schools.com--which claims to the "The World's Largest Web Developer Site".
b. How do the matches on Mamma differ from the matches you found in search 7?Using Dogpile brough a small number of sites proportionally to the number of ads being offered. They both weilded the w3schools.com option, but Mamma was less overwhelmed by advertisements and promoted content.
9. Either head to one of the search sites we've already used or head to one we haven't yet used and explore the front page of the site.
a. Is there a way to search specifically for multimedia?I am using Google.com. When you land on the main page you are simply presented with a clean, white page--no frills. The Google logo and a search bar are present. Type in your query and you are taken to your results page before you finish typing. Results are separated between an "All", "News", "Images", "Shopping", "Videos", and "More" sections. Using the option for "Videos"brings a long list of YouTube videos that relate to the query. The same can be done for "Images".
b. If yes, what specific elements can you search for? What are your options? (If not, try another site!)The separation between "Videos" and "Images" are clear and easily understandable.
c. Do a search for a specific element (e.g., your favorite song, a picture of Britney Spears). How many matches do you get?A search for "Doctor Who" brought "About 266,000,000 results". The first responses are from the News and followed by official sites, a Wikipedia entry, and the Internet Movie Database.
d. Are there any warnings, disclaimers, or other information provided about using the results of your multimedia searches embedded in the search interface?While the types of media that you are reviewing in regards to your search can be adjusted, including the time it was posted, thre seems to be no warning regarding each search result. I did access the Google Privacy and Terms of Service information when I scrolled to the very bottom and reviewed the content in grey.
10. Finally, do a search for web hosting sites. You'll want to explore cost, features, and the benefits of using a hosting service. Create a separate section in your module1.html web page and provide a bit of data that describes the web hosting site you would most likely choose if you needed to host a website.
See here for the answer to question 10.