Ha-ha, very funny. Right now there is no one better than Google except Google itself as a search engine. “Google, however, has taken a path that diverges from the portals. Its core service, search, is engineered to do exactly what the portals try so hard to avoid: sending the visitor to another site as quickly as possible. Web users appear to appreciate this.” – (Randall Stross, NYT Sept 2005). The article, Search Engine Society: Search Engines, Search Divides, Social Search written by Alex Halavais says, “Take a moment and type in the following search query into your favorite search engine: “Google is your friend.” Today, the number of hits stands at “about 363,000” (Halavais i). I am sorry Professor Halavais, but this is incorrect. On November 6, 2007 at 7:00 PM, I typed in the words that you said to type in to Google and the number of hits was astonishingly different. The number of hits was 118,000,000. This was way off from the amount you have previously stated. It’s amazing how many more hits there have been since you wrote your article.” Even the abbreviation of the phrase – GIYF – receives about 25,400 hits” (Halavais i). Well, at least this amount was closer. On November 6, 2007 at 7:05 PM, I typed in that phrase, and the number of hits was only a little off this time. It was 22,700 hits.

Search engines explained

The article goes on and mentions that “A website presents a box in which we type a few words we presume are relevant, and the engine produces a list of pages that contain that combination of words. In practice, this interface with the person, while important, is only one of three parts of what makes up a search engine” (Halavais 6). “The production of the database queries by the web form requires first that information about web pages be gathered from around the web, and that this collection of data be processed in such way that a page’s relevance to a particular set of keywords may be determined” (Halavais 6). This holds true because when I want to search for something like “quotes about friendship”, the search engine gives me tons of results and most of them are very helpful in finding the information that I am looking for.

Has search engines changed us?

In your opinion, “how search engines have changed us” (Halavais 15), what do you mean precisely? Do you mean that they have changed us for the better or worse or are you asking if a search engine a useful tool? In my opinion, I believe that a search engine is a useful tool but will become even more useful when it is available on more than computers and cellular phones.

Digital Natives

What do the terms digital natives mean? As quoted by Wikipedia, “A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3. I am going to put a plug in my blog and say: “For more information about Digital Natives go to Marc Prensky’s website to learn more.” His site has a list of books he has written and the topics that are mentioned in each of his books.

Self-Googling

Do you self-google? “Self-googling, person brand management, ego-surfing – all describe the act of monitoring one’s own image as reflected by the major search engines” (Halavais 34). Is this what you are trying to do Professor Halavais? Is it your intent to have us talk about your article so that you can get more “Google Juice” on your website because you like self-googling yourself. Well, I think that you are very cleaver.

When I ran track in high school, I use to type my name and town into a Google’s search engine to try to find out where I ranked in meets. I was a sprinter all through high school and when I found my name on Cool Running’s Website, it made me feel all special and warm inside because I found my name in articles and in newspaper websites. I loved reading about what place I came in. Now, when I try and search for myself, I do not find myself on any websites. I guess I need to become famous some so I can self-google.

Online Networking

This is becoming popular today with the Internet booming with sites like Facebook, and Myspace. “Judith Donath (2004) has pioneered the use of the term “Sociable Media” which she defines as those media that “enhance communication and the formation of social ties among people” (Halavais 46). “The search capability of many social networking systems is really two sides of the same coin: finding information about people you know, and finding people based on certain characteristics” (Halavais 53). I do this on a daily basis. I have an account on Facebook where I can search for people who went to undergraduate school with me, high school friends, or people who are in my currently in my classes. I really like this application because it helps me be in contact with others. I can do this by sending messages to their “Wall” or even contacting them by instant messaging if they actually post it on their profile.

Eight design desiderata for search user interfaces

Are we talking about the class ICM 502 or what? In Visual Aesthetics class, we are using a book called Nielsen, J. & Loranger H. (2006) Prioritizing Web Usability. New Riders Press, Berkeley CA. This quote from the article called Finding the flow in web site search written by Marti Hearst, Ame Elliot, Jennifer English, Rashmi Sinha, Kirsten Swearingen, and Ka-Ping Yee makes me think about the book we are reading for Visual Aesthetics. The book we are reading talks about how to design webpages that are user friendly. The quote is “Strive for consistency; offer informative feedback; offer simple error handling; permit easy reversal of actions; support user control; reduce short-term memory load; design for closure; and provide shortcuts for experts” (Hearst et al 45). I found this quote interesting because for my Visual Aesthetic class, I am design a personal portfolio website. I will use this information as I develop my website to make it more user friendly.