Search+Engines

= Search Engines = Lindsey Burkhart

Description and Uses of Technology
Search engines were created as a tool for internet users as a means to sort through its vast amounts of information and focus in on only that which is desired. Search engines, which surfaced in 1994 (Wall, 2006), have made navigation of the World Wide Web much faster and easier for users employing the technology. They have even been hailed by some as an “indispensable technology” for the functioning of today’s society (Halaviais, 2009) based on the time they save internet users. Search engines were originally created and used by universities to index information. The first among them was [|WebCrawler], which surfaced on the internet on April 20, 1994 compliments of the University of Washington. WebCrawler became immensly popular since it was the first internet "crawler" which could index entire pages, which led to it eventually being purchased by AOL. It was later purchased again by Excite to power its new NetFind, which opened the door for Lycos, InfoSeek, and OpenText (Wall, 2010). Today the top 15 most popular search engines are [|www.Google.com], [|www.Bing.com], [|www.Yahoo.com], [|www.Ask.com], [|www.aol.com], [|www.mywebsearch.com], [|www.Lycos.com], [|www.dogpile.com], [|www.Webcrawler.com], [|www.Info.com], [|www.infospace.com], [|www.search.com], [|www.excite.com], [|www.Goodsearch.com], and [|www.Altavista.com] (Ebusiness Knowledgebase, 2012).

As useful of a tool as today's search engines are, the actual "purpose" of this type of technology has changed considerably. Originally used for organizing information in institutions of higher learning, search engines are now almost strictly used as marketing tools for large corporations as a means to yield a profit (Wall, 2006). Search engines are run by for-profit corporations that conduct their businesses online; a very desirable location since there is so much "traffic" on the internet. To use a search engine, the user needs simply to choose one, and then type their desired word, phrase, or question into the site's search box. In a matter of milliseconds, the search engine will provide the user with a list of the most relevant results according to the search conducted. Usually, the listing displayed as the best possible match will be that of a sponsor of the search engine. This means that this particular company has paid the corporation behind the search engine a hefty amount of money to advertise with it, and therefore becomes "weighted" to show its product or service as the most relevant (Crosman, 2006).

Important Findings on Student Outcomes
Search engines are one of today's emerging technologies in which educatorsrs can use to facilitate student learning (Becta, 2009). At first glance, it might appear that today's students have it "all-too-easy" when it comes to gathering the required resources for assignments and research; however, using the internet as a tool for collecting information is not a mindless task. In fact, allowing students to use search engines to locate items such as electronic journals and articles requires that they have a frim understanding of exactly what it is that they are looking for. Students need to be able to identify the keywords and phrases which will lead them to their desired result, which leads to increased salience and relevance regarding the questions they ask themselves and their teachers (Cohen, 2007). However, most students are probably more impressed with the amount of time they save by using search engines, rather than their ability to sharpen their cognitive learning skills. Search engines are able to save students, and all other users, so much time because they consist of three main components which make them lightning fast: a database, a collection of web pages and links, and a search interface (Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries, 2012). These components are responsible for the growing success of today's search engines, since there would be no point in having an extremely fast search interface, if the database does not return relevant results to the user. Likewise, it would not make much sense to have a large, well-organized database or collection, if the search interface itself is slow (although computer connection speeds also play a role), or inaccurate in its results (Wall, 2006). Before the existence of the internet and search engines, it was necessary for students of every grade level to visit their school or community libraries in order to access the information they needed for assignments or research. Due to the sheer bulk of books and paper journals, it would have been practically impossible for students to access all of the information which they are able to today through the use of search engines (Nowicki, 2002).

Emerging Trends and Open Issues
Nowadays, even the search engines themselves have evolved to deliver the desired information more efficiently. Seymour, Frantsvog & Kumar (2011) explained that here are currently three types of search engines out there on the internet today: general search engines, specialist search engines, and meta-search engines. The oldest, or the general search engines, are ones that cover all areas of knowledge and usually from an international perspective. The specialist search engines were developed to meet more specific needs than are met by the general search engines. They may cover only a particular subject, geographical area, type of information, or they may be designed especially for a particular group of users, like youth, women, or people who speak specific languages. Finally, meta-search engines were created to allow an internet user to type their query into several search engines simultaneously. This results in far more relevant matches by employing more than one search engine at a time.

The search engine market continues to grow today by expanding the media in which it indexes. The internet is witnessing the birth of new vertical search engines which cover content "outside of the usual" algorithmic search product (Sterling, 2005). Outside of the usual, in this case, refers to the ability of a search engine to provide its user with a service that can actually "answer" their question. Following the overwhelming popularity of [|www.YouTube.com] over the last few years, major corporations like Google, Yahoo, and MSN are now contending to create their own successfull vertical "video platforms" on the web. Google made waves on the web when they created Google Scholar, a database which indexes journals and other "scholarly" materials, and Google Earth, which provides users with a 360-degree view of nearly every location on the planet. Business moves like this prompted rival Yahoo! to invest in other "high-traffic mediums" such as [|Flickr], a popular photo sharing site. The goal of the out-branching into new media territories by major internet corportations is all in an attempt to keep up with new technology, while driving users back to their core search engine (Risetothetop.techwyse.com, 2009).

The accuracy of a search engine's returned results has always been an open issue (Wilkins, 2002). There are numerous websites which provied false or misleading information, be it intentional or unintentional. This is a major concern for students who rely on the internet as their main source of access to the information needed to write a report. Parents are also aware of the hightened probability of their children being exposed to inappropriate materials via the internet. As a remedy, most of today's major corporations have created special search engines which are considered to be "kid friendly." Websites such as [|www.Ask.kids.com], [|www.kol.com], [|www.kids.yahoo.com], [|www.kidsclick.org], [|www.onekey.com], and [|www.kidrex.org] provided young users with sources whose content has been verified and approved for child users. However, the moderation of public information by major corporations can be a double-edged sword for search engine users. On one hand, search engine filters help to protect children from witnessing the massive quantities of adult material which exists on the web. On the other hand, these filters can also withold important information from the public without thier knowledge, an act in which one of the largest search engines corporations was suspected of during the BP Oil Spill of 2011, amongst other controversial national and global affairs (Gross, 2011).

**References**
Becta. (2009) Emerging Technologies for Learning. access: [] Cohen, L., Manion, L and Morrison, K. (2007) Research Methods in Education, 6th ed., London: Routladge Falmer Crosman, P. (2006). Get smart. //Intelligent Enterprise, 9//(12), 10-10. access: []

Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries (2010), //Web Searching: Search Engine Components//. access: []

eBiz MBA, Ebusiness Knowledgebase (2012). //Top 15 Most Popular Search Engines.// access: [] Gross, Doug (May 19, 2011). [|"What the Internet is hiding from you"]. //CNN//. access: []. Halavais, A. (2009) Search engine society. Cambridge: Polity Kahn, J. (2006, Feb 12). So long, dalai lama: Google adapts to china. //New York Times,// pp. 4.5-4.5. access: [] Nowicki, S. A. (2002). Students success with world wide web search engines: Retrieving relevant results with respect to end-user relevance judgments. Nova Southeastern University. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 193 access: []

Search Engine Market Share (2009). Rise to the Top Blog. Risetothetop.techwyse.com. 2009-08-04 . access: []. Seymour, T., Frantsvog, D., & Kumar, S. (2011). History of search engines. //International Journal of Management and Information Systems, 15//(4), 47-58. access: [] Sterling, G. (2005). Search Engine Journal, //Meta vs. Vertical search engines//. access: [] Wilkins, P. (2002) South Seattle Community College Teaching and Learning Center, //Teaching Students to Effectively Use the Internet//. access: [] Wall, A. (2010). How Search Engines Work: Search Engine Relevancy Reviewed, access: [|www.seobook.com/relevancy/] Wall, A. (2006). Search Engine History: //Early Search Engines//, access: [] WebSideStory. (1999). The Search Engine Report. //Who's the biggest of them all?// access: [] Zimmer, M. (2009).Privacy on Planet Google: Using the Theory of “Contextual Integrity” to Expose the PrivacyThreats of Google’s Quest for the Perfect Search Engine, //Journal of Business & Technology Law//, 3(2), 109-126.

Reviewed By: (Peer Review Name 1, Peer Review Name 2)