Search Engine Showdown
The Search Engine Showdown requires you to examine, compare, and comment on a search engine that isn't Google. Here are your instructions.
- You and your partner will be assigned a pair of search engines from the list below.
- Take a couple of minutes to look at both.
- Pick just one search engine from your set.
- Take 15 minutes to explore the features of your chosen search engine in detail.
- On the appropriate discussion thread in D2L, provide a short summary/analysis of the engine you selected, including a comment on what makes it different from regular Google.
- Some prompts and things to think about:
- what engine you selected
- why you picked this engine
- what kinds of user information need(s) it helps meet
- what your engine assumes about the user
- what you liked about it vs. what you didn't like about it
- what specific features were particularly useful, or easy to use
- what specific features were less helpful, or frustrating to use
- anything else relevant that comes to mind
- Finally, using your notes and experience, you and your partner have to to pitch your chosen search engine to the class.
Wrap up: Everyone will have a chance to consider which search engine they are most likely to try themselves.
Search Engines
- http://www.sensebot vs http://wolframalpha.com
- http://yelp.com vs https://www.zomato.com
- http://scholar.google.com vs https://www.mendeley.com/research-papers
- https://www.webmd.com vs https://www.healthline.com
- https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/17567/ingredients/ vs http://www.supercook.com/#/recipes
- https://tineye.com vs https://www.gettyimages.ca/
- http://millionshort.com vs http://duckduckgo.com
- https://labs.500px.com vs https://www.shutterstock.com
- https://www.indeed.ca vs https://www.eluta.ca
- https://www.kidzsearch.com vs http://kidrex.org
- https://archive.org/details/tv vs http://projectarclight.org
Sample Searches and Useful Databases
Using Library Search, here are some example searches to help you find resources that might be of interest:
- Information architecture books/ebooks and articles
- Search engines and search engine optimization books/ebooks and articles
Some useful databases:
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ACM Digital Library CompleteJournal articles, conference proceedings and books from the ACM Digital Library
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Communication & Mass Media CompleteIndex & abstracts, and selected coverage, for journals in areas related to communication and mass media.
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar provides searching of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. This MRU specific link connects users to items available full text via MRU.
Other Resources
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Search Engine Optimization
by
Your visual, step-by-step guide to search engine optimization, from an Internet marketing expert Techniques and best practices for search engine optimization are constantly evolving. This visual guide to SEO is fully updated with information on the latest and most effective ways to move your website up in the search engine rankings. Internet marketing guru Kristopher Jones, a frequent keynote speaker at interactive marketing conferences, explains all the key concepts in a visual format so you can see how they work and what to do. Learn about keyword generation, internal linking, URL structure, content creation, using social media, and more. More than 70 percent of businesses today have websites; search engine optimization is a vital factor in growing a business by gaining new customers while increasing business from existing customers This two-color book is the only guide to search engine optimization that is presented in a visual format Presents search engine marketing principles including keyword generation, on-site optimization involving website structure, internal linking, URL structure, content creation, off-site optimization, social media optimization and more Author is a popular keynote speaker and panelist at interactive marketing and technology conferences Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing, Third Edition helps visual learners master and maximize SEO techniques.
ISBN: 9781118551776Publication Date: 2013-03-27 -
Win the Game of Googleopoly
by
Rank higher in search results with this guide to SEO and content building supremacy Google is not only the number one search engine in the world, it is also the number one website in the world. Only 5 percent of site visitors search past the first page of Google, so if you're not in those top ten results, you are essentially invisible. Winning the Game of Googleopoly is the ultimate roadmap to Page One Domination. The POD strategy is what gets you on that super-critical first page of Google results by increasing your page views. You'll learn how to shape your online presence for Search Engine Optimization, effectively speaking Google's language to become one of the top results returned for relevant queries. This invaluable resource provides a plan that is universal to any business in any industry, and provides expert guidance on tailoring the strategy to best suit your organization. Coverage includes an explanation of the mechanics of a search, and how to tie your website, paid ads, online reputation, social media, content, images, and video into a winning SEO strategy that pushes you to the front of the line. The Page One Domination strategy incorporates all the ways in which you can beef up your Internet presence and online reputation. This book is a clear, straightforward guide that will knock down the silos of the Internet and teach you exactly how to integrate all aspects of content creation into a synergistic, SEO strategy. Understand how search engines return results Design an effective, all-encompassing SEO strategy Create the content that gets page views and improves rank Optimize social media and video as part of an overall SEO plan The rules of SEO are always changing, and following outdated rules can actually work against you, burying you at the bottom of the pile. This book will spark a paradigm shift in how you think about SEO and gives you the tools you need to craft a strategy tailored to your specific market. To be successful, you need to be on page one of Google, and Winning the Game of Googleopoly can show you how to get there.
ISBN: 9781119002574Publication Date: 2015-01-21 -
Find It Fast
by
Go beyond Google to mine big data and social media Author Robert Berkman gives expert advice on how to search the internet to locate the best information sources, how to find and utilize the professionals behind those sources, and how to combine these techniques to complete an information search on any subject. This fully updated 6th edition includes how to search beyond Google, leveraging big data in the search process, and how to search the social web. Readers will also find expert advice on how to know if a site is a trusted source; understanding how and why sources differ; using precision search strategies and taming information overload; and finding, evaluating, and identifying experts. Whether it's consumer advice, information for a job or project, facts for starting a new business, or answers to questions on obscure topics, Find It Fast is the perfect resource for learning to hone one's internet searching skills.
ISBN: 9781937290092Publication Date: 2016-01-26 -
Navigation Design and SEO for Content-Intensive Websites
by
Navigation Design and SEO for Content-Intensive Websites: A Guide for an Efficient Digital Communication presents the characteristics and principal guidelines for the analysis and design of efficient navigation and information access systems on content-intensive websites, such as magazines and other media publications. Furthermore, the book aims to present the tools of information processing, including information architecture (IA) and content categorization systems, so that such designs can ensure a good navigation experience based on the semantic relations between content items. The book also presents best practices in the design of information access systems with regard to their main structures, including search query forms and search result pages. Finally, the book describes the foundations of search engine optimization (SEO), emphasizing SEO oriented to publications focused on communication and the coverage of current affairs, including images and videos. Focuses on the newly emerging and significant sector of content characterized by its use of multimedia: text, image and video Presents comprehensive coverage of sites and their combined information architecture and SEO needs Explores an analysis of existing best practices to offer operational proposals for the development of digital news and current affairs publications Analyzes academic studies by scholars working in this field
ISBN: 9780081006771Publication Date: 2016-08-21
