Teaching and the Internet

The purpose of this exercise is for you to see how different search engines rank sites given the same keyword search. Are the top results in one search engine “better” than another?

Come up with your own keyword to search.  The keyword might be related to the subject you teach.  Make sure your words do not have any double meanings that might solicit inappropriate results.

• Tekmom
• Ivy’s resource centre for kids
• Google
• Lycos
• Alta Vista
• Yahooligans
• Dogpile
• Web Crawler

Try a search with the same keyword in the search engines listed above. Record the top five results for each plus count the number of paid listings per each search and answer these questions.

• Compare and contrast the results from the various engines. Can you make any generalizations?
• Did some search engines seem to have more paid listings than others? If so which ones?
• Which search engines might you be more likely to use and why?
• How might using more than one search engine when researching information help you find better information?
• What conclusions can you draw about researching information on the Internet?

This excersise should help you realize that you need to use more than one search engine when you are trying to find information, and that you should also look past the top results.

You may wish to refer to UC Berkeley’s BEST search engines site for information on how particular search engines work.