Topic 2 - Navigating the Web

Part 1

A. What are the four (4) main points Michael Rappa makes about search? Please write them on your blog page.

1. Search engines allow users to find services or products online. Because of this companies need an online presence, companies can opt to pay search engines a fee to list their advertisements.

2. Users are not aware of the many ways to search, from a users prospective it only takes a word or phrase to get the needed results. Google for instance provides ways to search news articles, educational publications and journals. An approach of less is more would result in better results.

3. Michael Rappa states that users do not understand what a search engine is and describes it as a database with a list of URLS and key words.

4. He then moves on to discuss the ranking algorithm used by search engines that determines how the results are presented to the user. 

B. Watch or read the Marissa Mayer interview. Marissa says ‘search is in its infancy’. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What is your personal experience with search?  There are no right or wrong answers here, I just want your opinion.

I do not believe that search is in its infancy, not that I mean to say that search is all grown up but my opinion is that search is probably at the toddler stage. The video we viewed are 5 years old and technology grows at tremendous speed. For instance if you do a Tafe course as a stepping stone to get into Uni, let say Advanced Diploma of Computer Systems Engineering, after completing this course you decide to take time off, either to travel or maybe to work in order to save money for uni. You can only take 2 years off before your Advanced Diploma becomes irrelevant. 

My experience with Search has been positive, the more I have been searching the better my result seems to be. In part I believe this is because I have learned which type of searches give the best results and in part due to the growth of search.

C. Please watch the Bill Joy video, and it will give you a good background to the Internet and particularly to the emergence of the World Wide Web. 

1. So what are the 6 webs?

Near Web - Which means you are near the computer ie sitting in from of the computer.

Here Web - This means that the web is with you at all times, example of this is a smart phone.

Far Web - This means using the web where you are 'far' from the device. An example is watching TV from your couch.

Weird Web - Web controlled through, for example Bluetooth.

B2B web - Business computers communicating with each other.

D2D - Bill Joy describes this as embedded machine intelligence in ordinary life.

2. Could there be more?

Yes there could be more.

3. What does it mean for business?

Businesses need to adapt to technology. They need to be aware of the potential growth and exposure offered by technology.  I believe businesses are adapting well, for instance if you look at smart phones and the multitude of applications provided by businesses keep growing. I can use internet backing on my phone and it allows me to use a 4 digit pin instead of a 8 digit customer reference number and a password.