Annotated site

Photo of the week. (2009). Retrieved May 2, 2009, from http://www.ausphotography.net.au/

This site is for members to showcase their photographic skills and become involved in a community of like mind people. The photos are beautiful, provocative and stunning. The site is run by enthusiast that also host a mediated members list forum were ideas and knowledge can be exchanged. You can rent space to upload your special shots that gives you exposure to a broader audience for critiquing your work, which may eventually lead to publishing your work.

Shit in, shit out

You know the saying, you get out what you put in.

By including Boolean logic into search methods and spending more time in the advance search options I have rediscovered the hidden gems of the web.

Yes, I'm guilty of bad searches over the years I've been using the web to such an extent that I avoid searching unless I have to. It has become a major frustration to constantly receive pointless and useless hits on the searches that I generally walk away without the information. So you can guess from that last statement that I have my favorite web site that I visit regularly and forget about the rest. I did know you could use Boolean in the search tool but it was down that long lost memory, it needed a spark to blow the dust away.

Boolean search tools

(Notess, 2007)

Just found this chart at Search Engine Showdown, that shows the Boolean phrases in an easy chart.

Reference:
Notess, G. (2007). Search Engine Features Chart. Retreived April 29, 2009, from http://searchengineshowdown.com/features/

Organising search information task

Searching with Acrobat

Anything that I want to archive or just have a copy I save a pdf version—anything at all, search queries, emails, invoices, receipts. I can even scan a paper copy and convert the text to OCR and then search that if needed. For me it's the most convent way to store information for later retrieval.

For this task I just created a pdf file of the search results and save it on my computer. I can then search for that information through Acrobat.

The two reason for using Acrobat are:

1. I can search the contents of the pdf file without having the pdf open. (Full Text Search of PDF using Adobe Acrobat, 2007)
   
2. "PDF is now a formal open standard known as ISO 32000. Maintained by the International Organization for Standardization"—so I know my document will be accessible in the future ( Liberating information and the flow of ideas, 2008)
   
   
   
   
   

Reference:
Full Text Search of PDF using Adobe Acrobat. (2007). Retrieved April 28, 2009, from http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2007/06/full_text_search_of_pdf_using_ad.html

Liberating information and the flow of ideas. (2008). Retrieved April 28, 2009 , from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html

Boolean search

"It's not what one puts in, it's what one leaves out" (Davies, Esmonde & Larbey, 1975)

Or in the case of searching the web, using Boolean logic to exclude unwanted hits on the search.

Biggest number of 'hits' for Australian photography using the Boolean logic between the words as such, Australian 'or' photography returned over 9 million hits.



Using Boolean logic to narrow the search to find information most relevant to my search. For this I added a word (Australian landscape) AND (photography or photos) and



Information coming only from university sources.
Answer: not sure—I tried a number of sources, Google, Dogpile, Yahoo Directory and searched databases like ERIC and WorldCat.

The best result I had was using Google Scholar and using the advance search function only searching in publication published in universities. WorldCat was also successful but only returned book searches.


Davies, J. ( Producer), Esmonde, J & Larbey, B. (Writers). (1975). The Good Life [Television Series]. United Kingdom, BBC

Difference between searches

The three sets of searches posted earlier shows how different the results can be. Out of the three searches, there was not one overlap of sites—all sites were unique. According to research commissioned by Dogpile "Different Engines, Different Results" most search engines return unique results. They sugest "the top search engines have built and developed proprietary methods for indexing the web and their ranking of keyword driven search differs greatly", which I think are driven by their account department to return the highest profit for the company by returning sponsored adds as search results.

Dogpile argues by combining search methods from several search sites they arer able to deliver a "comprehensive result set that bring the best results from the top engines to the first results page". (Different Engines, Different Results, 2007)

At first glance all search methods were equal in returning valid results but none were particularly exciting. I suspect this maybe due to the broad nature of the topic I chose to search.

• The meta search tools returned significantly less results that Google
• Dogpiles 4 out of the top 5 returns were paid ads on Goggle searches
• Clusty did not use the Google data base but returned very similar results
  

I found Dogpile search even less exciting as most of the results returned were sponsored adds from Google for sites that tended to be for commercials services. Not very helpful.

Overall, the searches from these three did not result in better quality information, it just a gave a broader response. (Are "Smarter" Meta-Searchers Still Smarter?, 2009)


Reference:
Are "Smarter" Meta-Searchers Still Smarter? (2008). Retrieved April 25, 2009, from http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html

Different Engines, Different Results. (2007). Retrieved April 20, 2009 from http://www.dogpile.com/rescuefctb/ws/metasearch/_iceUrlFlag=11?_IceUrl=true

Meta search

Boy have my eyes been opened.

I thought all search engines were basically the same with the only recognisable difference of the branding.

After reading about Meta search at UC Berkeley and then doing a Goggle search on 'Meta search' I found that Meta search combines search engines to refine your search. I had no idea that searching in different search engines gave different results and that these results very rarely overlap. (Different Engines, Different Results, 2007)

These results are still only as good as the search engines used by the meta search tool, and if the "underlying databases aren't good" then the results from the search will still be poor and waste your time. (Vine, 2004)

I like the idea of using these combined searches engines to give better results through a meta search and have now been converted to using these tools but I would still classified this as 'fast' data. (Curtin University of Technology, n.d.)

Recognizing the difference between searching methods is half the battle to locating information on the web quickly—I'm surprised searching skills are not taught at school.

Reference:
Different Engines, Different Results. (2007). Retrieved April 20, 2009 from http://www.dogpile.com/rescuefctb/ws/metasearch/_iceUrlFlag=11?_IceUrl=true

Vine, R. (2004). Some Cautionary Notes on Vivisimo. Retrieved 20 April, 2009, from http://www.workingfaster.com/sitelines/archives/2004_07.html#000222

Curtin University of Technology (n.d.). The challenge of 'fast' data. Retrieved April, 20, 2009, from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_14736_1%26sc%3D%252fwebapps%252fdiscussionboard%252fdo%252fmessage%253faction%253dlist_messages%2526conf_id%253d_23724_1%2526forum_id%253d_47938_1%2526message_id%253d_558527_1%2526thread_id%253d552622%2526nav%253ddiscussion_board%2526course_id%253d_14736_1

No Sherlock, No Copernic

What do you do when the software is not available?

Thinking time required.

The first question to ask is what is Sherlock and Copernic used for?

They appear to be a type of search engine. Metasearch?

Java, the history of

Who said that Java didn't make it into consumer electronics? (Sol, n.d.)

You just need to view episode 4, series 4 of Red Dwarf to see an example of intelligent consumer electronics, Talkie Toaster.

(Talkie Toaster, n.d.)


Reference:

Sol, S. (n.d.). Introduction to Java. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from http://javaboutique.internet.com/articles/ITJ/part01/

Talkie Toaster [Image] (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2009, from http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/features/reports/for-arts-sake/index.cfm

PageSucker

What a cool name, that's about the only thing cool about it.

This is another one of those trick questions—linking students to an application that was last updated in July 2003 and only offering software that's obviously for an older operating system that's almost completely vanished. Why do they do this? I did not download this.

At first, I couldn't think why you would want to work offline, download speeds getting quicker and cheaper so there doesn't appear to be a reason to bother with this application. That's assuming all things being equal—your internet connection is working as it should be.
BUT then the thought struck me—what if your at work and you don't want your boss to know how much time your spending on the web and not working. You could download the sites without clocking up those hours on the server and read to your hearts content without the boss being any the wiser.

So it is cool after all!

But wait there's more.

The reason this has died
I keep reading the lifeblood of the web is the links, the fact that you can hop onto the web on one site and end up almost anywhere by following the links on the pages. PageSucker would then appear to have a very limited appeal, once the site is downloaded to your computer are the external links still active? I don't know, but if PageSucker needs to keep going out to the web to bring down more sites the whole thing seems pointless. And then there's the problem with filling up your hard disk space with offline web sites. I have a freind working in the Department of Health in Canberra and he said the government site had about 27,000 pages—downloading that site and reading offline might be a bit problematic.

bookmark managers

I tried URL Manager Pro 3.5 and I just can't see the value in paying almost $40 for a product that comes for fee in Firefox. There may be some extra bits that I haven't found that could justify the expense but they would have to have some seriously good automation tools to save time to make it worthwhile.
Also why would you take the trouble to use such a system when there are online bookmarking system for free that are not restricted to one computer. Most of us now have home and work computers so why restrict your self to a fixed system when you can have freedom.

Delicious really is Delicious.

Search manager

Not sure if I'm going mad here but as far as I can figure, Sherlock was a search engine for the old OS9 system, I can't find any reference to it on the Apple site under the current operating system.

And as for Glooton, which you have to say in a French accent, won't help—I can't speak French.

It's not going too well is it.

Now for Copernic Meta, a NET11er gave me a url where she found the application but I must say that was also a bum steer. The date on the site was listed as 'Friday, August 20, 1999', even if I did download it it won't work on the new operating system.

It's look like I'm stuck! Better go back to the 'Blackboard' and ask.

No luck, see post http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_14736_1%26sc%3D%252fwebapps%252fdiscussionboard%252fdo%252fmessage%253faction%253dlist_messages%2526conf_id%253d_23724_1%2526forum_id%253d_47938_1%2526message_id%253d_558527_1%2526thread_id%253d552622%2526nav%253ddiscussion_board%2526course_id%253d_14736_1

Is this a trick question?

Media Players

I already have Apple Quick Time player and have used the Windows version Flip4Mac, but I haven't needed RealPlayer before but I still downloaded it anyway. I find these types of applications are all very similar so I tend to stay with the one that most suites. I get most of my kicks with iTunes. I think it fits into the concept of "Your audience's use of communication" (Concept 2, 2009), in this case I'm the audience and my mode of communication is Apple's iTunes or Apple Quick Time player.

If I have time I'll investigate the others further.

Flash

It's found everywhere

This is another application that I didn't have to download, yes it comes with CS4 but in most cases it's already loaded onto your new computer.

(Flash Player Penetration, 2008)

The thing I really hate about fancy Flash based web sites is the waiting time while you download their introduction that shows you how good the developers of the web site are. I usually skip it if I can or just avoid the site altogether. However, Flash is a fantastic tool for adding interactivity to a web site that enriches the experience.

There are two trains of thought about flash:

My view
The tool can enhance the communication by incorporating animation and video in the web page and can be lots of fun to use. Although I do admit I hate the adds that keep moving and distracting me from reading the text.

Jakob Nielsen view
Flash: 99% Bad (Nielsen, 2000). Nielsen goes on to say that reduces the usability by encouraging design abuse, breaks web fundamentals and distracts from a site's core values. You just need to look at Nielsens web site useit.com it get a feel of his views on web site design. It's not mine!


Outcome
I concede to Nielsen, Flash is probably not a good for web sites and generally interferes with web design, but I find if employed wisely, it can be great fun to use and view.


References:

Flash Player Penetration [image]. (2008). Retrieved April 9 2009, from http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/

Nielsen, J. (2000). Flash:99% Bad. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html

Adobe Acrobat

I have used Adobe Acrobat Read in the past but now use Acrobat Pro 9—it came with my copy of CS4. I've used Acrobat since version 3 and although I don't claim to be fully versed with the current version and I'm sure there are practical uses I have not explored yet, I feel comfortable with my level of understanding of this product.

Acrobat has had a extraordinary effect in the printing industry, it has greatly enhanced the mobility of documents, enabling anyone to access the files independent of the platform or the original software that created the document. Previously, printers were required to hold a variety of the most common graphic design tools which was expensive to purchase and even more expensive to train people to use. Now printers only require the professional version of Acrobat and some extra plug-in to fully service the customer. This versatility has extended into general public use and has become the open standard tool for document management for a growing number of industries. (Adobe and industry standards, 2009)


References:

Adobe and industry standards. (2009). Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/standards/

Document Management application. (2009). Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=51502