Task 1
Introduction
The access to information that has been created by the World Wide Web has been a huge effect on society and how individuals live their lives. Moreover, because of the huge volume of information available, finding information the information you need is not is always not straightforward.
In this task I have been asked to use my internet skills to identify websites that could identify possible mobile phone service providers. About how be finding out what is a search engines, how do they work, how they work and all the different types of search engines they are. To do this I will have to find out as much information I can about search engines by using different resources. I will also use and try many search engines to find relevant information to prove/disprove my five hypothesis. The information am looking for should be a paragraph. I will be looking for the best possible package, including free minutes and texts and a good choice of available mobile phone models, r alternatively choose a pay as you go tariff. I will also report it back to him with the finding of the research as well as conducting some financial analysis which should give him an indication of values for money.
Search Engines
A search engine is the program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.
The WWW can be a powerful tool when used for searching for information, especially when search engines are utilised correctly.
Search engines allow you to find web pages via their content. When you type what you want to find into search engine, the database is searched to find all the pages containing the words, and hyperlinks to take you to the page. The pages will be listed by the number of hits they have received, with the most popular first. If you enter two or more words, the search engine may return pages that contain the words in a different order, or pages with the words in different order, or pages that contain only some of the word of the words.
For example, a search for plant house returned page about houseplants, several references to House of Commons/ Lords proceedings that mentioned plant, and even if the page on the history of astrology where the author's surname was Plant and the text included the word house. One way to over come his is to put a speech marks round the phrase that you want to find.
The range of search engines
There are different types of search wed search engines, for examples Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, to name but a few. These are all general search engines that can be used to search for any topic.
Results from different search engines
The result you get from different search engines will depend on the database used. Some search engines, known as meta-search engines, do not have their own database of web pages. Instant, they transmit your search to several individual search engines and their databases. You then get back result from all the search engine databases queried. This should, in theory, give better results than searches using an individual search engine.
Logical operators (AND, OR, NOT)
These are Logical operators are AND, OR and NOT: These can be used to add precision to the search you make using search engine.
The search engine that is going to help me to do my investigation are:
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.ask.com
These search engines are going to help me to do my investigating about mobile phones.
Google
Google is a popular Web search engine. Google's roots go back to 1995 when two graduate students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, met at Stanford University. In 1996, Brin and Page collaborated on a research project that was to eventually become the Google search engine. BackRub, as it was called then (because of its analysis of back links), stirred up interest in the university research community, but didn't garner any offers from the major portal vendors. Those were early days in terms of mass searching of the Internet; one of the CEOs who turned them away said that users don't really care about search abilities. Undaunted, the founders scrounged up enough funding to get started, and in September of 1998 began operations from a garage-based office in Menlo Park, California. In December of that same year, PC Magazine listed Google as one of its Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines for 1998.
Yahoo
Yahoo search engine initially kept using Google to provide its users with search results on its website Yahoo.com. However, in 2004, Yahoo! Launched its own search engine based on the combined technologies of its acquisitions and providing a service that gives per-eminence to the Web search engine over the directory.
Ask.com
Ask.com has joined the small but select group of search engines that allows for your privacy. At the top of the new home page you can click Ask Eraser and turn it on. When Ask Eraser is enabled, your search activity will be deleted from Ask.com servers. Ask Eraser is currently available to users of our US site. Like other search engines, Ask accumulates user data to increase the relevancy of its results. If everyone turns on Ask Eraser, there won't be any data to work on.
In task 2 am asked to use a ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Ask.com
Ask.com has joined the small but select group of search engines that allows for your privacy. At the top of the new home page you can click Ask Eraser and turn it on. When Ask Eraser is enabled, your search activity will be deleted from Ask.com servers. Ask Eraser is currently available to users of our US site. Like other search engines, Ask accumulates user data to increase the relevancy of its results. If everyone turns on Ask Eraser, there won't be any data to work on.
In task 2 am asked to use a selection of the websites I have located to search for tariffs that that fits the criteria set. Here is the hypothesis that I am going to use for my research by using my three search engines:
* Nokia phones are phones a lot of people like to use.
* Mobile phone
* Mobile phone with Free minutes
* Texts
* Most people buy phones on contract rather than pay as you go
* Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
Search expression
Search engine
Number of results
Relevance of first 10 results
"mobile phone" AND tariff
www.Google.com
416,000
9 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff
www.Yahoo.com
2,510,000
9 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff
www.Ask.com
99,800
8 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news
www.Google.com
98,000
7 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news
www.Yahoo.com
423,000
8 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news
www.Ask.com
29,400
6 result were relevant
Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
www.Google.com
2,240,000
5 result were relevant
Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
www.Yahoo.com
758,000
8 result were relevant
Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
www.Ask.com
9,140
4 result were relevant
Using the search engine (Google), I have already found out 9 relevant result of the first relevance of the first 10 result. I found out some of the theme Mobile Phones / latest handsets, deals and prices compared, etc which is what I was accepting. I will be using the yahoo search engine to see if I will come out with similar results. Yahoo is my 2nd search engine I will use.
Ask com is my 3rd search engine I will be using. I want to find out if the result I will received from Google and Yahoo will is more that Ask.
After using AND I also used anther logical operator NOT by typing in "mobile phones AND Tariffs NOT news" for anther research.
Even though each search engine came up with different hits, they all came up with similar results. I only used website found in the UK.
By using the logical operator "AND" only using UK websites, ASK was able to come up with good information about "mobile phone" AND tariff.
I have chosen to search about "Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson" without logical operators.
Like yahoo and ask came up with the less hits than Google did, but the relevant results was yahoo. This shows how yahoo search engine is good.
I had used the normal ways of using the search engines to find the information I wanted about mobile phones. The majority of the hits I had used from the search engines are "mobile phone" AND tariff, "Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson" and "mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news. The "AND" logical operator helped me to find information about mobile phone because this allows the search engine look for websites that only contains mobile phones but al the same it still came out with those with news, so I used anther logical operator "NOT" news. This was one way of helping me narrow down the number the number of hits; the other way was by only UK web pages should come up.
Another way that I will be using in to search information about mobile phones and narrow down the number of hits located is by using the advance search option that is available on some search engines.
The types of search engines that wouldn't be helpful in my investigation about mobile phones are academic search engine because they only find sites that have been approved of the information about certain subjects, e.g. English, science, ECT. Theses are the type of search engines that people use that in full time education and need to research correct, useful information about a particular subject.
TASK 3
Search Techniques Used in Large Websites
Some large websites have their own search engines incorporated into the website. This is mainly because there are many links leading off to different section of the website, which it would be much easier to use the search facility to find the information you require. I used the same keywords in a large website to find out information about mobile phone tariff. I chose www.carphonewarehouse .com which is a large website with online database. This is a large website and this website has got internal search engine which will allow me to search for the information am looking for.
Example: I am looking for pay as you go "Nokia phones"
I have chosen a second large Website that will help me to find in information about "Mobile phone with free minutes"
Comparison of results
Search expression
Search engine
Number of results
Relevance of first 10 results
"mobile phone" AND tariff
www.Google.com
416,000
9 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff
www.Yahoo.com
2,510,000
9 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff
www.Ask.com
99,800
8 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news
www.Google.com
98,000
7 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news
www.Yahoo.com
423,000
8 result were relevant
"mobile phone" AND tariff NOT news
www.Ask.com
29,400
6 result were relevant
Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
www.Google.com
2,240,000
5 result were relevant
Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
www.Yahoo.com
758,000
8 result were relevant
Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson
www.Ask.com
9,140
4 result were relevant
The result that I have here shows me that over all the Google search and yahoo search comes up with the most hits. But with Google their hits are not relevant like yahoo. Although Ask may come out with small hits, it may have more relevant result that Google. Ask search engine came up with the least number of hits for the search of mobile phones, this doesn't mean that the websites would be relevant but because there are less websites means that there may be less relevant websites on that search engine.
The home page of a search engine may help users to think that this search engine is the easiest and the most useful to use. Ask and Google's homepage is very simple and it has only the search box and the name of the search engine. As I was doing the searching, I think this may convince the user that this search engine is easy to use because it hasn't got a confusing background and this may make you believe that it is simple to use it. However yahoo's homepage is much cluttered and has a lot of extra information as well as the search box, in turns of this may make that user to believe that it is very difficult to use it and complicated too. Another aspect that makes search engines difficult to use is where the sponsored links are. On ask and yahoo the sponsored links are located at the top, before the results. These search engines makes it difficult because it is sometimes hard to recognise which is which. On the other hand, Google does have sponsored links but instead of the being on the top before the results, they are on the right hand site and out of the way but are still encase if someone want to use them.
The web pages were from all over the world unless stated by the "only UK pages" button that is located under the search box for Google and yahoo. Ask doesn't have that option, so the web pages were all form all over the web but doesn't have as many websites engine were put in the order of the most relevant website to the least relevant website to the least relevant website. This should make searching for a certain bit of information bit information much easier because you shouldn't have search through web pages to find the information you are looking for .
If I was to use two search engines in the futures, I would use yahoo and Google because Google has a large database of websites and the sponsor links being down the right hand side of the page and out of the way, although I wouldn't like to use the advance search because it is all cluttered together and dose seem harder to use. I would use yahoo in the future because the relevant of results varies depending on the information but in all is easy to locate information quickly, also the advance search is spaced out and gives individual options to make it easier to use.
Conclusion
In my conclusion, If am asked to do this sort of search again, I would probably start off the same, by using the general background of a subject, even if I knew something already about it, because it helps me have a wider understanding in it and allow me to know a wider range of options I can use to research, Instead of just generalising and using the "AND" logical operator. I would try and use "OR" or "NOT" operator to see if I get a different and more useful set of results. In future I would use the advance search more often because it becomes more pacific and can be more to the requirements I want, to suit the information I need. I would chose yahoo advance rather than Google although I didn't use yahoo advance in my searches because yahoo is spaced out and gives you more options to help you understand what you could search for.
The strength I think that I had during this assignment was by the way I searched for the same things on each a range of different search engines to see if I would come up with the similar or different results to each other. Using Logical operator was strength of mine by searching phrase so I could get results containing both pieces of information rather than searching for them separately. My weakness I think I had in the assignment was not knowing how to use the advance searches to the best of my abilities because I still came up with a large number of hits, rather than being a lower number, which would contain only relevant sites. Another weakness was using Google search engine constantly.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.Google.co.uk
www.Google.com
www.yahoo.co.uk
www.yahoo.com
www.ask.com
www.ask.co.uk
EVALUATION
The search techniques that I used were all helpful with what I needed to find out within the project. When I used logical operators, it made the amount of "hits" drop, therefore leaving me with "hits" which were all the same to what I searched for in the first place. I then had all information that I needed by just using them within my advanced searches. When I used the advance search option to help slim down my search, such as using the option of just looking for results with UK domain, my "hit" were more precise to my search criteria and more variety of information was available to me as a result.
GOOD POINTS
Time of Retrieval-The time it took to take for research engine to retrieve the "hit" back was extremely fast and proficient.
Logical Operators-With the use of logical operators I was able to narrow down my searches to retrieve the most relevant information required.
NOT SO GOOD POINTS
Not Applicable Results- Sometimes the "hit" I would get back would not be relevant for, therefore a lot of time would be taken up to find the right information needed.
Use OF Terms- Sometimes with some search engines the use of specific terms would have to be used, and if not, it didn't come back with the right "hits" and had to be searched again with it written properly.
Simple searches- The simple searches which I started off using brought back information which wasn't application to what I searched for, and wasn't helpful.
The good point and not so good points were when doing the Task. There was a balance of good and bad points when completing this task but as a result I have learnt from them and in the future I will know exactly what should be done if the same task is asked to do again.
STRENGTHS
Use of co.uk, gov.uk -Having the choice of choosing what type of website which would hold this information made the "hits" which were received a lot more relevant to the topic searched and had the right information which I wanted from the search.
Use of Operator (Logical and Relational)- I found when trying to find out defined information about what I needed, the use of the operators made the detail of the "hits" received were a lot more precise and appropriate.
WEAKNESSES
The results- Some of the "hits" which were received weren't always relevant which was made the process of finding information much longer as I was trying to find out specific information.
Time Taken-The time taken to fill out the advanced searches from was a lot longer than just searching simply with a simple few words such as a title. As a result the process was very consuming.
The strengths and weaknesses of this task and why they were helpful or not: I have learnt what is good about doing searches and efficient ways of using them and what shouldn't be done when using search engines and why.
If I was to do the same task I the future I would go about it with all the things I have learnt from this task. I would choose to use advanced searches I searched for a topic which could be of a number of things. I would also try and use logical or relational operators when I could to make my searches more refined. I would use search engines which are the mostly used by the population of the whole world, such as Google or Yahoo as they do seem to have more listings, and therefore more hits may be available compared to smaller search engines. However if I were to find information about something local etc, I would use smaller search engines such as council search engines or television search engines.
Task 4
ONLINE DATABASES
INTRODUTION
For this task, I am going to find information, such as statistics and figures, about mobile phone tariff or text usage.
The three main pieces of information I will be searching for.
* Thefts of mobile phones: 1999-2000.
* Ownership "AND" mobile phones.
* Adult mobile phone ownership or use: by age, 2001 and 2003
Online Database
Database is simply a collection of data stored on a computer system in some organised way so that it is easy to search information based on particular search criteria. The size of an online database depends of the number of the organisation. They are mostly stored on the saver of the organisation's network. A good example of an online database is www.statistics.gov.uk which gives people information about almost everything to do with UK's economy and population as a whole. The information on this website is updated every ten year, and the information may be very detailed and useful, but may be a little out-dated.
TASK 4B DATABASE QUERIES
Query 1: I created a query to find out the student in the six forms at the Duston School who are above 15 years of age. I used the relational operator > "15"
Query 3: I have created a query by using a logical operator "NOT" Traditional Phones because I wanted to get all the different types of phones apart from traditional.
Query 4: I have created a query by using another logical operator Traditional "OR" Slide so that I will get those who use only traditional or Slide phones.
Query 5: I created a query by using relational operator ">" OR "=" "20 €. To find out students whose monthly spend is greater than or equal to 20 €
Evaluation
This task help me to use Microsoft Access in which I was able to do the queries which I was asked to do, with the help of the six form database I did, therefore I was able to complete what was asked with no major problems. As I used the Six Form my queries were accurate as well as had all the relevant information needed for the task. Within the task I used relational operators to help the get the answers I needed for my query in few of them. As well as relational operators I also used logical operators in the right place to get the relevant information needed for my queries. I learnt to use the "OR" row of the query box and therefore I was able to answer one of the more detailed and challenging queries.
GOOD POINTS
With the use of the logical operator function I get specific information efficiently.
Adding the Right key Terms in - with adding in the right key terms I was able to retrieve the relevant information for what I had queried about.
NOT SO GOOD POINTS
Spelling things properly- If you haven't spelt the word the way it is in the database, such as capital letter or without etc then you wouldn't receive the right information needed.
STRENGTHS
The use of the database Sixth form -I was able to choose the right options easily and I would easily be able to get the right information when the result of the query came through.
The use of logical operator - With the use of "OR" function I was able to make my query more detailed and specific
WEAKNESSES
Spelling properly - Sometimes when I tried to complete a query, if I had spelt the word differently than it was on the database I didn't get back the relevant and correct information back.
Marking the Boxes- If the right boxes were marked or not marked then the information would come back wrong and not relevant to the query.
The information above shows the strengths and weaknesses of using Microsoft Access to complete queries on the database for my Task 4B.
The main strength of using Microsoft Access was the use of the sixth form database because I was able to make the queries' detailed and try to complete them with no problems and in the correct order.
The disadvantage was marking the boxes on the database as if they were not marked, or marked on, I didn't always get the accurate information back from the query.
In the future, if I were to complete this task in the future I would make sure that all the disadvantages and not so good point as above were corrected.
TASK 5
I am creating a spreadsheet which I will be able to calculate the total cost of different tariff options from different mobile phone networks.
-I will create macros to help me navigate through the system
-I will use formulas to calculate
-all the charts and graphs
The diagram above shows the macros I recorded.
I also created a macro in my spreadsheet to input and delete on one of my tables. This would enable me to input data when I needed it and if need be, delete it if i didn't need it anymore. I did this by creating an auto-shape and then creating the macro into the auto-shape.
This screen shot shows the percentage in tariff in orange.
CALCULATION OF MINUTE USED AND THE TOTAL COST
This screen shows the formula view of minute used, the cost for extra minutes and the total coast.
Test No.
Purpose
sheet
Test Data
Expected Outcome
Test Outline
.
To test the home page button
Home page sheet
Click on Home page button
Move to the home page
Successful
2.
To test the orange button
Orange sheet
Click on the Orange button
Move to the orange sheet
Successful
3.
To test the
Vodaphone button
Vodaphone sheet
Click on the Vodaphone button
Move to the Vodaphone
button
Successful
4.
To test T-Mobile button
T-Mobile
sheet
Click on the T-Mobile button
Move to the T-mobile button
Successful
5.
To test 02 button
O2 sheet
Click on the o2 button
Move to the o2 button
successful
6
To test Virgin button
Virgin sheet
Click on the Virgin button
Move to the virgin
Successful
Jennifer Takye
Applied ICT AS
Solutions for Individuals and society
Unit 3
Jennifer Takye
