Internet statement investigation of supermarkets
ICT - Unit 3
Within this unit of the course we aim to present the results of an investigation and to create a spreadsheet to analyse numeric data and create a report on the sources and methods used to find information. To find the information to prove the statement we are going to use a selection of search engines to see weather they give the same results or if they differ. When finding the information we can use both well known search engines such as Google as well as not as popular search engines such as msn.
The statement I am going to research is as follows;
"Designer clothing and accessories are more specifically targeted to the female market where men have a limited selection"
When doing my investigation I am going to take into consideration many ideas that support or contradict receiving the right answer.
The things I am going to consider include:
* What sort of accessories are available to both men and women
* What type of designer or high street brand clothing is involved
* The collections involved in high street brands
* The collections involved in top designer brands
In order to carry out my investigation I need to use a selection of search engines that will give me the correct data. Figure 1 shows websites that are known for giving good results and I have listed them in order of popularity.
Figure 1
www.google.co.uk www.yahoo.com
Figure 1
www.ask.co.uk www.msn.com
In order to carry out my investigation I am going to search the internet for a idea of websites and results that show ideas of how I can navigate through the world wide web however whilst browsing I have come across a problem that will effect my results and accessibility. With 3/5 people in every household owning a compute, retail sales online have been record high and recently the Christmas of 2007. However this causes a problem when investigating my statement including clothing and accessories. When researching a particular market on the internet shopping sites are the main focus with sponsored links and main advertising on the top pages of the web page. Typing in the statement can compile a large amount of results so key words are selected from the whole phrase. In my statement "clothing", "accessories", "female" and "male" all target the online retail market, therefore only showing results for online shopping.
These Images demonstrate basic research
In order for me to follow the OCR specifications I will need a statement that will allow me to follow a successful investigation. I have therefore changed my statement as the following....
"Leading supermarkets will go to any lengths to make sure their store becomes at the top of the market"
When undertaking my investigation I am going to take into thought many ideas that support or contradict receiving the right answer.
The things I am going to consider include:
* The supermarket market shares showing who is at the top and bottom
* Number of stores within the United Kingdom of the leading supermarket
* Number of employees within the supermarket's
* Turnover of the Supermarket's
I am going to use the same search engines (figure 1), as they are ordered in popularity and I can therefore compare the results I end up with. Although I have displayed the popularity from 1 - 4 I am going to use the first and last search engines as this will allow me to see how the results are formulated.
My first search engine I am going to use is Google; this was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University. This website allows me to navigate all the websites relating or concerning the statement I have created.
I am going to begin by inserting the full statement into the query box to see what results I end up with.
When rephrasing my statement I am going to use a function called "syntax" as this will help me progress my chances of a successful search.
We enter the statement with quotation marks to force the search engine to look for particular bits of the statement, this way we can define what part has more importance rather than the whole statement.
To show how this function works I am going to highlight words which don't have that much relevance over other key words?
Irrelevant / Relevant
"Leading supermarkets will go to any lengths to make sure their store becomes at the top of the market"
This will therefore eliminate any references to words used all the time such as the and concentrate on the words which have more relevance e.g. supermarkets
This search I am going to display will have quotation marks on the words that could consequently show me more relevant sites.
...
This is a preview of the whole essay
To show how this function works I am going to highlight words which don't have that much relevance over other key words?
Irrelevant / Relevant
"Leading supermarkets will go to any lengths to make sure their store becomes at the top of the market"
This will therefore eliminate any references to words used all the time such as the and concentrate on the words which have more relevance e.g. supermarkets
This search I am going to display will have quotation marks on the words that could consequently show me more relevant sites.
When researching for our right results we tend to see the number of results found and how many are displayed on the page.
I can obviously see that typing the entire statement will cause confusion and more non related results. Therefore I will develop the syntax method and hopefully gain more results. There are 2 methods I can add to my statement so that my results will narrow. With my statement I can additionally add a plus sign which will only list pages that include the word. However adding a minus sign will have an opposite affect where placing a minus sign in front of a word will list pages which don't include this word. You can use the minus sign more appropriately when looking for homonym as their context is different. The example below illustrates this method.
Plus Sign +"Leading Supermarkets" in the market
Minus Sign "Market" -Flea Market
st page of results show how only 1/5 "Of the UK's five most prominent supermarkets only one has a website which meets the basic accessibility needs of disabled customers". Although this webpage has displayed the top 5 supermarkets, the context is not what I am intending to look for. http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/enation4
2nd
2nd Page of results show price fixing within "leading Supermarkets" although it includes the key words of leading supermarkets it doesn't however show me the leading supermarkets.
3rd page of results show the same information as 2nd page but on a newspaper website. This is not as helpful as the 1st page as it doesn't state the leading supermarkets only the price fixing occurring in the business. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=492904&in_page_id=1770)
I can see with my results that my when searching on the internet I need to use different methods. I am therefore going to practise in the same method but with a non related question to find answers.
Practise question - How do you tax your tax disk online?
I am going to use an appropriate search engine which will find the correct data and im going to start on Google. I typed how do you tax your car online? Into the Google search box and didn't receive a direct answer, however I did get several links to the right page. There are secondary links that will deliver you to the wanted page but through other links. I am now going to try another search engine Ask.
With Ask there was too many sponsored links to get a direct website, so I am going to use Google again and narrow down the question for the right one. I narrowed the answers down so that I only enter online car tax.
I am aiming to get the DVLA website as the top answer as it will take me onto the correct link. I am therefore going to change my statement so that it will get me onto the right web page for online car taxing.
I finally got the results I wanted by rephrasing my statement into two halves, I first stated my website (DVLA) then additionally added the content for what I was looking for (online car taxing).
I can therefore utilise this for my searches as I need I know having an idea of the website I am looking for and the content will get me better results.
I will now use this technique when searching for my actual statement question, starting with msn.
With my practise question it showed that I needed the website and then the content to find good results. Therefore I have thought of a list of websites that could give me supermarket market shares or similar results. They are as follows
* http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/
* http://www.ft.com/home/uk
* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
* http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/
* http://news.bbc.co.uk
* http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/
I am now going to try the financial times website which deals with "reports extensively on business and features extensive share and financial product listings" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times.
I therefore entered my subject (supermarket shares) in the search box so that I could find results and was given my results that resembled a well constructed search engine. The diagram below shows all the features that show its characteristics and also how the financial times website shows similarities.
Search engine features
* The boxes are colour coded with the search engine featured above.
* The black boxes are additional features that have been spotted on this results page.
These are the top three results I ended up with and they unfortunately didn't give me what I was looking for.
The first result showed me how "the Swedish-born economist, once made an insightful observation about inflation targeting. It worked better in practice than it did in theory"
The second page displayed a letter to the editor about how a journalist portrayed someone's argument in a completely different context.
The third result showed me a report on public attitudes towards British scientists. As well as my other results I have been shown no links with supermarkets or shares. The results show that a fully built up search engine doesn't always give the correct results. I am now going to carry on with 3 more newspaper websites and state whether they give me worthy results . I will open the first 3 results from the website and highlight:
Unsuccessful Successful
I am now going to try the BBC news website which is also known for adapting articles from the newspapers above. The BBC news website is one of the most popular news websites in the United Kingdom with 4million monthly readers. It was first launched in 1997 to provide exhaustive international news coverage as well as entertainment, business, sport, science and political news. Having all this information will beneficial as having information on a wider subjects will broaden my result information.
The first result from the BBC search has given me the supermarket share with the top 7 leading percentages. The results are valuable as they are given in percentages so there is plenty of clarity.
Although I have gained the results I needed, I am going to carry another search so that I have knowledge if this website will help me research in the future. I am also going to practise another search technique which can also help my future searches.
When searching for specific subjects that include and, or, no and near. Boolean search will allow you to search for them as well as linking them to the criteria. I can also relate it to the features of syntax and how the + signs are equal. To illustrate this I will use the example of Tesco's founder Jack Cohen.
Using Syntax +Jack +Cohen will be equal to the Boolean search Jack AND Cohen
"Jack Edward Cohen" this Boolean search will allow me to gain results that include his middle name however without it will have the opposite affect "Jack Cohen"
"Jack NEAR Cohen" will find the results whether it includes the middle name or not.
Boolean searches are more appropriate when researching or searching for certain people as the involvement of a middle name will effect the results.
I am now going to try the bank of England website as it may have reports as it's the central bank of the United Kingdom.
I have gained no results from this search however I have knowledge of the content of this website and how it will give me an insight into the economics of a business.
Nevertheless I still have my results for the supermarket shares and can therefore move onto my next enquiry. As I have found my results this will allow me to have a "jump off point" where I can stop going through numerous links that could possibly get lost for what I was originally looking for.
I am going to carry on investigating my statement with my second search; supermarket stores within the U.k.
I am going to start this search with yahoo the second most popular search so that I can see the strengths and weaknesses.
With this website there are many entertainment features for web browsers, however if you are searching and find this distracting you can click the search icon and it will direct you to a page just for yahoo search.
With business' we can see how successful they have become by seeing how many stores there are nationwide. I am now going to find out how many supermarkets are based within the United Kingdom so that it gives me a suggestion of how successful the business is. I am now going to search using yahoo as my search engine and hopefully get my results.
The first link takes me to a website called Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on some 9,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages. As of today, there are 2,264,691 articles in English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About
This website will hopefully give me various bits of information as it's an encyclopaedia.
The Wikipedia website shows results for all of Tesco's history in a timeline format, which is an easy format for gaining information. I have found my results for the amount of stores Tesco has within the United Kingdom yet I have managed to gain additional information. My results show me that not its not only their large supermarkets but there are also smaller stores and petrol stations. I have decided to add this to my results as the table will demonstrate the quantity and size that supermarkets will go to, so that competitors will be threatened against them.
Tesco Extra - larger, mainly out-of-town
Tesco superstores - Standard large supermarkets
Tesco Metro - Sized between Tesco superstores and Tesco Express stores
Tesco Express - Neighborhood convenience shops
One Stop - does not include the word Tesco in its name
Tesco Home plus - Tesco's ranges except food in warehouse-style units in retail parks.
My results from the first investigation will allow me to access more information for my statement. As I have found the top 7 competitors I can use them to find my third query; employees within the business.
I am once again going to vary my results by using a different search engine, msn.
Like the yahoo search engine the page is filled full of entertainment links however if you click the search button it will take you to the search page.
The first result shows me a Spanish supermarket webpage which doesn't have any link to what I searched for. When you are given an ineffective first result it gives an indication that the results to follow will not have any relevance however results can be based on trial and error.
This set of results gives me information on the supermarkets and gives the amount of stores, employees, sales etc however this information is not useful as it's from 2003. Although I have the results I needed, I am not going to use them because they are outdated.
351
These results are all from the website wikipedia which I also used to gain my second results. This website has provided information for my second and third investigation and I have also seen that it provides information on my last. I have also noticed that this search has given me the information I need for my last investigation Nevertheless it is important to vary your search engines as it will always give you different results, and I am going to demonstrate this with my last search engine www.ask.com.
First page of results had the correct content yet didn't supply me with results
I have the results I need for my supermarket revenue and have highlighted them in green boxes
So it can be seen from investigation three highlighted in red boxes. Now that I have completed my research and have gained my successful results, I am going to compare and contrast the search engines I used and rate them in my order or utilization.
Search Engines
This search engine has a modern and young appearance which is appealing as it is simple. The background format is white which allows the multi coloured logo and other icons to contrast. Results from this search engine are always useful as they involve the right content and usually give you the results on the first ten shown. When the results are given the titles are usually summarised so that extracts are not randomly picked from the hyperlinks, this is beneficial to the user as they know what to put in the search ox exactly. Not only is this search engine equipped by positive results but it also accepts searching tips such as Syntax and Boolean. This could have been adapted later on as the search engine developed yet it allows the user to gain even more accurate results.
Yahoo has a different approach to its main search page. The main website has many links, images, advertisements for reader's entertainment. This has an advantage as it gives the impression that it is a more comfortable search engine, yet it may not appeal to be giving high quality results. Next to the search box is the search icon and once you have clicked it, it takes you to more sophisticated search page with a white background and dark blue category headings. This makes the search engine seem more trustworthy with results and shows clarity from the page before hand. The results page was laid appropriately with an additional feature that suggests topics that other users have used along your search. This is helpful as it may give ideas on what could have been researched. Yahoo also allowed search methods to be used as it was tested with inverted commas.
Ask has a simple and contemporary look with a white background and colourful icons for the search categories. This looks appealing as it softens the look from being plain white with blue text. Whilst typing in the search box it also suggests recent topics that have been searched following what you have just written, similarly to yahoo it brings more depth to what the search engine has to offer. Unfortunately the results page was badly constructed and the results were poor. The sponsored results straight at the top were highlighted in pale colour which was hard to separate from the actual results and even they had little content with the search. The titles were complex which therefore made it off putting and the results were poorly structured around the page making it confusing.
The msn webpage followed a similar format to the yahoo page with icons and images all for entertainment purposes. Although msn's mailing service is hugely popular the page did focus on web search as clicking the search icon would take you to a different page (same as the yahoo website). This once again showed good attitudes about how it is appealing to be a sophisticated search engine. One disadvantage had to be that it only included a white background with a search box and icon. There were no categories for the web, images and news which could save time and hassle for the user. The categories which could have been on the search page are revealed on the results page which therefore makes the user have to do a second search. The results themselves are useful yet the sponsored links are situated right at the top in a highlighted grey box. Although it captures the attention of the user, it is usually unwanted web pages that don't have any relevance. The results are all relevant and the titles fit well with the search statement. Also searching tips syntax and Boolean are also usable on this search engine.
I have listed my personal order of popularity with the search engines since I have completed my investigation on the web.
www.google.com www.msn.com
www.yahoo.com www.ask.com
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