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Introduction

Task 1 Using Search Engines Introduction In this task I have been asked to research for a website by using a search engine that I think is best suitable for the research. In this research I will be finding a weather station website that contains forty years of data on rainfall. The reason for why I want this is because I need to see whether there has been a decrease or an increase in rainfall. In order to do find the website I will have to type in specific words and phrases into the search engine; to tell the search engine what exactly I'm looking for. As part of the task I will also have to use logical operators which are, AND, NOT and OR to search for the website. I will be explaining each of the logical operators in detail below: - AND: - In search engines they automatically put this is a search so you don't really need to put it in the search bar. So if you put in a search like 'birds bees,' it will put in AND to make 'birds and bees' and will only bring back websites that have 'birds and bees' in the website. OR: - In a search this would bring up more websites. For example if I put in a search like birds or bees, it will bring up sites with just birds in it, websites with just bees in it and websites that have both Birds and bees. So by using OR it brings back more websites. NOT: - By using NOT, it will dismiss anything I put after NOT. So for example if I put in a search 'birds NOT bees' it will only bring back websites that only have bird in the address, not bees and not birds and bees. These logical operators work when they are in a capital. +: - Using the +, it eliminates pages which do not have the words or phrases when placed in front of it e.g. ...read more.

Middle

The search results were not as accurate. I compared the search results on the first page of each search engine Google.com and yahoo.com to see where results were best and the information that I was looking for. In this case most of the search results that I had tend to be using were from the first page of Google.com search engine. I would prefer to use Google.com rather than yahoo.com, as results and the layout are much better than yahoo.com search engine. The screenshot on the left is showing the unnecessary data that is not relevant for users like me, that need a search engine just to search on, but nothing else. However when I used this search engine I got dragged into the entertainment section of the website and started playing games so therefore I wouldn't use this search engine to research on my ICT work. www.ask.com Above is a screenshot of the ask.com search engine homepage. This search engine is totally different to the other two search engines in many ways. The search results are also different. There are fewer amounts of search result pages that are returned back when I typed in a search and also the results were mainly retuned with answers to questions when I didn't want that. I think this search engine is best suitable for users that have any questions. The search engine also has different sections to what you want to search for. Such as pictures, news, local. The search engine is similar to the Google.com search engine as the homepage is also straight forward and to the point. It hasn't got any advertisements or anything else that can put you off. However when searching for anything there are pop ups that are not relevant to the search. This is the main difference between this search engine compared with the Google.com search engine. With Goggle.com search engine you can download the Google toolbar which allows users to have a choice on weather to block pop ups ...read more.

Conclusion

I had to search for another website which would hold the same sort of data. I would then be able to compare the two data, and see what one best match with what majority of the sources say. Therefore I searched again but this time making the search more complex by adding an OR logical operator. The search I made was - "East Anglia and weather OR rainfall data" The first website that I obtained from this search was www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/europe/uk/eastern.html. The website that I found was www.meto.gov.uk. The website was also significant as it presented the rainfall data from 1959 - 2005, which exceeds the amount of years I was looking for (40 years). This made me think the website designer must be an experienced person as he/she has been collecting data more than Royston has. Apart from rainfall the website also provides data on sunshine hours and temperatures. This could be useful to people looking for that data as well. Having finding the data I needed on the first page of the first link meant the search I typed in was precise and accurate. Therefore this resulted in me finding the web link with the data I required on the first page result in the first search results link. The two website links are below: - http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ http://www.iceni.org.uk/ I also found the met office website through searching on Google. Below is a screenshot of the met office website. This website link was also on the first page of the last search I did. Conclusion Searching is not always easy. I went through a lot of steps until I got to the website I needed. For example by typing more word the search was narrowed down below is a table showing this. Words / phrase Number of hits Weather station 56,200,000 Weather Station East Anglia 302,000 Weather station AND rainfall East Anglia 156,000 You are most likely to have more websites with words weather station than websites with Weather station AND rainfall East Anglia. ?? ?? ?? ?? 1 Waseem Hussain 2541 Deacons School 22321 ...read more.

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