Blog Reflections (Practical 4/5)

Today i got to find out what is meta search and a subject directory search.

I decided to put metasearch against a normal search engine.

So what is metasearch?

A meta-search engine is a search tool[1] that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines simultaneously

So which one is better? . First i went to search for the word "Dota" a game.

So google search results: 1 - 10 of about 20,100,000 for dota

metacrawler search results: All Search Engines 1 - 20 of 41

Natural instincts tell me "WOW only 41 results" they must be very related to what i'm finding. Ok so i proceed to scan through the search results and i was not satisfied with metacrawler's search results. Yes although it did search what i wanted , but it listed it as the 4th result. For google, it listed the site i wanted to find in the 2nd result. Also metacrawler gives me a link to an advertisement site: which was blocked by my HOSTS file. The advertisement was ranked 2nd in metacrawlers's search result.

Lastly what i wanted to prove is: Even though google returns me 20million results but nobody will actually scan through all of them, most will only browse through the 1st/2nd page. So even though goggle gives 20million results and metacrawler 41 results, google is still the search engine which returns very relevant results. Who cares if i have 1 trillion results as long as i get what i wanted in the first page.

My very bias and unfair conclusion? Google 1 : Metacrawler 0
Note: This is just a personal opinion of mine. Also i only did about 3 searches but i was still unsatisfied with metacrawler.

Subject directory:
Is good as it gives results depending on the category you choose. Good for someone who have no idea what they are looking for. However being a guy who is into "web design and web accessibility" yahoo's subject directory is definitely not where i will go if i wanted to search for something.

Rules: Let user access what they want in As few clicks as possible

Subject directory breaks this very important rule.
However subject directory has its merits too. I found many links that i wanted from a topic that i was not familiar with "lung cancer" so it is not entirely bad.

Conclusion: Subject directory can be that additional thing you can use to search for subjects that you are not very familiar with but not really for your everyday search.

So what about meta vs subject directory search?

My opinion: meta search can be for general or specialized search. You can search for games (generalized) or "world of warcraft"(Specialized) , however if you are looking for something you are not very familiar with, you can start looking at subject directory because they are organized by humans which could be more relevant however it only represents a small fraction of the web's database. So knowing how to search and where to search is still the most important things to know if you are going to search for something.

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My thoughts on using site feed in my blog

I think using site feed in my blog is a great idea. Users can get to know about my friend's blogs and subcribe to it using a feed aggregator like google reader and learn of any updates that my friend made to his blog. It is an amazing technology as it allows you to follow any updates or new post that a blog has and you do not have to visit the blog everyday. It saves on time and helps you to keep track of new post that you have not read. Personally i use google reader to save site feeds of tech reviews website. I am subcribed to about 4-5 such sites from famous webdesigner and developer and i can read their new post just by logging into my google reader.

I definitely recommend using site feed in your blog.

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What do I like best about collaborating on Wiki with other students who share similar research topic as me?

The main reason that i think wiki is a really great place to collabrate with people who are doing the similar research is the time saved by meeting face to face. As we are from different class with different timetables, it will be impractical to meet face to face and do our research together. Instead we can just post our findings and help each other to edit and correct any mistakes.

For example i have a picture to add to the research topic and if there is no wiki , i would have to meet with my friend from another course to pass him the picture if our document is in his laptop. With wiki, i can just add the image online to our wiki discussion and when he logs in , it will be there for him to use.

Another reason is the ease of editing and always having the "Latest" copy. Usually when i do any research with my classmates, i always ask for the latest copy so i can input my research in the microsoft word file then i'll send him back the file and he will then use the latest copy and edit further. This process will go on till we completed our project report and in the process, we sent the file to and from each other multiple time.

With wiki collabration, we can just edit and my friend from another course / school can see the latest update/edit and do further editing from online wiki.

All in all, i thing that it is a really great tool as it saves on time as we do not have to meet, trouble of obtaining the latest copy of a report and lastly we can track who edited what from the
"Complete history".

Well this will be the end of this week's blog reflection. Once again thanks for reading and do post a comment if you agree or disagree with me.

Blog Reflections (Practical 3)

Today i learnt about google's various search functions.

Although i am not a new user to google search, i had never used any of the advance search functions before. Yes my homepage of firefox at my home desktop is set to google but shame on me how can i miss such a good feature of google? That is what EIR is for; enables me to learn more about searching technique and various features/functions that i would never have used.

After trying out the "advance search" feature of google, i must say i'm very impressed.
I can search for exact word/phrase, exclude any word, by file type and even search by domain. Of course there are more to advance search like search by date, usage rights, region but in this blog post i will only touch on the more basic and usefull , search by word and by file type.

Search by exact word/phrase :

This is simple, you can search by word, phrase and make sure that your phrase appears exactly as it is in the search result. This is give you a more concise search result.

Tips: You do not have to go to advance search to use this feature. You can just simply use
+"My search phrase" (exclude the double quotations). The plus sign is equals to search by exact words of phrase.

Search by file type :

I've have not seen this feature before and this is the holy grail (for students) of search amongst the many search features that google has. With this i can search for a particular assignment and just copy the whole chunck off the .doc or .pdf file and hand in. Ok don't take me for real, i don't copy and i have my own writing styles and principles. Even if i really do, i will improve on it and make it better.

Google Scholar

Besides google's advance search, i also learn about google scholar. Google scholar is for search of more acadamic/technical related articles/patent/e journals. In my honest opinion, this could be a good search feature for people(me) who wanted to look for "Latest development in cancer research" however upon further searching and testing of this Google Scholar, i came to another conclusion;

It is not for users who do not like to look at boring walls of text in extremely scientific language. In the case of my research topic "Latest development in cancer research", the search results give me the impression of "What am i looking at???"

Here is a real quote from the search result

His research focuses on the molecular and environmental causes of cancer. ... in hormonal
carcinogenesis and the mechanisms of cell transformation by oestrogens, and studies the role
of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in mediating dietary effects on cancer development. ...

Definitely not something that i can understand unless i get a degree in medical science.

Another major problem with google scholar, for some search results you click on it expecting to find what you wanted since the search results give you a preview of the article...for some results, when i clicked on it, it brings me to a page and says

Access

To read this article in full you may need to log in, make a payment or gain access through a site license (see right).

Now this is a waste of time and a put of for users. I don't know about others but i will definitely not use this feature.

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Participation in discussion forum.

I feel that by participating in a discussion forum, i can learn more things as there will be real human correcting any errors i made E.G. Wrong information. I do not feel anxious talking to people expecially when discussing online. Why would i be? Nobody can do anything to me just by talking online in a discussion forum.

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Why must i do citation and biblography.

I certainly understand the importance of citation and biblography. When i'm doing a research, i want my research to be more correct in terms of my sources and i need to convince the users that i had indeed done my due research on that particular topic before i present it. A well written biblography will let readers know at a glance where i obtain my source, from which website or article , the date and the author. This can also allows the reader to obtain my information if they decided to know more.

For citation, the reason it is important is because we need to give the original author his due credits for any quotes we make or paragraphy that i quote and present it in my research. This is defintely a right thing to do since i do not want others to take any original materials from me and take it as their own.


Ok that will be the end of my blog reflections. Thank you for reading. Do give some comments if you agree or disagree with me.

Blog Reflections (Practical 1/2)

If i have 500 to spend freely, i will spent on the below items.



Avast anti-virus professional edition
Having used AVG and Avast anti virus since i got my own comp 9 years ago from a p3 comp to my current dual core comp, i must say: I've seen what AVG and Avast can do. Although i don't particularly take note of how they perform i do know on some occasion when AVG does not detects a virus but Avast will. I am willing to spend some money on the professional version of Avast anti virus for even more secure protection. Although with some computing knowledge and common sense, we can avoid almost 99% of the virus out there but there is always this 1% that will get through.


Hand Crafted CSS
Being a wannabe web designer and developer, I have a considerable knowledge of CSS. I know about the bugs , quirks in ie6, i know how to avoid or even fix it. Coding layout from scratch is just like a walk in the park. However there is never ending to learning, no matter how much i think i know, there will always be something that i don't, which is till now i just cannot understand css specificity, css footer at bottom regardless of the content. I love reading, now i can read and learn something which interest me.


Wacom Bamboo
I enjoy drawing things i like, E.G. Mushrooms. Don't ask me why but i just know i do and the cheapest wacom drawing tablet is this wacom bamboo series.









Learning PHP 5
If you don't know yet, i'm studying in Engineering school (Diploma in Info-communications) The only web scripting language i'll touch on is asp.net, with the emerging popularity of open source products, no wonder that php is becoming a direct competitor of Microsoft's ASP.NET. It is free, most SME uses and even some MNCs. To further sell myself in the already very highly competitive industry, Learning PHP will bring me nearer to my goal of becoming a web developer.




Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
Why MS Office ? There are Open Office out there which is free and compatible with microsoft office so why should i pay to get something which works like the free one?

Microsoft allow me to work faster. The last time i used open office, at least it still doesn't have nice templates lke powerpoint 2007.



TOTAL: $419.09

Eat more curry !

I read an interesting article about cancer last week but decided to share it only today.

We all heard about green tea and berries drink contains antioxident to prevent cancer. Now we have the latest "food" added to the list; Curry

MOLECULES found in curry ingredients have been shown to kill oesophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, reveals research published in the British Journal of Cancer today (Wednesday).

Yup you heard it correctly, eating curry kills oesophageal(Food pipe) cancer cells. What is better than eating something you enjoy with the benefits of curing the illness you have?

Each year around 7,800 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in the UK - around 160 of these are in Northern Ireland. Less than 20 per cent of people survive oesophageal cancer beyond five years. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer death and accounts for around five per cent of all UK cancer deaths.

If this is true, then i'll say india and singapore will have almost 0 patients with oesophageal cancer because who doesn't like roti prata(only in Sg)? fish head curry? chicken curry? hmm mutton curry anyone?

Can we expect more delicious food with cancer fighting properties in the future?

Source:
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/pressrelease/2009-10-27-curry-kills-cancer-cells-in-lab