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.