The Art of Search Engine Etiquette

The abilities of a search engine to pull certain information from the World Wide Web and filter it to specifics of a user are an incredibly resourceful and a vast time saver utility used many times everyday to seek information. A search engine is a program that finds web sites, web pages, images, videos, news, maps, and other information related to a specific topic.  The way this program works is by entering the search text, which is the word or phrase that additional information is needed on. The search engine then pulls results using formulas. The formulas are usually unknown; this is done to protect the success of the search engine’s guidelines when finding results, this process is what distinguishes the different search engines available.

The art of search engine punctuation has many tips that help eliminate and narrow the particulars on a search. I will share some tips I use when using a search engine to get exactly what information I’m looking for. By using the tips below it could make using a search engine that much easier, and provide an agent for weeding out unwanted results.

If the quotes ( “ ) punctuation is used, this tells the search engine that you want the results of that phrase in the exact same order. It is used when trying to find information on a certain person, or a famous quote or phrase. It would otherwise search for those words in everything, which would give results that had just one of the words. Another good tip would be asterisk (*) punctuation, this is used as a joker form; it holds space for anything to be replaced. For example, if you put Gainesville*, results would include Gainesville Sun, Gainesville restaurants, or Gainesville Nightclubs. It broadens the search to help find what is being researched. The use of OR in a phrase in a search engine will bring up results for either searched word. It helps grab more results because either word can cause the search engine to use it as a result.

There are many options when finding a search engine to use. In fact, some search engines offer a wide variety of perks for using their site. Yahoo! allows a user to create an email, play games, check the weather, and change the whole layout of the website down to the colors and what widgets you’d like to see every time you visit their site. Yahoo! is my personal favorite, however, other top search engines are Google, Dogpile, Ask, Bing, and MSN. There are many others out there and finding the one that gives you as the user the most benefit is a must.

Below is a screenshot of Yahoo! results using the search engine and altering it with one of the commands to show the advantages of using the commands. The first shot is of a search engine getting results for Red Bull, the second shot is of using the OR command with Red Bull OR coffee. The example shows that using the OR command gets a lot more results, which is the reasoning behind the OR command. The red bull search resulted in 45.8 million hits while the red bull OR coffee resulted in 135 million hits, a much broader result. This command creates an expanded list to help someone looking for both red bull and coffee results. This saves time by performing two different searches at the same time.

A list of other options to help in your search engine etiquette is listed below. It has some very interesting commands that make using a search engine easier and less of a hassle.

http://searchenginewatch.com/2155981

*Pictures were screenshot by myself from Yahoo.com

Project 3

My third project focused on Microsoft Access and all the ways it can import data and generate a wide variety of document types. The types of activities I created were a table, query, form, and report. The activities take data from a database and manipulate the data in whichever way the user desires. I learned how to import data into Access by a text file, and be able to identify characters that symbolize breaks or new characters in a text file. This is an easy way to identify the layout of the document. There are 2 types of data entry, and I learned the delimited way, which is when a character separates a field, usually by semi-colon, colon, or a vertical bar. The query activity held the greatest challenge for me. I had to learn how to filter using criteria. Criteria would weed out unwanted data by using a formula type expression in the design layout.  It was difficult finding out how to only include the last 6 months of members who had left the gym. I discovered the problem was stemming from the field being a text field instead of a numerical field, and after fixing that minor detail it worked like a charm. The form activity created a form based off fields I needed and I learned how to delete fields off forms, as well as, turn a field into a read only field. The report activity was created off a query I made earlier in the project. It had certain guidelines that wanted the report first, grouped by city in ascending order, and second grouped by recently departed in descending order. The final challenge involved adding a footer to the report. I added my name and it after reviewing it kept getting a parameter value error.  It wasn’t as easy as adding a Microsoft office footer, that are for sure!

One enhancement available through Microsoft Access that I found to be very interesting and useful was the Report Activity and how quickly you could minimize thousands of fields into a report that has just what you want on it in a matter of seconds. The enhancement makes this process fast and less frustrating by taking the criteria you set and developing a report. An example could be an excel database with thousands of entrees of people who attending a weekend workshop. A questionnaire was filled out by everyone who attended and put into a database that included name, address, if they had a current job, Education, and if they owned a laptop.  On Monday, the boss wants you to bring a report of the people who attended the workshop that live within the city and have a master’s degree in Business. In Microsoft Access that report could be created and printed in seconds. I have never used Microsoft Access it is the only Office application I have no experience in at all, but after this project it seems beneficial on my behalf to start learning this application. It has more function ability then the other suites since I love statistics. It creates very cool and designer friendly activities, once you learn the basics.  

Presentation Critique

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jstevens32605-872941-cff/

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

I choose to do my presentation on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The main focus I had for the first few slides was to draw a curiosity and interest in what I was presenting without letting them know the main reason for the presentation. I believe it was a great attention grabber and kept the viewers watching. The flow of the presentation focused on Cystic Fibrosis and about the disease and how there are treatments that have greatly increased the life expectancy and abilities of a person with Cystic Fibrosis. The attention was then turned from the disease to how a person could help people with this disease. I choose the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation because of the websites user friendly and very organized attributes, which makes browsing the site for information and ways to donate easy. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation also had several ways a person could help; not just using the money approach but several other means to help.

I used many visuals to help radiate the presentation and give the viewers a harsh reality of what it’s really like having Cystic Fibrosis and what one goes through on a daily basis. I chose to avoid the cartoonish photo art and chose to use real photographs I took while I was hospitalized. I didn’t show the relationship between myself and having Cystic Fibrosis yet. I did not want to incorporate myself into the presentation until I could show how the people of donating, by whatever means, actually meant to people with Cystic Fibrosis.

After watching other presentations I noticed those to have a non-personal effect on myself as a viewer. I decided to make the presentation a little more personal by showing photographs of myself and events I had accomplished, even though at birth I was not suppose to live a normal and long life. I think by added this personal approach it made the presentation more memorable by adding a face to the disease. The ending slide closes the presentation very well. I think by stating not only to focus on Cystic Fibrosis, but helping any foundation is a great feeling and very appreciative at the receiving end.

My evaluation was done on a presentation about pit bull rescue and the background of the pit bull. I found the presentation very interesting and enjoyed the background of how the pit bull got its name and the unfair marks society has on pit bulls. I know many people with pit bulls as pets and none of them display the characteristics labeled on all pit bulls. I think society as unfairly used a couple cases of unfortunate pit bull cases to slap such a horrible predetermined attribute of all pit bulls. If this were the case all types of animals should have the same label and looked upon as violent and killing machines.

During the creation of my Cystic Fibrosis presentation I discovered many tools the web has to offer. There were so many ways to present and make a presentation that will keep the audience a live and interested. I used the Takahaski Method in my presentation, which is using big text as a visual and I think it worked perfectly. I also discovered a website called authorstream that has developed a central point for PowerPoint presentation users to upload their presentations, get constructive criticism, and communicate with other PowerPoint lovers to get new ideas and excellent ways to add extra spunk to a presentation to give it the X factor needed to effectively present a presentation.