Web searching and document production
comparative table. This week I completed portfolio Item 2. This activity gave me the chance to demonstrate my web searching and word processing skills. I am fairly familiar with Microsoft word and had little difficulties using it. I am also very familiar with Google as I usually use it everyday. I decided to use Google as one of the search engines for the activity as it I thought it would be a good chance to compare the only search engine I ever use with other search engines and observe how the search results compare.
After searching the same topic: Teenage drug abuse, into each of my three chosen search engines:Google, Alta-vista and Yahoo, I came to conclusion that all three of the search engines were of approximately the same speed and all provided sites that were relevant to my topic. However, I found that Google was the least helpful and relevant in relation to my topic and that Yahoo the most helpful and relevant. Yahoo seemed to be the most helpful in providing both facts on and definitions of teenage drug abuse, as well as providing sites related to helping and treating teenage drug abuse.
From this activity I have discovered more search engines other than Google. I think that a good knowledge of different search engines and how they work will be important in teaching and helping students in research etc. In the future I will refer to these other search engines, or when I cannot find the sites I want through Google search, I will try using a mixture of search engines, including the ones discovered in this activity and hopefully more useful search engines that I am yet to discover.
