Assignment #1 - Web Searching

1. International Telecommunications Education and Research Association (ITERA)

http://www.itera.org/

ITERA is an international association with nineteen university members ITERA’s mission is to advance the science of telecommunications through research and education, with particular focus on telecommunications networks. Other than its research and education statements in the mission statement the website does not really give me a clear picture of what the site is for other than to give a little bit of bio about the fairly new organization. Maybe as a member you would get more, but that is unclear.

2. Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC)

http://www.ptc.org/ptc/index.php?q=resources

This organization seems to be pretty large. It states that its members span over 60nations. The mission of PTC is to promote the development and use of telecommunications to enhance the lives of people living in the Pacific hemisphere. The website advertises a conference each year (held in Honolulu, Hawaii, which promises to showcase progressive technology and help build relationships and networking opportunities. This organization was founded in 1978. This website seems to be more open and informative that the previous one I reviewed. The website is easily followed and gives just enough information to peak the reader’s interest into wanting to find out more about joining the organization.

3. Center for Telecommunications Education and Research (CTER)

http://cter.eng.uab.edu/index.htm

CTER’s mission is to provide technical support, research expertise, knowledge, and continuing education programs to organizations in the telecommunications industry. The focus of CTER is in the medical field. Some of the companies they have done research or an educational program for are AT&T, BellSouth, General Motors, and Hewlett- Packard. The website does a good job telling me about what CTER does and what programs they have going. They also tell all about the people who formed CTER, who carry the torch now, and where the organization is headed.

4. National Education Telecommunications Network (NETN)

http://www.netn.net/103.htm#DIRECTION

NETN partners with US West to focus on education and helping teachers, educators, parents, administrators, government, and the community. This website has many links to resources. It is broken down into the subject are you are interested in. There is a list of the sub-categories, but also a search feature. There is plenty of guidance on the site. So far, this is the best site of content, but the visual appeal leaves a bit to be desired and is almost confusing. You have to read and look for things, but the content and resources are well worth the effort.

5. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Quest (NASA Quest)

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/

NASA has created a website featuring interactive Web-based explorations for k-12 classrooms. This website is fantastic for educators to let students explore so many aspects of science, engineering, weather, airport design, communications, etc. This site also allows users to create their own page. Users can bookmark something they would want to read, keep a list of their top playlists and feeds, keep up with shuttle news, and read their favorite blogs.

PART II

1. Cuil

www.cuil.com

According to the website - Cpedia by cuil takes the keywords you type in and summarizes cites that match the search, but also removing the repeats. They make the search relational. This may bring up results you may not have thought of. Cuil sifts through the pages and “extracts the unique ideas” and then cluster them together by topic. You can use Cuil with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and some others. Cuil can connect with Facebook and bring you results about your friends.

One thing I did not like about this search engine is that when I typed in Wiggins, MS it brought up four other things first that did not include all that I typed. It did not bring up all the things I normally see on Google – which is what I was really looking for. However, I can see this being useful as a support, but not as my number one search engine.

2. Bing

www.bing.com

Bing was online June 2009. As of January 2010 it is the third largest search engine. Bing is a product of Microsoft. It includes s list of search suggestions and list of related searches.

Bing brought up what I expected when I typed in Wiggins, MS. They also include related items on the left and at the bottom. The items were useful and more of what I was looking for. Bing is easy to use and the site is clear and concise. I also liked having the search history for things I look for often.

3. Steve Yuen’s Ultimate Search Page

http://dragon.ep.usm/~yuen/search/engine.htm

This site has directories, metasearches, maps, newsgroups, references, people, and other tabs to allow for more search opportunities.

Steve Yuen’s Ultimate Search Page has multiple search engines. When I typed Wiggins, MS in AllthWeb.com it brought up pretty much the same results as Bing, but I really liked the three tabs at the top: Web, News, Pictures. This was great! Other search options are AltaVista, Excite, Google, HotBot, Overture, WebCrawler, and Lycos. This is a great site, especially if you want to search multiple the search engines to find as many resources as you can. This pretty much is the one-stop convenience store.

4. dogpile

http://www.dogpile.com

Dogpile searched Wiggins, MS on Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Search and returned the results. Next to each return it lists what search engine it is listed. This site gives the options to click on Images, Videos, and News once you search. At the top there are also tabs for searching the Web, Images, Video, News, Yellow Pages, and White Pages. This site is useful in that it provides the basic items I expect, but nothing to write home about.

5. AltaVista

http://www.altavista.com/

AltaVista has the options of searching the Web, Images, and News. Below the find bar they have Answers, Directory, Shopping, Travel, Yellow Pages, People Finder, and more. There is an easy option to submit a site and add AltaVista as your home page. When I typed Wiggins, MS it returned the results I expected, just like Google and Bing. There are sponsored matches to the right and also below other searches.