Lab: Search Engine Comparisons

CS 102

Sept. 21, 2001

The purpose of this lab is to look at a couple of different search engines to compare them on ease of use, features, and relevance of hits. We'll also look at some ``PeopleFind'' sites. Work in groups of 2--3 so you can discuss what you find. At the end of the class, we'll have a few groups present their findings.

Search Engines

1. Pick a topic to research. It doesn't matter what, other than it will help if the topic is fairly narrowly defined and something you are knowledgeable about.

2. Visit each of the following search engines:
   1. Altavista (http://www.altavista.com/)

   2. Google (http://www.google.com/)

   3. NorthernLight (http://northernlight.com/)

   4. Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/)

3. Spend five minutes at each site. For each site, rank ease of use and relevance of hits returned on a scale of 1 (best) to 5 (worst). Make a note of any special features that you see at each search engine.

PeopleFinds

1. Using Excite (http://www.excite.com), Lycos (http://www.lycos.com), or Yahoo, find my home address and two major roads that pass near my house.

2. See if you can do a reverse phone number search (Reverse Lookup using Excite) on your family's phone number. What is the privacy risk associated with reverse searches? Was this an issue before computer database searches became feasible?

3. Go to NurseryPhotos (http://www.nurseryphotos.com) and see if your nursery photograph is online.