1. Web & Databases
Dania Bilal
IS 530
Fall 2006

2. The Web Heterogeneous Dynamic Instant gratification
Exploration & discovery
Convenient & challenging
Hypertext & hypermedia
cognitive overload
Disorientation

3. The Web Full-text documents can be downloaded at no cost
Scholarly and non-scholarly information
Hard to find information can be found
Not all information is found on the Web
Virtual reference sources
Virtual reference assistance

4. The Web Authority of information Information literacy
Inappropriate materials
Evaluation of information is a must
Information literacy
Distinguishing among engines/directories
Searching vs. browsing
Evaluating, synthesizing, and using information effectively and efficiently

5. The Web Plagiarism Relevance judgment Social and other issues
User-based
System-based
Social and other issues

6. The Web Mental maturity Reading vs. skimming texts
Youth have high confidence in finding information on the Web
Reading vs. skimming texts

7. Web Databases
Lacks structure (no thesauri, controlled vocabulary, etc.)
Lacks authority
Sponsored sites
Well-structured (thesauri, controlled vocabulary, metadata standards, etc.)
Authoritative
No sponsored sites

8. Web Databases Information overload Engines more general in nature
Cognitive overload
Gratification
Engines more general in nature
Item availability is questionable (dead links, error codes)
Information overload
Cognitive overload varies
Gratification
Many specialized databases
Item availability depends on link resolver, policy?

9. Engines & Directories Crawler-based search engines
Human-based web directories
Hybrid search engines
Mixed results from crawler- and human-based

10. How Search Engines Work?
Crawler or spider
Visits a Web page
Reads a Web page
Follows link on a Web page
Spider returns to site on a regular basis for changes

11. How Search Engines Work?
Gathered information goes to the database
Information is indexed
Matching algorithm
Matches a user query to information in database

12. Blogs & Wikis Blog Wiki Go to Google and look up define:blog
Go to Google and look up define:wiki

13. Search Engine Resources
Search features
Search engine news
Statistics
Reviews of search engines
Search strategies

14. Research Read this article
Reports on search behavior of Web users