Tutorial Task 3

Part 1 - Scavenger Hunt questions

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
A: Alan wore a gas mask while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park to prevent hay fever symptoms. - found by using yahoo.com

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?
A: The first two computers that communicate with each other was in 1969 in California and Utah. - found by using yahoo.com

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?
A: Ha ha, this one is easy, I typed "Bill Gates' birthday" on Yahoo, and there are 7,110,000 results appeared, he was born on Oct. 28, 1955, and he sold his first software when he was 20 years old. - found by using yahoo.com

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?
A: The world's largest particle physics research center, CERN. Simply, I typed the whole question and find this answer in the first link. - found by using altavista.com

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?
A: The processor that used in computer 30 years ago had a 8088 8-bit processor, however, the computer today uses a 2.60GHz, 800FSB, 2MB processor. - found by using yahoo.com

6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?
A: Norman Craven grow the largest parsnip, it weighing in at 8 lb 6 oz. - found by using altavista.com

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
A: I typed "history of queensland" in yahoo, and I go straight into the page of Queensland's History underneath the Queensland Government website. Just over four decades of autonomy elapsed before Federation, on 1 January 1901, created the union of the Commonwealth of Australia. The majority of Queenslanders voted 'yes' to a referendum asking whether Queensland should join the Federation. Once this referendum was passed, Queensland lost its colonial status and became a State. I typed "Tweed River in New South Wales" in yahoo, then 1,940,000 results comes up, I click on the first link and I am in the Tweed Shire Council, at the top right I found a link that says "About the Tweed", then I click on the second link "History" on the left, but no certain reason. - found by using yahoo

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?
A: I found this information in the Bureau of Meteorology underneath the Australia Government website. Heavy 25 to 75mm rains on the southern Downs during the 3rd and 4th renewed the flooding in the Macintyre River which was still carrying considerable run-off from the October rains. - found by using yahoo.com

9. Why is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?
A: The reason why Lord Byron still remembered in Venice is because he wrote some of his most famous works including ‘Don Juan’ in Venice. - found by using altavista.com

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?
A: The band name is The Black Assassins. - found by using yahoo.com

Finally, I did it! Well, I still love google!! :-P

Part 2 - Questions

(1.) How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

A: Internet search engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. There are differences in the ways various search engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:

• They search the Internet -- or select pieces of the Internet -- based on important words.
  
• They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them.
  
• They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

Before a search engine can tell you where a file or document is, it must be found. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a search engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites. When a spider is building its lists, the process is called Web crawling. (There are some disadvantages to calling part of the Internet the World Wide Web -- a large set of arachnid-centric names for tools is one of them.) In order to build and maintain a useful list of words, a search engine's spiders have to look at a lot of pages.

"Spiders" take a Web page's content and create key search words that enable online users to find pages they're looking for:

Meta tags allow the owner of a page to specify key words and concepts under which the page will be indexed.

Building the Index: Once the spiders have completed the task of finding information on Web pages (and we should note that this is a task that is never actually completed -- the constantly changing nature of the Web means that the spiders are always crawling), the search engine must store the information in a way that makes it useful. There are two key components involved in making the gathered data accessible to users:

1. The information stored with the data
2. The method by which the information is indexed

Building a Search: Searching through an index involves a user building a query and submitting it through the search engine.

(2.) Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?

A: I think keywords can improve search engine's placement and ranking so that it is put at the top of the search results.

(3.) What are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

A: My most favourite one is Google, and I also use Baidu (Chinese), Altavista and Yahoo. I like Google most is because it can help get the most satisfied result that I search for.