Think Using a Search Engine Is Easy? Think Again

Previous research has shown that most students do a simple search on Yahoo!, Google, or MSN when they wish to conduct college research for papers. The shocking news is that "Only one in six users of internet search engines can tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid advertisements."

Basing their report on a new study from The Pew Internet and American Life Project, Wired News says that "adults online in the United States are generally naive when it comes to how search engines work."

Don't let this happen to you! You can arm yourself with knowledge:

The major search engines all return a mix of regular results, based solely on relevance to the search terms entered, and sponsored links, for which a website had paid money to get displayed more prominently.

Google marks such ads as "sponsored links," Yahoo terms them "sponsor results" and Microsoft's MSN uses "sponsored sites." Such ads are placed to the right and on top of the regular search results, in some cases highlighted in a different color.

But only 38 percent of web searchers even know of the distinction . . .

Remember: For college research, your best bet remains the library's subscription databases. Caveat Internetor! (Let the Internet user beware!)

Deep Web Research

The Deep Web covers somewhere in the vicinity of 600 billion pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats that the current search engines on the Internet either cannot find or have difficulty accessing. The current search engines find about 8 billion pages at the present time of this writing. --Marcus P. Zillman

LLRX.com (the excellent law blog) has posted an article by Marcus Zillman on deep web research which includes an exhaustive list of links on searching the deep web. If you're new to the concept of searching the deep web (a.k.a. the invisible web), I recommend the section of Zillman's paper on Presentations, which lists eight different introductory, online presentations.

Do You Speak American?

Do You Speak American? (PBS) is the wonderful web site that accompanies the PBS series of the same name (hosted by reporter Robert MacNeil) which was broadcast January 5. Among other things, the web site explodes the myth that mass media is causing all Americans to sound alike. Entertaining and information, this web site deserves some of your time.

How to Study: A Brief Guide

How to Study, by William J. Rapaport of SUNY, is a terrific document. Highly recommended!

Protecting Your Computer

If you are just now experiencing the internet for the first time, I have some bad news for you. This is a very bad neighborhood. Many of the houses are boarded up. There is trash in the street. People will jump in your face and try to sell you things you don't want. And there are people waiting for you to walk down the wrong alleyway so they can mug you. Welcome to the World Wide Web.

Thus begins a good post--titled "Welcome to the Neighborhood"-- on protecting your computer from hijacking, spyware, and adware from Spyware Weekly Newsletter.

This article is a republication of some of Spyware Weekly's best advice on keeping your computer safe. Highly recommended!

Oxford English Dictionary :: Quarterly Updates

If you ever needed proof that the English language is marvelously alive with protean vigor, all you need do is take a peek at the quarterly updates of the Oxford English Dictionary. Every quarter, the OED publishes its continuing series of sequential updates (the December update covered ou-overzealousness) and a list of new entries from across the alphabet.

The December 2004 update includes words such as boet, criminogenic, E-day, howzat, killfile, pruno, trackie daks, and zig. No, I don't know what they mean, either. :-)

GuruNet Is Now Free as Answers.com

The wonderful online reference application GuruNet is now free as Answers.com. With one click on any online word, you can instantly access dictionaries, encyclopedias, lexcons, translations, etc.

I used GuruNet all the time and have now switched to Answers.com, but don't take my word for it: Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal had a terrific review of the GuruNet service in 2003.

Best Online Reference Sources of 2004

One of the great things about the new year is the publication of "best of" lists. Here's a list of the "Best Free Reference Web Sites 2004" from the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the American Library Association (ALA): http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBestRef2004.htm