Getting the Most from

1
Getting the Most from

• Joe Barker Winter/Spring 2006
• jbarker_at_library.berkeley.edu
• An Infopeople Workshop

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This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople
Project

• Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project
  supported by the California State Library. It
  provides a wide variety of training to California
  libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered
  around the state and are open registration on a
  first-come, first-served basis.
• For a complete list of workshops, and for other
  information about the project, go to the
  Infopeople website at infopeople.org.

3
Introductions

• Name
• Library
• What you work in
• Excluding Google, the ONE web search/info tool
  you use the most?

4
Course Overview

• Why ??
• Web and Google timeline
• Today's Search Engine Choices
• Similarities in searching
• Comparing results more deeply
• What's different, rare, cool, promising
• The Post-Google Expanding Web
• Blogs and RSS feeds
• Tags and wikis
• The Best Not-Web-Search Services from Search
  Engines

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Basic Web Search Skills

• Search techniques
• to search words as phrases
• common words usually ignored
• or enclosing in " " forces common words to be
  searched
• - excludes a word or phrase in quotes
• Basic Boolean
• OR must be capitalized if used as Boolean
  operator
• AND (all your words) is assumed default between
  words
• no need to type AND
• Advanced Boolean
• AND NOT to exclude a word or phrase in quotes
• NEAR (words within 16 words of each other)
• ( ) to group terms joined by OR or NEAR
• not available in Google or Ask.com

Examples in Basic Search Tips and Advanced
Boolean Explained
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POST-Google?
Search Engine Timeline

• The Web before Google 1995-1998
• Google's rise to the top 1999-2000
• Google reign's supreme 2001-2002
• Google sets the pace 2002-2004

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The Post-Google Web 2005-

• Google wows - book digitization program, Scholar,
  Earth, Moon
• Google's purity in question
• motives shifting to profit and portal?
• huge profit from adWords - how important is
  information?
• new products are not web search
• gmail, desk-top search, maps, blogsearch
• lawsuits over book digitization - Google on the
  defensive
• Size wars become meaningless, ugly
• Yahoo 22 billion "web objects"
• Google won't disclose size anymore, teases us to
  guess
• Search business taking new directions
• Microsoft/Gates - reinvent search and outdo
  Google and Yahoo
• Exalead, Gigablast, Ask.com - fresh look at
  search, search services
• rumblings Google's simplicity is old-fashioned
• the "Brady Bunch of search" - unbelievably good
• Google Video and Books searches designed as
  marketplace sites

Stage is set on all sides for a different web
future
8

• When did you start using Google?
• Do you think all search engines give you the same
  results pages?

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Using Bookmarks in Class

• Go to bookmarks.infopeople.org
• Look for the class bookmark file
• Click on it so it shows on the screen
• With the class bookmark file showing in Internet
  Explorer, click the Favorites menu, choose Add to
  Favorites
• Notice the name in the Name box so that you can
  use the Favorites list to get back to the class
  bookmarks for the rest of the day

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Search Engine Choices Today
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The Major Search Engines

• Google claims largest
• first with popularity ranking for relevance
• famous clean look
• ads never mixed in results
• Yahoo! Search claims largest
• uses Inktomi, Yahoo! directory, and Overture
  (paid results)
• Directory now subordinate to search
• Ask.com claims best results
• good search features using Teoma technology
• renewed search emphasis hired Gary Price
• quality search results
• natural language searching
• MSN Search promises to revolutionize search
• MicroSoft's response to Google/Yahoo successes
• plans to "re-invent" search, outdo Google

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Exercise 1

• Comparing the top 10 results from the "Big Four"

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DISCUSSIONOverlap Between Search Engines

• If you think you found what you want from Engine
  A, why look further?

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Smaller Search Engines with Good Features

• Not Googlized unconventional
• Much smaller 2-4 billion web pages
• Gigablast
• by Matt Wells from old Infoseek
• good features results
• Exalead
• French entry into search engine wars
• many features packed into the screen
• growing now 4 billion documents

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How Does Size Matter?

• For most information, relevancy ranking matters
  most
• popularity ranking is a form of relevancy ranking
• look at the first 10-20 results
• try another search engine
• For the obscure, hard-to-find, larger may be best
• more comprehensive
• requires a distinctive word or phrase to zero in
  on pages you need

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How do I find distinctive words?

• Sometimes a two-step search
• 1. do some searches to collect unique jargon
• use smaller search engines with good suggested
  terms
• use directories to learn enough about language
  for aspects of your subject
• learn until you can be specific
• 2. then choose your search engine
• You may have to read some web pages first
• What's a reasonable dose of Neurontin?
• search neurontin
• learn it's gabapentin, the conditions it treats,
  side effects, drug interactions dosage varies
  with condition
• search gabapentin OR neurontin with specific
  names of condtions, side effects
• might choose a search engine that suggests
  related searches

• Big search engines dump the haystack on your
  head.
• To find a needle, be specific.

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The Size Numbers Don't Mean Much

• What is being counted?
• More than web pages
• "Web objects"
• images? blog messages? feeds? chats? personals?
• Depth of crawl may be just as important
• how much of a page does a search engine make
  full-text searchable?
• how much of a website does it index?
• how many links in a page full of links will it
  crawl?

See Cheat Sheet 1 General Search Engine
Features Comparison Chart
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Easy Comparison Searching Tools

• Switch bookmarklets
• javascript programs that instruct your browser to
  do something
• go to a different search engine
• copy, paste, and run your current search
• used like Bookmarks or Favorites
• add them like any other bookmark
• click on them to make them work
• Bookmarklets for many other purposes
• find with a Google search such as
• bookmarklets libraries

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Exercise 2

• Installing and Using
• "Switch Bookmarklets" for
• Deeper Comparison Searching

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Switch Bookmarklets Good for Basic Searches

• Default AND between words
• " " for phrases
• or " " to search common words
• Problems arise in more advanced searching
• OR will not always switch accurately
• some limiter commands not standardized
• rare and unique features cannot be switched

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Search Engines with Full Boolean Searching OR,
AND, AND NOT, ( )

• Yahoo, MSN, Exalead, Gigablast
• Must put parentheses around ORed terms
• AND before parentheses
• search engines AND (web OR internet)
• to exclude, use AND NOT
• web search engines AND NOT (google OR yahoo)
• But in Google, Ask.com
• OR and - only
• search engines web OR internet
• web search engines -google yahoo
• You can switch OR and other Boolean searches
• Google ? Ask.com
• Yahoo ? MSN ? Exalead ? Gigablast

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Useful Limiter Commands

• Focus on primary aboutness of a page
• intitle intitletutorial web search
• inurl inurltutorial web search
• Limit to a domain or search within a site
• site siteorg hurricanes
• sitenoaa.gov hurricanes
• Limit to a non-HTML format
• filetype filetypeppt web search tutorial

More in Cheat Sheet 2 Search Engine Limiter
Commands Comparison Chart
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Limiters Not Entirely Consistent

• Cannot always switch
• single limiters usually ok except in Gigablast
• intitlemileage hybrid cars sitegov
• OR with limiters switch among similar search
  engines
• asthma siteedu OR siteorg
• asthma AND (siteedu OR sitegov)

• Some search engines' limiters not like the others
• Gigablast
• title for intitle
• suburl for site
• type for filetype
• Yahoo
• hostname to limit to a site
  hosthamewww.infopeople.org
• everybody else uses sitewww.infopeople.org

See examples in Cheat Sheet 2 (Limiter Commands)
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Rare, Cool Search Features

• Stemming Google, Exalead
• other word endings automatic
• librarian skill may retrieve libraries librarians
  skills skilled
• to turn on/off
• librarian skill
• activate in Exalead Preferences (defaultOFF)
• Hyphen power Google, Ask.com
• hyphen retrieves hyphen, space, single word
• Google out-do finds out-do, out do, outdo
• Ask.com out-do finds out-do, out do
• Clustering, search suggestions
• Gigablast Giga Bits, Related Searches,
  Reference pages
• Ask.com Narrower/Broader Search Terms
• Exalead Related Terms box, extracts within
  results
• Google synonym search FAQ finds help,
  manual
• Google defineword or expression finds web
  definitions

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Exercise 3

• Exploring Cool and Less Standardized Search
  Engine Features

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Attempts to Customize Relevancy Ranking

• MSN Search
• results Ranking sliders in Search Builder

• mindset.research.yahoo.com (beta)
• slider above search results

• Exalead date sort setting in Advanced Search
• oldest to newest, newest to oldest - what date?
• MSN's prefer and Exalead's opt
• requests a word without requiring it, gives it
  preference

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Choosing Search Engines Wisely

• Size
• do you want comprehensive?
• Ranking
• popularity or something else?
• Want suggestions?
• try using clustering of results
• look at narrower/broader terms
• Need Boolean beyond OR?
• rarely better than several simpler searches
• NEAR (within 16 words) in Exalead
• Is a search engine the best place to start?
• directory?
• need to learn how to be specific?

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Post-Google Expanding Web

• Blogs and RSS feeds
• Tags
• WIKIs
• Media searches
• Personalized spaces and services

Trend toward web virtual communities, sharing
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Do you blog or follow any RSS feeds?
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Blogs "the Blogosphere"

• Blog short for "web log"
• a webpage of brief entries, arranged
  chronologically
• the fastest growing medium since the WWW
• 15 - 50 million blogs now
• new blog born every second (over 30
  million/year!)
• Simple to use and manage
• free
• minimal technical skill required to make and run
  one
• Useful
• to track topics and websites you want to stay on
  top of
• if you want current
• information - outreach in libraries, by
  publishers, from gov'ts
• opinions - consumer, product, company, reviews -
  new stuff
• news - most news sites put out a feed of what's
  added
• insider commentary - individuals and group forums
• Noise and spam too
• amateur diaries, notes, sharing, some ads, gunk,
  "splogging"

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Exercise 4

• When you reach a stop sign ,
• please wait for group discussion

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Features in Most Blogs

• Blog title, brief description or slogan
• Messages (called "postings")
• most recent first
• usually short
• sometimes snippet, with link to full posting
• comments can be added to messages in the blog
• In margins, usually
• "search this blog" box
• links to archive or previous/recent postings
• categories or subjects in which postings are
  grouped
• about the author or the blog
• links to other sites of interest
• Ability to SUBSCRIBE to the blog with RSS feed
• means to keep up on what's new in blogs you like

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RSS Feeds Can Save You Time

• RSS "Really simple syndication"
• Subscribe and receive current postings from blogs
  
• no need to go each blog and look for what's new
• Useful if you want to keep up on what the blog is
  saying
• RSS requires a reader to read and manage it
• RSS feeds written in XML code, not easy to
  understand
• bloglines.com offers the best feed reader
• free, from AskJeeves

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Any Website Can Offer an RSS Feed

• Most blogs have them
• keep current with blogs you like
• Many other web pages with frequent updates let
  you subscribe to an RSS feed
• many news sites
• Dilbert.com
• many journals alert to current tables of contents
• many government agencies
• consumer reviews
• Look at Bloglines' "Most Popular Feeds"
• click Directory tab in Bloglines
• some are not from blogs, some are from blogs

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Finding RSS Feeds

• Search for RSS feeds
• bloglines.com browse feeds or search feeds
• MSN Search feed limiter
• requires terms to be in RSS feed documents
• feedreviews "coffee grinder" cuisinart
• blogsearch.google.com postings from blogs with
  feeds
• Yahoo advance search limit file type to RSS/XML
• pubsub.com clipping/alert service for
  blogs/feeds
• Search for blogs and subscribe to their feeds

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Finding Blogs

• Search as for web pages
• include the term blog in search
• use subject directories
• Yahoo! or Google directories
• use web search engines like Google
• blogs/feeds mixed in with web pages
• Follow referrals from other blogs
• Search special RSS feed or blog databases
• many to choose from, rapidly evolving
• most find feeds or blog postings
• see Bookmarks
• Finding RSS Feeds and/or Blogs - Specialized
  searches

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Exercise 5

• Finding RSS feeds and blogs

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Strategies for Finding Quality Feeds and Blogs

• Look for "voices" that you respect
• monitor a feed for a while
• follow its links to other blogs
• search by author in Google Advanced Blog Search
• Subscribe to new feeds for a while
• ruthlessly drop what you don't always read
• Try new ones
• Don't try to read everything!

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Tags Social Bookmarks

• Go to del.icio.us (in Bookmarks)
• Click more tags (under popular tags)
• Tag cloud size shows how many are tagging
• How do you create a Tag in del.icio.us?
• create an account
• install an "Add to del.icio.us" bookmarklet
• when viewing a web page you want to tag, click on
  this bookmarklet
• assign as many tags as you wish up to 20

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Tags Collaborative Categorization of Websites,
Unstructured Cataloging

• TAGS - shared "votes" for pages
• databases of "votes" for pages
• popularity ranking in the raw
• subset of the billions of pages on the web
• useful to find other links on a theme or topic
• weighted by how many other people have bookmarked
  a page in that database
• del.icio.us gives you a webpage of your links
• lets you see who else tags a site
• tagcloud.com analyzes your RSS feeds
• FURL.net keeps a copy of every page you TAG
• searchable research organizer, pages safely cached

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What's a Wiki ?

• A web application where users add, edit content
• wiki "quick, rapid" in Hawaiian
• group projects, global possibilities
• shared wisdom and discoveries
• open dialogue, sometimes anonymous
• Focus on content, not page layout
• software mostly Open-source or other freeware
• wikipedia.org encyclopedia many examples
• list of wikis
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis
• Search engine searches to locate wikis
• wiki your subject
• inurlwiki your subject
• Learn more
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIKI

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Search Engines' Not-Web-Search Services

• Search engines compete with usefulness
• lure you to the site
• hope youll click on an ad

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Two Kinds of Not-Search Services

• Specialized searchable databases
• subject directories
• government pages
• maps, businesses by locality, directions
• shopping, travel
• news
• publications journals, books, subscriptions
• some multi-media
• Collections of links to resources with helpful
  context and organization
• educational information sites
• financial, investment information
• some videos, music, other media

Cheat Sheet 3 - Search Engine Not-Web-Search
Services
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Large Subject Directories

• Selected sites, "cataloged" into subject
  categories
• to learn about a topic, find key pages
• to get a more reliable subset of web pages
• Yahoo Directory (dir.yahoo.com)
• 3-4 million selected, subject-organized sites
• searchable, category searches
• sometimes integrated in Yahoo Search
• Others use Open Directory (dmoz.org)
• 5 million selected, subject-organized sites
• Gigablast (gibablast.com)
• Exalead (exalead.com)
• integrate categories into search results
• Google (directory.google.com)
• stand-alone search
• enhanced by Google popularity ranking
• can sort alphabetically

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Maps, Directions, Local Searches

• Google Local/Maps (local.google.com)
• maps search default enter an address or zip
  code
• Find Businesses link yellow pages search
• Get Directions link driving directions
• features
• draggable maps
• streets/roads, satellite, hybrid views
• hyperlinked steps in directions give thumbnail
  maps
• US, Canada, some UK and Japan
• business search has links to web pages, user
  reviews
• Yahoo Maps (maps.yahoo.com)
• arrows to move, no draggability
• streets/roads, current traffic/construction
  option
• US, Canada
• Yahoo Local (local.yahoo.com)
• "city page" directory-type hierarchy,
  sub-categories
• New Yahoo Local Maps beta (maps.yahoo.com/beta)
• integrated, draggable, like Google
• doesn't work reliably now, it seems

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Education, Reference

• Yahoo Education (education.yahoo.com)
• specialized directory of resources
• reference books
• education sections (K-12, college, grad sch)
• courses degrees
• homework help
• career training3
• school ratings
• sample tests
• searchable
• MSN Encarta (encarta.msn.com)
• some comparable resources
• 2-hour free subscription can be renewed with a
  new search

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Governments, Finance

• Gigablast Gov Search (gov.gigablast.com)
• 34 million pages
• gov, mil, us, other domains with gov't info or
  links
• suggestions from clusters
• Reference page link collections can be useful
• Google Uncle Sam (www.google.com/unclesam)
• gov, mil, us with google ranking
• Yahoo! Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
• current, historical
• stocks, funds, bonds, charts, research reports,
  loan rates
• upgrades/downgrades, company profiles, IPOs,
  portfolios
• domestic, foreign
• useful help screens, glossary, definitions
• MSN Money (moneycentral.msn.com)
• similar service aims, less user-friendly

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Multi-Media on the Web

• Google Video Search (video.google.com)
• archived videos - TV, contributed, personal
• search text descriptions, closed captioning
• view stills, snippets of available closed
  captioning
• ? icon in image can be viewed using Flash in
  browser
• View this show - TV listings, several channels
• Yahoo Video Search (video.search.yahoo.com)
• millions of videos from web pages
• links to web pages with videos
• various players required (Real, Quicktime,
  WindowsMedia)
• Yahoo Podcast Search (podcasts.yahoo.com)
• search, browse, download or listen
• works in browsers or MP3 players
• Exalead (exalead.com)
• in web search results
• click AUDIO, VIDEO to extract links (in bar above
  results)

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Exercise 6

• Exploring Some of the Best Not-Web-Search
  Services and Databases

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Current News

• Google News (news.google.com)
• 4500 sources, English language
• customize entry page to topics you want
• RSS available for selected topics
• Yahoo News (news.yahoo.com)
• 7000 sources, English language, media
• personalize home page to sections you want
• personalize sources in sections
• MSN Newsbot beta (newsbot.msnbc.msn.com)
• 4800 sources augment MSNBC news
• by tracking what is read, aims to provide what
  wanted

No real "winner" depends on your needs
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Images

• Google Images (images.google.com)
• 1.3 billion
• search words near images, in surrounding text
• Adv. Search to limit by image size, filetype,
  color/BW and site
• accepts OR and " "
• Yahoo Images (images.yahoo.com)
• 1.5 billion
• search similar to Google's, different images
• Adv. Search to limit
• no filetype

No real "winner" search both
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Shopping and Traveling

• Froogle (froogle.google.com)
• searchable, some categories, price range settings
  
• merchant listings, web pages
• sometimes more results sometimes helpful
• Yahoo Shopping (shopping.yahoo.com)
• search or browse by category
• refine with related product suggestions
• shopper reviews, price and product comparisons
• saved products aggregates your shopping in
  "myYahoo"
• Gigablast Travel (travel.gigablast.com)
• 5.4 million pages of travel information
• some useful advice, things to see, places to stay
• not just selling travel and trips
• Yahoo Trip-Planner (travel.yahoo.com/trip)
• trips from Yahoo's millions of members

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Finding People, Groups

• Yahoo People Finder (people.yahoo.com)
• phone/address search
• white pages individual submissions, corrections
• email search
• largely Yahoo members, contributors, old
  directories
• useful Advanced Search
• limit by location, SmartName flexibility
• organization emails
• No free web people finder very reliable or
  comprehensive

• Yahoo Groups (groups.yahoo.com)
• support groups, communities
• searchable, directory-like browsability
• RSS often available in public groups
• Google Groups (groups.google.com)
• current groups not very large or active
• historic file of Usenet newsgroups to 1981,
  outdone by blogging

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Publications on the Web

• Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)
• scholarly article journal citations - many
  sources
• some free, some fee, some unavailable online
• links to pages which cite a citation
• links to publishers, some holding libraries
• integration with many libraries' online journals
• OpenURL links free for libraries who submit list
  of ejournals
• See article in Searcher, v. 13 (Oct 2005), pp.
  39-46
• Google Book Search/Google Library
  (print.google.com)
• full text of publisher-allowed books, snippets of
  others
• plan to digitize millions of books in public
  domain
• lawsuits
• opt-out solution
• hardly better than Amazon without more o.p. books
• Yahoo Subscriptions beta
• in Advanced Search (fee - can search, compare for
  free)
• Yahoo promises a full-text book search

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Why So Many Databases and Services?

• Competition between search engines
• Most search engines emphasize media
• portals with things to do
• appeal to people's escapist/entertainment needs
• search secondary to clicking, sharing, feeling
  good
• Google's huge success with search measured in ad
  profits
• needs to remain in the lead as others innovate
  with media
• new ways to "make all information freely
  available"
• Technological advances
• things made possible by cheap technology,
  inventions, genius
• Google's smartest technology finds ads you are
  likely to want to view
• PR, "me too," and greed
• search engines get paid if you click ads, find
  ads in your path
• all media portals and Google's "information"
  services have ads

Imagine a world with interesting ads lurking
everywhere
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Exercise 7

• Make your own Cheat Sheet
• Write down seven things from today that you
  especially want to remember
• Circle the ONE you really want to make time for

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Course Evaluation

• www.infopeople.org/WS/eval