Introduction to search engines, their potential and use.

1)  Feedback and discussion from prep: Google Reader. What feeds did you each subscribe to? Did you suggest any for the 'good feeds' page?  How did you use the overall settings and did you use the folder settings?  (Your teacher will show you something of what these settings allow you to do.)  What was it like reading an aggregator for a week?  Did you prefer expanded or list view?  Did anyone use the 'share' (public) facility? Or the starred option? Or trends? ...

2)  Search engines. Wikipedia:

A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information which must be consulted, akin to other techniques for managing information overload.

The most public, visible form of a search engine is a Web search engine which searches for information on the World Wide Web.

Wikipedia has a list of search engines here. For web-based searches, most people are familiar with Google, but you should consider others such as Yahoo! and Microsoft's Live.

3)  Customising Firefox for search. Firefox allows you to add a specific search engine (a web-search engine or a search engine that works within a specific resource — eg, Wikipedia, IMDB) to the browser's search box. Mark Pilgrim has some silent tutorials that will help here:

• Introduction to search engines
• Adding a search engine
• Removing a search engine

You could also add search engines to your Google homepage, of course. Some of you have already done this and now's a good time to demo how you did this to the rest of the set.

4) Google and search. Start by watching Google Search Privacy: Plain and Simple. You'll learn about IP addresses and cookies — and their role in Google search. (This video will also raise questions about privacy and search which we'll discuss later in this course.)

So, that's the basic stuff.  Now then, what exactly can Google do for you?  Google is a lot more powerful than most people realise. Your teacher will talk with you about the following:

• 20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches (2007) — how many of these tips did you know?
  
• Google Search syntax dissected (2007) — optional and definitely more complicated. If your teacher uses this with you, what can you find here that's really useful?
  

Google also offers you the possibility of personalised search. Did you know this?  And about the option to turn on your search history? You probably won't have time for this in the lesson, so for prep you'll be asked to watch this video: Google Search Privacy: Personalized Search.

Prep: watch (if not already done in class) the video above (Google Search Privacy: Personalized Search). Copy what it shows you on your own, home machine: explore your search history; search within your search history (tip: do a Google search and then choose 'Web History' from the top right of the screen; you'll be asked to sign in again — to ensure it's really you and not someone prying into your search history); practise pausing and resuming personal search. Look at the setting Google provides for your personal search — here. (There's a help page about the service here. You may find this useful.) What do you think of the usefulness of personal search history?  Can you see any problems or dangers? (This BBC news item might help you think about this.)

If you didn't look at Google Alerts in the previous lesson, do so now.  Google Alerts are another way of … searching. Over half term, Google added the option to receive these alerts in RSS feeds rather than as emails: once you've set up an alert, go to Manage your Alerts and click on Edit. One of the drop-down menus allows you to choose between email and RSS:

Be ready to discuss your experiences and thoughts next time.

Bonus!  Have you discovered Google SearchWiki? If not, watch this video.  Anything worry you about this/strike you as interesting or useful?