search engine results

Introduction

"appreciate how search engine results are selected and ranked

Self study resources

- Page, L, Brin, S, Motwani, R and Winograd, T (1999) The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web. The original academic paper in which Google's PageRank algorithm is explained. "We have taken on the audacious task of condensing every page on the World Wide Web into a single number: its PageRank. PageRank is a global ranking of all web pages, regardless of their content, based solely on their location in the Web's graph structure"
- Udacity CS 101 building your own search engine using Python.

Resources for lectures or group study

- Doug Aberdeen (2011) From Real Life to the Classroom, Google presentation at CAS conference that includes an activity on Page Rank - great exercise to try out with trainees.
  - Web Search Strategies in Plain English - a short video that looks at searching the web. This is suitable to be shown to KS3 pupils too.

Resources for use with pupils

- See Search Engine Tips for a brief overview of how to make a successful search and how Google ranks Web pages.
- How Google search has changed over time - an infographic.