Project in ITE5

ALEXA:

Alexa Internet is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is best known for operating a website (www.alexa.com) that provides information on the web traffic to other websites. Alexa collects information from users who have installed an Alexa Toolbar, allowing them to provide statistics on web site traffic, as well as lists of related links.


LYCOS:

Lycos has one of the greatest global impacts of the search engines. Its merger with Terra Networks in 2000 has made it one of the worlds leading search engines. Lycos searches several other major databases when it provides a search result. For this reason, Lycos is an extensive search engine capable to finding a vast array of information.


DOGPILE:


htttp://dogpile.com
Dogpile has changed a lot since the first time I used it (I guess for the better), now it's becoming more and more like google. It used to be pretty unique and would have a listing of popular searches related to your search (example: if you searched "ford car," in the listing it might have "ford mustang car")
So what do you think of dogpile.com? It would be better if you reviewed it byitself, and then reviewed it comparing with others, because I don't want to hear "that search engine sucks, yahoo.com for life."
BTW, does anybody have any information about google charging people for higher ranks and/or top spots in search results? My dad said you could buy your rank and pay money to google to be at the top spot for a search, and that you could find it through goggle's advertising options... But I couldn't find anything.



• The similarities and Contrast between ALEXA, DOGPILE, and LYCOS include proximity searching, case sensitivity, fields searching, and sorting. Proximity searching refers to how close words should be when searching phrases. All of these search engines use phrase matching, which looks for phrases in the exact order that they are entered in the search. Case sensitivity refers to the ability of the search engine to search all cases in both topic entry and search results. All of these search engines are case insensitive. Fields searching is the ability to define from where a search comes from instead of searching the entire Internet. All of these search engines allow for field searching. Sorting is the ability to organize the results of the search. All of these entire search engines sort by relevance to the search topic.



• For my search, I chose to look for information on VAN HELSING” was a shortened form of “Abraham,” a name Stoker shared with his father. That he selected this name for one of his leading characters suggests a degree of identification with that fictional person. “Abraham” also has biblical resonance, echoing the name of the patriarch and leader of the ancient Israelites.
As for the surname “Van Helsing,” a number of possibilities have been suggested. It may derive from Dr Hesselius, the fictional narrator of Sheridan Le Fanu’s famous vampire tale “Carmilla” (1872). Given Stoker’s familiarity with Shakespearean plays as manager of the Lyceum Theatre, the origin is possibly “Helsingor the Danish town in which Hamlets’ castle is located. A third consideration is Van Helmont, an ancient alchemist mentioned briefly in T J Pettigrew’s On Superstitions Connected with the History and Nature of Medicine and Surgery (1844), one of Stokers known source-texts for Dracula.


CONCLUSION:


In the end, however, search engines are all useful to navigating the Internet. As to which search engine to use, I believe that it is up to the user to decide which one they like best. I tend to find successes using Google, however, someone else may find that another search engine provides them with what they are looking for. Thus, it is the responsibility of the user to research and try different search engines and methods while trying to find information on the Internet. As the Internet continues to grow, search engines will have to adapt and continually update their databases or become outdated. As such, todays search engines could be replaced in the future with better, more efficient ones in the near future.