Reading Reflection Lesson 3 - Metadata and Search Engines

Metadata??!!

Okay…now I am venturing into territory outside of my comfort zone! Yes, I use a computer, and familiar with searching (I am a Googler) but when it comes to understanding these search engines, and exploring “metadata,” I can feel my brain start to swirl! Familiar…yes… having “ a mastery of search engine anatomy”(McPherson, K. Module 3 lesson) I do not. Do I see this as a benefit for a “teacher librarian in developing information literacy with colleagues and students?”...absolutely! I admire people who can maneuver their way around the computer, internet, etc…with ease. With technology, and the advancements of information that is available on the internet, to be able to have a critical eye, and the ability to discern between credible sources, current information, I would see this as a huge benefit for a Teacher Librarian. It reminds me of learning the sport of curling. At first, the sport seems very superficial – just sliding around on the ice, throwing rocks down to the other end. But as one learns the sport, he/she rarely falls down on the ice any more, can get the rocks down to the other end of the house with more accuracy, and has an in-depth understanding of the precise strategy that is involved with the competitive game. Understanding Metadata and the inner-workings of the internet – I am at the beginner curler stage. Oh, to be able to be a Teacher Librarian that can move around with speed, accuracy, and have that in-depth understanding of the internet and search engines is a quality I admire and hope to strive for!

Some “ah ha” moments for me this week, as this was a lot of new information to me:

*My understanding was that when I typed in a search in Google, the results that appeared at the top of the page were the ones that were the visited the most amount of times. I did not realize this: “This is yet another flaw which affects the results that appear at the top of the page with all of the search services – the results which appear at the top may not be the most current (perhaps not even most relevant) – the web site owner just paid the most money to appear there. Just about every search service online provides some form of ‘paid for’ listings at the top of the pile” (Grehan, M. 2002)

a “search engine locates the appropriate data in the database and displays it via the browser.

*In understanding search engines, I did not realize that  a “search engine locates the appropriate data in the database and displays it via the browser . This is not to be confused with directories such as Yahoo, that provide subject lists created by humans, that must be browsed.” (Taylor, C .2003)

*Such an appropriate name  -“spider” that crawls around the web and gathers information!

*A key role of the Teacher Librarian in this technological era:  “It is now very easy to publish information, but it is becoming more difficult to find relevant information. For outsiders and casual users, much of the useful material is difficult to locate and therefore is effectively unavailable” (Taylor, C. 2003). Teacher Librarians should not be an “outsider” or “casual user!”

*Dublin Core Metadata schema– apparently a term I should become very familiar with for improving “my resource discovery and delivery”(Taylor, C. 2003).

Works cited:

Grehan, M. Excerpted from the 2002 publication of Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide. How Search Engines Work. Retrieved from http://cms.searchenginewatch.com/digital_assets/3859/how-search-engines-work-mike-grehan.pdf

Taylor, C. Taylor, C. (2003). An introduction to metadata. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://www.library.uq.edu.au/iad/ctmeta4.html

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In our exploration of three Search Engines, I found it difficult to decipher how they determine their relevance rankings, but looking at three in particular, this is what I was able to come up with:

Google: took a bit of looking, but eventually found how they “Make Search More Relevant.” I like how they have worded it in simple terms that I can understand:

“It is by analyzing these search patterns via our logs data that our engineers are able to improve the search algorithms that determine the order in which our search results appear. If our engineers can see that people are consistently clicking on the top result for any given query, they know they are doing something right. If people are hitting “next page” or typing in another query, they know they’re not delivering the results that people are looking for, and can then take action to try and improve the search algorithms.”

This makes sense to me – if they can track that a site is visited often, then they know people are finding some use to it. If a person does not stay at a site, or quickly go to a different search, then it may not be what they were looking for based on the search query that was typed in.

I use Google as my main search engine, and appreciate the programs they have put in to make searches quicker and easier, but I did not realize there were actual names for these programs, such as Autocomplete, (words finish as you type them) and Google Instant, (top searches pop up as you are typing your search).

Yahoo: Not sure if I was able to find the exact details on relevancy ranking, but the only thing I could find was a brief paragraph on how it is a “complex text analysis which examines the relationships and context of the words in the document” (How Yahoo! Search results are ranked ).

DMOZ: I found the DMOZ Help very informative. It helped that they explained the difference between their Open Directory Project, and for example, Google: “The ODP is a Web directory, not a search engine. Although we offer a search query, the purpose of the ODP is to list and categorize web sites. We do not rank, promote or optimize sites for search engines. The ODP is simply a data provider.” (DMOZ).  I have not used DMOZ before, but may look to it in the future. I am not sure if it is more time consuming, but wondering if it would yield better results.

I have to admit, this is still all very confusing to me, but I feel I have gained a bit of insight as to how the search engines work. I am not sure, at this point however, how this will help me as a TL in the library? I hope that as this course progresses, I will understand more about this.