Question One:
What is a search engine

Internet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. Similar services are provided by "directories," which maintain ordered lists of websites, eg Yahoo! (www.liv.ac.uk/webteam/glossary)

Question Two:
How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

Search engines use automated software programs knows as spiders or bots to survey the Web and build their databases. Web documents are retrieved by these programs and analyzed. Data collected from each web page are then added to the search engine index. When you enter a query at a search engine site, your input is checked against the search engine's index of all the web pages it has analyzed. The best urls are then returned to you as hits, ranked in order with the best results at the top. (http://www.monash.com/spidap4.html)

Question Three: what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

My favourite search engine is probably the one most often used- google. Very rarely do I stray from using google, it seems to have worked well for me so far.

Question four: Can you find some current news stories about search engines? (for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately).

Google cleared of search 'conspiracy'
Lawsuit alleging political & religious bias dismissed
Jon Brodkin

A US District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Google by a company that accused it of dropping websites from search results for political and religious reasons and skewing results in favour of companies that compensate Google financially.


The lawsuit was filed by KinderStart, a parenting information website that claims it was illegally blocked from Google search results.

Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, California, not only dismissed the lawsuit but granted a motion by Google to sanction KinderStart and one of its lawyers.

Fogel said Google can now seek "reasonable compensation" for attorney fees because KinderStart lawyer Gregory Yu filed claims that were factually baseless and did not perform an adequate investigation before filing the lawsuit.

Yu's claim that Google gives higher search placements to companies that pay for that privilege "should not have been made based upon the limited information identified by Yu," Fogel wrote in the ruling. "Yu's purported evidence is either double hearsay or hearsay speculation as to the 'mysterious' causes of improvement in a website's position in Google's search results. Yu provides no evidence that would support KinderStart's broad attacks on the objectivity of Google's search results."

Judge Fogel said KinderStart's allegation that Google removes websites from search results based on political and religious reasons was also baseless.

"KinderStart does not appear to allege that KinderStart itself suffered any discrimination by Google for political or religious reasons," Fogel wrote. "It is true that Yu spoke with a number of people who believe that Google engages in religious or political discrimination, but a reasonable, competent investigation requires more than suspicions or belief. Yu had a professional responsibility to refrain from filing such allegations if he did not have appropriate supporting evidence."

In response to the ruling, Google released a statement from Hilary Ware, the company's litigation counsel: "We always felt these claims were unjustified, because courts have consistently rejected complaints over search engine rankings, so we're pleased that Judge Fogel promptly dismissed this case."

www.networkworld.com