Web Design and Authoring Assignment 1.3

Using Web Browsers

1. Click on the "Home" button in your browser.
• a. What is the title and URL of the web page you are defaulted to?

The title of the default page in Google Chrome is "New Tab" and and the URL is chrome://newtab

• b. Why did this appear? How can you change this default setting so that another web page automatically loads when you launch the web browser?

Because Chrome sets up their default page so that you are authomatically taken to a page that contains both a plank URL search bar and a collection of frequently used websites for the users convenience. Additionally, to change this default tab, you access your settings through clicking the 3 dots in the top right corner, clicking settings, navigating to the "On Startup" tab and then entering the specific page that you want to be the default

2. Can you change the appearance of web pages within your browser (e.g., the font face and size)? If so, how? Why would you want to?

If you go back into the settings page, you can go to the appearance tab and change the font and the font size. You can also change where the side panel is.

3. What's the default search engine associated with your web browser? How do you get to it?

The default engine is Safari, mainly because I had a Macbook Air and Apple products all begin with Safari. When first opening the computer, Safari is the only search engine present on the dock of the computer

Searching the Web

4. Head to Google (http://www.google.com).
• a. In the search box, type inlearning to make web pages and click on the "Search" button. How many matches did you get? Visit a couple of the sites in the search results list. Can you estimate how many of the searches actually relate to learning to make web pages?

I got about 911,000,000 results. I would estimate that around 70% of the matches have sufficient information relating to making a webpage

• b. Return to the front page of Google. In the search box, type in"learning to make web pages"(with quotation marks) and click on the "Search" button. How many matches did you get? Link to a couple of the sites in the search results list. Can you estimate how many of the searches actually relate to learning to make web pages?

For this search, I got significantly less matches with a search record of 1,580 results. I would estimate that close to 90% have information regarding creating webpages

5. Are the number of hits consistent across search engines? If not, what do you think accounts for the differences? After looking at each of the above search engines, in what cases would you use a search engine that is not your current default (most likely Google)?

Google by far had the most amount of results with the addition of nearly 900 thousand results. Bing and Yahoo had very similer numbers that were only off by a few thousand and the last two sights did not provide many and Duck Duck Go did not provide a number for their results. I think the number of people that use the search engine accounts for the results because the more people that use those engines, the more people will set up sites that are found mainly on that engine. I would use the other search engines if I was doing research and needed to narrow down my results to specific topics

6. Take a look at Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/). Is this a search engine? If not, what would you call it? If you decide that it is, list the reasons that you would classify it as a search engine.

I would say that it is not a search engine because while it does find information using keywords entered in the systems, it does not direct you to other webpages containing the information, it acts more like a dictionary or a textbook.

Using Metasearch sites

7. Head to Dogpile: http://www.dogpile.com.
• What is the main difference between a metasite and a regular search site?

A metasite can combine the information from several sites to create a result for the user, actively using the information provided by the user. A regular search engine is less organized in how it brings up results, hence the large number of sites that it gathers from one search.

• b. Do a search for learning to make web pages. How many matches did you get? How are the matches organized?

I am trying to find the number of results, but it is not shown anywhere on the page or in the tabs on the search page. I assume that it is sorted based on the number of people that access those sites.

• c. Visit a couple of the sites in the search results list. Can you estimate how many of the searches actually relate to learning to make web pages?

Once again, I do not have the information, regarding the number of matches found using the engine, but I would guess around 90% of the matches have some information that has to do with what I searched.

Finding Multimedia Elements

8. Either head to one of the search sites we've already used or head to one we haven't yet used and explore the front page of the site.
• a. Is there a way to search specifically for multimedia?

Yes, it is present in the tab bar when you enter in keywords you wish to search.

• b. If yes, what specific elements can you search for? What are your options? (If not, try another site!)

You can search under All, News, Images, Shopping, Videos, Maps, Books, FLights, and Finance.

• c. Do a search for a specific media item (e.g., your favorite song, a picture of Britney Spears). How many matches do you get?

Looking under all, there are about 75,700,000 matches. Looking under just videos, there were about 2,210,000 matches.

• d. Are there any warnings, disclaimers, or other information provided about using the results of your multimedia searches embedded in the search interface?

I don't know about warnings or disclaimers, but by searching a song, a sub-search bar appears for related topics like lyrics, chords, piano covers, etc.

9. Visit the Creative Commons site: http://www.creativecommons.org
• a. What is creative commons? Why might you want to use this search engine for images and other media?

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that works internationally to create a space for people to thrive and learn, while sharing their discoveries and works with each other. This engine is useful because it specializes, not in spreading knowledge to the masses, but to other people who are interested and developing ideas in the same field.

Put it all Together

10. Now that you have explored the world of search engines, reflect on the experience. What have you learned that might influence the choices you make as a web designer?

There were many parts of this assignment that threw me for a loop, specifically estimating the amount of matches that related to what I was searching because most people do not concern themselves with the information that goes past the third page, so it was difficult for me to think about that concept. I think I would experement with looking for information in different search engines, because I see that the information is a bit more narrowed down to what is specifically searched for.

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