Practical 4 & 5 reflection

Before this practical was done, the only thing I knew how to search for my materials is to post the whole question up on the search textbox on search engines like Google/Live engine, Yahoo! Instant Answers and etc… Many of the times, many irrelevant links were given and I thought that the search engines are inefficient. I always wanted to know how to find materials relevantly and in an efficient manner. However, this question of mine is often left unanswered as the friends around me have not much idea about doing that, maybe just a reply “leave the word how/what/why out of your search query”.

It had never occurred to me that there is more than one type of search facilities and different search facilities work in different ways. This practical really broaden my understanding on searching good materials on the internet. All I knew back then was there is only one type of engine available (search engine), and every search engine has its own advance search.

I felt that this practical was a need for me. Furthermore, the practical and lectures not only taught me on how to identify different search facilities, but it also highlighted to us how each search engine works, the algorithm to find our materials, key words to use in our search and how to choose our search facility best for our type of query . To summarize as a whole, I’ve learnt the effective and efficient use of Internet facilities. It brought up topics and answers I’ve always wanted to know. A search can be so easy and complicated.

I think the most impactful part of this practical is the Research Strategy.

1. Define research topic
2. Locate background information
3. Decide where to look
4. Choose the appropriate search facility
5. Translate question into an effective search query
6. Perform search
7. Evaluate results
8. Refine search

It brought up the steps on which we can have a better search results for our own search. Search is not just about posting the whole question up into the textbox, but rather a strategy towards the searching of results, evaluating the results and refining the search. How awesome!

I believe this practical is one of the best and I hope that more is to come!