DIS 19 FIAT LUX: “JUST GOOGLE ™ IT”:

WHAT IT IS AND WHEN IT’S APPROPRIATE

 

Spring 2007, Dr. John V. Richardson Jr.

Professor of Information Studies, UCLA

 

Google, the world’s most popular search engine, indexes more than eight billion WebPages.  This Fiat Lux course explores the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web as an important, if not authoritative, source of information (for facts, news, shopping, and geography).  Describes Google’s features, compares and contrasts it with other WWW resources, and thereby explores evaluative criteria including such issues as authority, believability, and trust.

 

I.                    Google’s Background and History

a.      Brief History of the Internet and WWW

                                                              i.      DARPA and UCLA’s Vinton Cerf

                                                           ii.      September 1998, Stanford’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page at http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#larry

                                                         iii.      Googlebot

b.      Disintermediation

c.       Principles of Bounded Rationality, Least Effort and Satisficing

d.     Evaluative Criteria

                                                              i.      Popularity (see http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500)

                                                           ii.      Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques

II.                 Google Search Engine (www.google.com)

a.      Keyword Searching versus Controlled Vocabulary Techniques

b.      Compared to other engines at Search Engine Watch. com

c.       Advanced Searching Techniques

                                                              i.      More than one word terms

                                                           ii.      Search history

d.     Google-bombing and Google-Spoofing

e.      Google DeskTop

III.               Google Images

a.      Compared to other programs

b.      Compression of Images

                                                              i.      Raw (.raf, .crw, .mrw., .nef, .orf, .dng or .pef) and RGB image formats

                                                           ii.      Compression of images, Joint Photographic Editors Group (JPEG 2000), Windows Bit Map (BMP), and Graphic Interchange Format (GIF), and TIFF (Tagged Image)

c.       Picasa and IPTC standard

IV.              Google Uncle Sam

a.      Compared to Firstgov.gov

b.      44 USC 1901

V.                Google News

a.      Compared to Yahoo! News, MSNBC, AOL News, CNN, and Internet Broadcasting as well as the New York Times

b.      Are print-based newspapers dead?

VI.              Google Scholar, Catalogs, and Inventorying and Finding Books

a.      Compared to ISI’s Citation Index, Addall.com, collectorz.com or librarything.com

b.      The Deeper Web and How to Get There

c.       Evaluative Criteria for Bibliographies and Catalogs

VII.           Google Earth, Local, and Maps

a.      Compared to the AOL Mapquest, Yahoo! Maps, Frappr.com and RandMcNally.com or the Times Atlas of the World

b.      GPS navigation systems for phones and cars

VIII.         Froogle (business)

a.      Compared to Barron’s, WSJ

b.      Google as an Investment

IX.              Google Trends

X.                 Student Presentations

 

Recommended Textbooks:  

 

1. The Google Story by David Vise and Mark Malseed (2005) and

 

2. The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle (2005)