Things learned in the January 30 class

I learned several things in class on January 30th. First I learned about www.searchenginewatch.com. The website provides information about the various search engines on the World Wide Web. Some of the features that it provides individuals are search engine searching tips and a listing of the various search engines out there. One of the interesting articles that they had on the Website was a Nielsen NetRatings for the search engines. In July 2006, the five most popular search engines were Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask. I was surprised that some of the meta-search engines like dogpile and go2net were not included in the top used search engines. I have found them helpful sometimes in finding obscure resources.

Another Web resource that I found interesting was www.archive.org. I had fun viewing friends’ websites and seeing how they have evolved over the time. My only complaint was that it had lost some of the previous archives of changes on the websites. As a result, even though it was a great resource, I tended think that this would not always be reliable for seeing websites that have been eliminated. For example, some government agencies are eliminated and much of their information is on the websites. Once the website is eliminated we lose the information that they provide.

Another feature that I found interesting was the link: command that can be used in the search engine Google. This could be a very effective method in finding out if a website is valid.

I was also not aware that if a www was not listed in a URL, the Website was not registered. I learned at a Super Bowl party that I went to last Sunday that you can register and purchase a domain at places like www.godaddy.com. Several of my friends have registered their websites. I learned that you make an agreement with company for a certain period of time. I was surprised that the prices for registering a domain were under $10.00 for several years. However, you can get some extras which will raise the price to around $15.00 - $20.00. You can also purchase server space with the companies but that can be pricey, because the charges are at a per month basis.