Practical 4 & 5

In these pratical, we are required to select 3 resources from 3 categories of search facilities namely Search engines, Meta search engines ans subject directory. We will then have to identify the ones that we like best and use them for your search on our topics.

I have chosen Google.com as my first choice for Search engines as I find that google is more effective in providing me useful search results than the other search engines. Apart from that, I find google user-friendly too with its support facilities like advance search.

As for meta search engine, I have decided on www.kartoo.com. It has interesting interface such that it uses Flash Player to display search results in interactive maps.

Lastly, I have chosen http://dir.yahoo.com for subject-directory. The way of searching for yahoo directory is to click on the topic that you are looking for and it will break down into a smaller scope for you to find your information.

In conclusion, all three categories of search facilities are have their strengths and weaknesses. Therefore when it comes to choosing which search facilities to research on, it depends on each personal preferences as well as the type of information that you are looking for. For example, if your search topic is general you can search using subject directories as they have general categorized topics.

Personally, I will prefer to use google to do most of my research that require more intensive and detailed information as google has one of the largest size and scope of search and includes PDF, DOC, PS, and many other file types.

On the other hand, I will use meta search engine for research when I require information urgently as I could obtain an integrated set of results gathered from many different search engines all at one go, thus saving me a lot of time and effort.

Lastly, subject directory would be my choice when my research topic is broad and general as subject directory contain a list of common topics for me to choose and research on.