Practical 6a

In this practical, I need to come up with keyword variations on my topic. Having done that, i perform a search on google with my keyword variations. Finally, an evaluation on a relevant website has to be done base on given criteria.

Keywords used: 3G moblie device development

UIR: http://www.techrepublic.com/

Purpose
The aims techrepublic.com is pretty obvious. Some of the aims include allowing users to discuss in the forum regarding information about technology, posting and sharing of articles/videos/reports regarding technology, information gathering as well as job hunting (IT related).

Coverage
The coverage of techrepublic.com is wide consisting its home page, blogs, downloads, forums, articles, photos, webcast, software, jobs and stores. Most of the information are easy to understand and are in-relation to the topic of technology. As my topic of research 3G is considered a recent technology, it is easy to obtain quite a number of related information in the articles and forum sites.

Authority
The relevance of the source such as date, time, file size and file type are clearly stated. Most of the articles are posted by IT expertise thus the source can be pretty reliable. However the reviews on the articles are not shown and it does not provides any gateway to virtual libraries.

Accuracy

I would say that most of the facts are accurate as most of the report and articles are published by reputable IT organizations and educational institutes as clearly stated in the source. The date, file size, file type and authors’ names are also stated. And date of an article is an important component to allow user to judge how up-to–date is the piece of information. Besides, the site allows registered users to rate whether the article is useful or whether it is miscategorized. Most of the articles and report I found are free from grammatical, spelling and typographic errors.However, techrepublic.com also consist of a forum page for all discussion related to technology. In this forum discussion, most of the questions and answers are posted by any individual like you and us thus I may contain some biasness and personal opinion. Likewise the chances for grammatical and spelling errors are high.

Currency

I can see that most of the information is very up-to-date as the articles are very recent. This can be seen as a sign of a well-maintained website as the information in the site is updated frequently.

Accessibility

The site is easily accessible through search engines like google. Besides, the site also does not require user to have specific browser or programs. However, registration is required to allow users to view, comment and rate the articles and reports posted. One of its advantages is that all registration is free of charge.

Presentation and Arrangement

The presentation and arrangement of the site is organized. At the very top of the site there is a search facility for you to find what is needed based on subheadings such as articles, blogs, forum and videos etc. Abundance relevant results is provided with the use of the search facility, thus it is very user-friendly and efficient way of searching information. The information is arranged in a logical manner. For example, when you enter the articles sites, sub-titles and description of the articles is shown clearly before you decide to read it. This is important as it helps to eliminate unrelated articles at one glance and thus speeding up your search.

Usability

Navigation through the site is made easy with useful links and pointers. Besides, it contains recommended sites. The are also links to the search results of other users who have similar findings. The headings such as latest articles and popular articles help me navigate through the site at much ease.

Overall

In general, I find that techrepublic.com is a resourceful and user-friendly site especially when it comes to research on technology. I can be easily accessed through power search like google. And registration for the site is free-of-charge. I am very satisfied with the quality of information I found from the sites especially in the components of article and report which are most done by IT professionals. Most importantly, the site is well-maintained and updated regularly.