Trawling For Truth

The Age

Monday February 20, 2006

Vikki Leone

The internet is an ocean of information, but surfers must beware, writes Vikki Leone.

1. Background

Technology has transformed the way research is undertaken and students are increasingly relying on the internet for information.

Search engines are windows to the web and can be valuable tools to locate information. For many, a search engine is a guide to the internet, and for some, one search engine is enough. But can a search engine reliably deliver the "best" of the web instantaneously?

Anyone can publish on the internet. This is one of its strengths, but also one of its greatest weaknesses for those seeking accurate, objective and reliable information.

2. What is Google?

Google is the world's most widely used search site, helped in no small part by its speed, simplicity and convenience. According to Nielsen//NetRatings - an internet media and market research company - almost half of the 5.1 billion internet searches made in October 2005 were done using Google. Google is now so popular it's entered the language as a verb - to "google" is to search the internet using the Google engine.

It was co-founded in 1997 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, graduate computer science students at Stanford. Now a public company, it is valued at about $174 billion.

3. How does Google work?

Google doesn't search the internet - instead, it searches a copy of the internet indexed and stored on its own computers. This copy is obtained by "crawlers" (also known as bots, robots or spiders). A crawler is a program that tracks all corners of the web, copying internet pages and following links. (It takes about a month to trawl all the world's web pages.)

Central to Google's operation has been its PageRank technology. When a query arrives, this ranking system evaluates the sites on their popularity, links, importance and content relevance.

The order of search results, Google says, is determined by more than 100 factors, including the company's PageRank algorithm.

Targeted advertising is one of the key to Google's commercial success. A Google search will deliver search results plus related advertisements - this is the company's source of income. In the first half of last year, Google earned almost $US2.6 billion ($A3.5 billion) from advertising.

4. What are the limitations of online information?

Search engines vary in the way they deliver results, but many are based on popularity and the number of associated links. Popularity, however, is no guarantee of quality.

Some research indicates that searchers are not aware of the distinction between paid or sponsored results and free search results. Corporations see the importance of attracting users to their sites. The higher the ranking in a search result, the more hits you are likely to get. Therefore, businesses have an interest in encouraging searchers to their site and can help to skew search results by establishing multiple links and fake clicks.

"Google bombing" is one technique designed to manipulate search results and boost site rankings. The usefulness of search results is diminished if the results have been distorted.

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia is now the largest encyclopedia in history with more than 2 million entries. It, too, has had its share of controversy as it allows users to contribute to, and revise and edit, its content. Its open nature has raised questions about its accuracy and reliability.

Critics also point to the cultural limitations of sourcing information on the internet, warning of the over-representation of American culture on the web.

The internet also offers a range of medical information, but health professionals caution about the misinformation available and the risks of self-diagnosis. The term "cybercondria" has been coined for the phenomena of people using internet self-diagnosis and presenting misinformation to GPs.

Academics warn that not all sources of information are equally as reliable and accurate. Internet users are advised to interpret and analyse online information against a range of criteria to ensure its accuracy.

5. Recent headlines

"The search engine that could"

-- The Age, February 11

"Rewriting the code"

-- Australian Financial Review, February 10

"Google runs over BMW site"

-- The Australian, February 8

"Biggest news of the year: Janet Jackson"

-- The Age, December 27, 2005

"Fact or fiction? Online encyclopedias put to the test"

-- The Age, December 15, 2005

6. What people say

"So, is Google a good thing? The inner geek wants to say yes. It certainly has made finding information incomparably easier."

JOHN LANCHESTER

-- The Age, February 11

"Adam Curry, the would-be 'father' of podcasting (for success has many parents, while failure is an orphan) has been caught in the act of anonymously, um, 'adjusting' the Wikipedia page on the topic, boosting his apparent role in its spread. Meanwhile, someone else had created an enormously libellous page about John Seigenthaler, a 78-year-old former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville, falsely suggesting he had some role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy."

CHARLES ARTHUR

-- Sydney Morning Herald, December 17, 2005

"We use Yahoo! and we use it every day. We use it to look up company information - basic research on companies and share prices - and for finding old newspaper articles, things like that. It's terrific. But with everything on the web, all the information needs to be considered as marketing information rather than factual information. You never know whether it has been placed there by somebody with a vested interest . . . you have got to treat it with caution."

PAUL MORAN

-- The Age, September 11, 2005

PREVIOUS ISSUE

CARTOON CONTROVERSY

I believe people are entitled to free speech. They are entitled to their own opinion but the pictures are demeaning to the Muslim faith. I believe stereotyping Muhammad as a terrorist makes everyone else believe that all Muslims are like this, and that isn't the case. In every religion there are good and bad people.

AARON McPHEE, VCAL, Preston NMIT

I believe that the cartoonist should have not published his personal feelings through cartoons. The Muslims should have asked for an apology but should have not taken it further, by burning buildings and protesting. The other European countries should have not mocked them in return by publishing the cartoons when asked for an apology. Why is it so hard to say "sorry".

JOASH ARULPRAKASAM, year 6, Glen Waverley Primary School

Everyone is entitled to free speech, but if that free speech insults people in a large way, it may not be as free as we would like to think. The pictures are insulting and destroying people's beliefs. The newspaper shouldn't have published them because of the large offence it creates. We should respect each other and each other's views. Isn't that the point of free speech anyway?

SONYA GRIFFITHS, year 11, Buckley Park College

I think that the media are way too upfront with some of the articles and cartoons they publish. They should have guidelines or rules to follow.They should have certain boundaries in what they write.

RYAN DARCY, year 10, Wanganui Park Secondary College

LINKS

? Google's technological overview

google.com/corporate/tech.html

Research on the internet

www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/research.htm

? University of Melbourne: Searching, evaluating and citing information

www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/elib/techniq.html

YOUR VIEW

Is it important to know how search results are determined? Are internet users becoming over-reliant on a source of information and not sufficiently discerning about what's dished up? Can we trust the internet? Submit your views to education.theage.com.au by 10am the Thursday before publication.

© 2006 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home