Reflection

      In this unit, we focused on many different things, such as - locating and managing books in library, using Google in a way that can improve your search results and etc..

     Let me start off with finding information in library. First, there is a Non - Fiction section where you find books based on the facts. Books are organised using Dewey Decimal System. It’s a numerical arrangement in which books are put on the same subject together and are sorted alphabetically.

     Next is Destiny. Destiny is an online library database. Its an easier way to find books online. When you log onto destiny you just have to write any keyword for ex - title, series or author’s name and it will find the book for you including other search results as well.

     Another one is Reference section. From reference section you can find quick and accessible information on any particular topic. They are accessible to everyone. Reference sections are divided into 4 parts -

1- Atlasis - Mostly it is used for maps, places and address of different places.
2- Dictionaries - List the words of the language and give their meaning.
3- Yearbook- Gives information about school.
4- Encyclopaedias- Gives information on many subjects and basic concepts.

     Last is about Journals and Magazines. Journals are mostly written about particular subject and contains no advertisements. Journals are meant to keep the readers informed of the latest development in the relevant field. This way the reader is always aware of the latest happenings in the relevant field and therefore suits requirement of the readers. On the other hand, magazines are periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, besides advertisement.

     They both communicate information for their intended readers such as they write their articles in a way that is understandable to the level of their readers.  For example magazine articles write their articles for a reader with different reading levels and who are not specialised in the subject written about. Journal articles are written for people who are specialized in the subject written about.

      Both are periodical publications which means that both the publications could be brought out on weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, biannually or  annually.
       
      In addition to this we also learned about popular search engine, Google. Google is an American multinational, publicly-traded organization built around the company's hugely popular search engine. 60 billion dollars is the annual revenue of the world’s largest search engine. Now how does Google makes a huge amount of money? They make money from advertisement. It works in this way that a large number of persons make use of Google. So whosoever advertises on Google or puts a sponsored link then the concerned  company or person is required to pay Google a certain sum of money which is Google’s revenue. Another way is Google encourages persons to click on various sites and they infact pay a portion of revenue generated to the person who clicks, subject to certain conditions. This is more popular method because besides Google whosoever clicks certain sites also gets paid by Google.

      Next we learned about some Google Techniques which are very useful in our day to day life. The Google Techniques include- Exact phrase, site specific, excluded words, numerical ranges, multiple words and etc..All these superpowers are very useful and saves time as well. For example, if we have to find information about anything then we just need to type keywords and Google will automatically give us information about our subject area. Another thing which Google does is ignoring words like - a, the, an, if, are etc..


      In the Ted Talk video he talk about how Google sees the caption of any image and name of the file uploaded through the websites, by these two indications we get the search results in Google. However he questioned whether the search engine is exactly unbiased. He explained that it is very difficult to judge whether Google is an unbiased search engine. He explained by giving two examples - one of Michelle Obama who’s one morphed image  was uploaded in 2009 by a racist group. Immediately thereafter Google realized its sense of responsibility and deleted the image manually. Andreas Ekstrom explained another example of a dreaded terrorist Anders Behring Breivik who killed about 80 persons in Oslo and went on to magnify his achievement. However a sensible Swedish site prevented from glorifying the terrorist. But Google did not take any action. Andreas Ekstrom tried to convince the audience that behind the algorithms in which programmes are written on Google and other sites there is always human brain which is involved and which weighs sensibilities and impact on the society about each piece of data which is uploaded. Therefore, he emphasized that in order to build a civilized society we need to make sure in what way the data and images uploaded on various sites shape the minds of society.

      All in all, I learned how Google can save our time just by applying some few techniques and not putting every single word in Google but rather than just typing in few keywords. In this unit I learned a lot and I can see improvement in my search results, how they changed and made my work easier.