University of South Florida

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FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION The Modernization of Digital Information

TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English Technology

1-1-2023

Chapter 04 Researching and Using the Web

Shambhavi Roy

Clinton Daniel
University of South Florida, cedanie2@[Link]

Manish Agrawal
University of South Florida, magrawal@[Link]

Follow this and additional works at: [Link]

Scholar Commons Citation

Roy, Shambhavi; Daniel, Clinton; and Agrawal, Manish, "Chapter 04 Researching and Using the Web"
(2023). FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English. 6.
[Link]

This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the The Modernization of Digital Information
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Researching and Using the Web

CHAPTER CONTENTS
Overview 38
Information Sources 38
Search Engines 38
Specialized Review Platforms 41
Public Wikis/Encyclopedias 42
Online Training 43
Informal Training Sites 44
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) 44
Training by Industry-Specific Organizations 45
Using the Web: Risks, Pitfalls, and Strategies 45
Is the Source Reputable? 46
Check the URL 46
Look at Multiple Sources 46
What’s Beyond the Headline? 47
Is the Author an Expert in the Field? 47
Check Your Biases 47
Bounce Your Ideas With Others 47
What Motivates the Source? 48
Search Tracking 48
Chapter Terms and Definitions 49
Chapter Case: Christopher’s Google Search 50

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 37

 The city’s central computer told you? R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange
computer!

—C3PO, “Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back”

Overview
Never in history have we had so much knowledge stored, organized, and ready to be consumed with
the click of a mouse or the tap of a button. If we step back for a moment and think about what is
available on the web, we will be amazed by the information close at hand, all thanks to computers and
the Internet. You can find the score of any weekend football game, price of grain in Nebraska, weather
in Antarctica, tide schedules in South Australia, and the outcome of an election in Britain by typing
your question in any search engine. If you are so inclined, you could have someone explain to you the
Theory of Relativity, how to lay a brick wall, how to plan a party, or how to edit genes. If you want to
learn to play the piano, understand road regulations in Florida, or learn about mountaineering, you
can do it all from the comfort of your couch.
IT gives you more power in terms of access to knowledge than kings and emperors of yesteryears ever
had. However, as with any powerful tool, you should know how to handle it with care and caution to
avoid getting into trouble and not harm yourself or others. In this chapter, we will introduce some of
the common sources of information online and evaluate their pros and cons.

Information Sources
Search engines are the most common source of online information. However, depending upon
your needs, there are also other information sources including review sites, multimedia sites, and
educational sites. We will briefly introduce them here.

Search Engines
Search engines are software that allow users to
search for information of interest. Search engines
have been with us ever since the Internet became
popular and have evolved over time to yield super-
accurate results. Google, in particular, as well as
Microsoft have built their reputations and fortunes
by providing answers to your questions, accurately
and reliably. Both Google Search and Microsoft Bing
constantly refine their algorithms and can even
predict and propose suggestions to autofill your
queries. Their search engines are integrated with
extensive external databases to answer all sorts of
questions in the most helpful way possible.

38 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web

The basic capability of a search engine is to find documents on the Internet that correspond most
closely to the search term entered by the user. For example, if you search for “USF,” search engines
locate all pages related to USF, sort the pages by their relevance to the search term, and display the
results, with the most relevant results on top. Results for “USF” from two popular search engines—
Google and Bing—are shown in Figure 12. We see that the results are not identical, reflecting
differences in the algorithms used by the two search engines to process searches.

FIGURE 12 — Search engine results will populate differently depending on

the search engine used.

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 39

 Search Engine Revenue Models
The search results for USF show how search engines make money. In the results
from Bing, the first result is labeled as an “Ad,” and encourages users to check
out Keiser University. Organizations pay search engines for placement in search
results, and this is one of the most profitable businesses in modern times. If
a few visitors searching for USF register for courses at Keiser University, the
investment in the search ads can be profitable for Keiser.

Search engines are expanding their capabilities to offer a single point of entry for any information-
based capability. For example, if you search for the price of a ticket to fly from Tampa to San Francisco,
search engines can fetch the prices from different airline databases and show them to you in a
comparative list. If you search for sneakers, they will not only bring you information about sneakers
but also show you the prices and availability in nearby stores. When you search for the weather in
New York, the search engine may not have the information stored directly in its database, but it
will query external services such as [Link] on your behalf and present the information. All
these capabilities make search engines very powerful as we become more and more dependent on
information.
Recent developments in artificial intelligence have enabled powerful voice recognition capabilities
in inexpensive consumer devices. See Figure 13. With the popularity of these hands-free devices and
increased accuracy of voice recognition, you don’t even need to type your question. You can just ask
Siri for the local weather, Google for a stock price, and Alexa to order cereals for the family.

FIGURE 13 — Smart speakers.

40 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web

 Search Engine Evolution
Search engines have evolved through four primary stages: (1) manually curated
table of contents (e.g. Yahoo!; starting in 1994); (2) keyword-based indexes of
webpages (e.g. Lycos, Excite, Alta Vista; starting in 1996); (3) link-based ranking
of webpages (e.g. Google; starting in 1998); and (4) embedded goal-specific
search engines (e.g. Amazon, TikTok; starting in 2003). In 1994, Jerry Yang and
Dave Filo began manually creating a hierarchical directory of websites to help
users find interesting sites on different topics.19 Yahoo! is credited with giving
Amazon its first boost. Three days after Amazon was founded, Jerry Yang
emailed Jeff Bezos asking for permission to list Amazon on the “What’s cool”
section of Yahoo! Amazon received $12,000 worth of orders in the first week of
being listed on Yahoo!
The National Science Foundation started the Digital Library Initiative (DLI) in
1994 to simplify information finding on the nascent Internet.20 Several projects
to index webpages based on keywords emerged from this and related projects
and became popular between 1996–1999. Eventually in 1998, one of the
DLI projects led to the basic technology used by Google. Instead of ranking
webpages based on keywords, Google’s technology relies on the judgment
of website authors to link to other websites. Such links are considered reliable
indicators of a webpage’s relevance and are used to create the page rank.
In recent years, sites have begun to develop search engines customized to their
needs. Social media sites such as TikTok have developed search engines to show
media that a user is most likely to be interested in watching next. Shopping sites
such as Amazon have developed search engines that show the most profitable
products that a user is likely to buy next.

Specialized Review Platforms

General search engines like Google and Bing are very good at pulling up relevant information from
the web in response to a query. However, search engines do not generate information on their own.
In recent years, several companies have recognized business opportunities in helping users generate
content that meets some specialized information needs of other users. Typically, such User Generated
Content (UGC) helps other users decide which products and services to buy. Companies that help
users add their reviews to products and services are known as specialized review platforms. See
Figure 14. Examples include Yelp for restaurants, and TripAdvisor for travel destinations. Specialized
review platforms also help businesses. G2 for example, is a popular specialized review platform for
business software. Search engines have also begun facilitating such reviews. If you want to know

19 “History of Yahoo!,” [Link] (accessed June 2023).

20 “On the origins of Google,” [Link] (accessed June 2023). The
NSF award, which funded the work which eventually became Google, can be seen at https://
[Link]/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9411306 (accessed June 2023).

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 41

what others have to say about something, a specialized review platform might be a good starting
point. For example, if you want to buy a car, check out a restaurant, research the quality of a business,
find a good dentist, get more information about your current medication, or buy a new refrigerator,
these review platforms can be of great help.

FIGURE 14 — Review platforms can help users decide which product to use
or buy.

Specialized review platforms can be categorized into two broad types: those offering expert opinion
and those publishing crowd-sourced reviews.
Expert opinion platforms like WebMD, Consumer Reports, [Link], and [Link] hire experts
in specific fields (health, household appliances, cars, laws) to write articles and reviews offering in-
depth information about products and services in their areas of specialty.
Crowd-sourced review platforms gather information from users and use voting algorithms to identify
the most relevant and useful reviews. One of Amazon’s secret recipes to success has been its extensive
collection of user reviews on products. Yelp, a crowd-sourced review platform, collects diner feedback
on restaurants and can quickly recommend a restaurant you might like. Since these sites aggregate a
community’s feedback, you might end up with a greater diversity of opinion than those provided by
experts.
As with any recommendation, you must keep an eye out for potential fraud and misdirection. The
review platforms may be more favorable towards the products of their business associates. Another
problem is fake reviews. As positive ratings lead to increased sales, product manufacturers are
tempted to influence reviews. Be aware of the possibility that even Amazon and Yelp reviews might
be written by ghost review writers compensated by product manufacturers.

Public Wikis/Encyclopedias
Wikipedia, a great knowledge base on the Internet, is an open encyclopedia that allows users to
edit content. Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Internet with over 59 million articles,

42 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web

and it has a large and passionate community constantly editing and updating articles to keep them
up to date and accurate. On the other hand, paid encyclopedias, like Encyclopedia Britannica, are
commercial products that curate articles written by subject matter experts.21 Investigations suggest
that there is little observable difference in reliability of information between the two.22

Wikipedia’s Origins in St. Petersburg, FL23

Wikipedia was founded in St
Pete, FL in 2003. The company
combined founder James Wales’
love for encyclopedias with the
Wiki technology created by Ward
Cunningham in Portland in 1995.
The wiki technology enabled users
to edit pages on their own, which
helped Wikipedia to grow and find a
niche in the market between Yahoo!’s
manual hierarchy and Google’s
automated search.

However, Wikipedia has had its own share of issues and controversies. In 2005, the biography of an
American journalist, John L. Seigenthaler, Jr., on Wikipedia falsely identified him as a conspirator
in the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. These claims survived Wikipedia’s
community policing for 132 days.
Since Wikipedia is based on the wisdom of the community, the less commonly accessed and reviewed
portions of the site may have less accurate information than the more common ones. There is also
potential for “mob activity” where a group of biased and motivated individuals influence the tone and
content of an article.

Online Training
Information sources are abundant on the Internet, which opens many opportunities for learning.
Educational opportunities are found in a variety of formats on the Internet. Online training has
become very popular and can fit many learning styles.

21 Encyclopedia Britanica’s subscription page, [Link]

(accessed June 2023).
22 Jim Giles, “Internet encyclopedias go head-to-head,” Nature, 438, pg 900–901 (12/14/2005),
[Link] (accessed April 2023). The article found that whereas
Wikipedia had about four errors per item, Britannica had about three errors per item. Nature
responded to Encyclopedia Britannica’s statement regarding the article in “Britannica attacks,”
Nature, 440, pg 582 (3/29/2006), [Link] (accessed June
2023).
23 The information in this section is from “An oral history of Wikipedia, the web’s encyclopedia,”
[Link]
1672eea57d2 (accessed June 2023).

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 43

Informal Training Sites
In recent years, popular media and entertainment
sites like YouTube have also become useful sources of
information, particularly for tutorials on specific topics.
Whether you want to troubleshoot your dishwasher,
learn how to program in python, or prepare for a job
interview, you are pretty much guaranteed to find
a suite of videos tailored to your specific need. As
the videos are rated by the community (with likes,
dislikes, and subscribes), the YouTube algorithm
combines the search capabilities of a search engine
with an understanding of the viewing habits of
similar users. This enables YouTube to constantly
tune its suggestions for videos most likely to solve
your problem.24 You can also interact with the
content provider by commenting on the videos and The Internet offers a variety of learning
opportunities.
contributing further to the content.
Apart from the benefits of curations and ratings by the community, videos have a distinct advantage
as a learning medium. You can rewind and watch the difficult parts multiple times, increase the speed
if you are already familiar with the content, skip portions you understand, and watch content at your
own convenience on a device of your choice.
However, there are several caveats to using YouTube as a learning medium:
· identifying the right training yourself,
· having the time and discipline to see the training through, and
· not receiving any certification after the training.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online educational courses open to anybody in the world.
These educational platforms are provided by individuals, organizations, and firms. Some MOOCs, like
Khan Academy, focus on free courses and some, like Coursera, offer a mix of free and paid courses.
Some MOOCs like EdX even offer proctored examinations and certificates of completion.
Many leading universities are experimenting with MOOCs to bring the expertise of their faculty to
students around the world. MIT offers the vast majority of their class materials for free on MIT Open
Courseware.25 Several leading universities including MIT and Harvard are collaborating on a shared
learning platform called EdX to offer free and low-cost courses.26 These universities are also exploring

24 For an overview of how YouTube develops its recommendations, refer to “On YouTube’s
recommendation system,” by Cristos Goodrow, [Link]
youtubes-recommendation-system/ (accessed June 2023).
25 MIT Open Courseware homepage, [Link] (accessed June 2023).
26 About the EdX platform, [Link] (accessed June 2023).

44 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web

how the EdX MOOC platform can be used to offer students low-cost credentials such as micro-
bachelors and micro-masters.

Most MOOC classes tend to be structured and take you on a step-by-step journey from novice to
expert. Whether you are interested in researching, furthering your career, or just learning, MOOCs are
a great way to go and have, not surprisingly, exploded in popularity in recent years.

Training by Industry-Specific Organizations

Once you enter your chosen professions, your industry or vendor-specific platform will usually offer
several training options. One such training that is currently quite popular is offered by Amazon for
their Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies. These trainings are available for free and are very
popular among folks eager to become AWS experts.27 Similarly, other leading technology companies
including SAP28 (for large business operations), Oracle29 (for Data management), or Cisco30 (for
Network Administration), offer extensive training globally both online and in person. There are also
certification programs offered by industry-specific organizations for general technology expertise
such as Scrum Master (for product development), Program Manager, and Business Analyst, and these
can be extremely helpful in acquiring the relevant skills and finding jobs in these roles.

Using the Web: Risks, Pitfalls, and Strategies

Although the web makes it easy to find information, not every bit of data obtained online is equally
reliable. Before you act on information received online, you should be aware of the deceptions and
traps. Here are some things to keep in mind when evaluating information received from online
sources.

27 Amazon Web Services (AWS) training, [Link] (accessed June 2023).

28 SAP training, [Link] (accessed June 2023).
29 Oracle University, [Link] (accessed June 2023).
30 Cisco training, [Link]
(accessed June 2023).

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 45

Is the Source Reputable?
Print publications with patterns of incorrect information usually do not survive for long. Therefore,
print publications with wide circulation (e.g. popular magazines and newspapers) generally put
in considerable effort to ensure correctness of information. This is part of their gatekeeping role.
Gatekeeping is the process that publications follow to select and present information to their readers.31
Mechanisms that increase reliability of information include experienced editors and reliable sources.
When you read something in a print publication, you can be reasonably confident that the publisher
put in their best effort to ensure that the information is correct.
However, many people who post information online are not trained to verify information before
publishing it. Therefore, online information has a greater likelihood of being incorrect than print
information. It also does not cost money to post information on blogs, social media, and other online
platforms, which leads to vast amounts of information getting posted. Online information can reach
wide audiences through search engines and social media even if incorrect. Social media platforms
such as Twitter are widely considered the “Digital Town Square.” What should a reader do to get
reliable information from online sources?
One mechanism is reputation. As every high schooler knows, reputations take a long time to earn,
and no time to lose. A reputation for correctness is therefore an indicator that the online source has
mechanisms in place to validate information before publishing it. Information posted by reputable
sources is more likely to be correct. Although it is hard to judge the reputability of an online source,
you can take some precautions. Look up the business name of a source on search engines to check
reviews in other places on the web. On social media, you can look up a user’s list of followers. Users
followed by other reputable users are likely to be reputable themselves.32

Check the URL

Unethical businesses often create look-alike websites to confuse people and grab user credentials
and sales. This is called website spoofing. Even if you think you are getting information from university
websites, banks, or other well-known private institutions, you should double check the URL to make
sure you are where you think you are.33

Look at Multiple Sources

Checking out information on several websites will help you look at the problem/solution from
different perspectives. One source might focus on the ease of use of a device while another may

31 You can find more information about gatekeeping online. One overview article we like is
“Gatekeeping Theory,” [Link]
(accessed June 2023).
32 Twitter has a mechanism to verify user accounts, indicated by . You can read about the
verification procedure at [Link]
verified-accounts (accessed June 2023).
33 There are many variants of spoofing. You can look these up online including at this article: Sagar
Joshi, “What is spoofing? How to Protect Yourself Against It?” [Link]
spoofing (accessed June 2023).

46 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web

bring attention to its price. If you get the same information from multiple reputable sources, it is a
good indication of its authenticity. For example, if several car review websites agree that the model
you want to buy is safe, reliable, and a good value for your money, then you can feel assured about
having made the right choice.

What’s Beyond the Headline?

As users are reluctant to pay subscription fees for online publications, there is increasing pressure on
websites to earn revenues by drawing traffic and showing ads to visitors. A popular way to do this is
by using attention-grabbing headlines that may have little to do with the content of the article. These
headlines serve as clickbait to draw readers to the site, not to summarize the information on the page
or explain nuances. Therefore, when consuming online information, do not rely on the headlines
alone and make it a point to read all the available information in the article, not just the first few
sentences. It is common to see subjective conclusions at the top with caveats and drawbacks buried
near the end of the article.

Is the Author an Expert in the Field?

Online ad revenues have created a business model of influencers. Influencers are people who are
able to encourage potential buyers of a product or service by recommending items online, usually
on social media. Influencers make money by ensuring their content is visible and by having a lot of
followers. When you search for product recommendations, you are likely to come across content that
is popular or promoted by influencers, but not necessarily accurate or relevant to you. What works
for the influencer’s specific circumstances may not work for you. It is therefore useful to verify the
expertise of the person handing out advice. For example, if you want information about a type of
diet, a nutritionist is more likely to have studied the impact of the diet under a variety of conditions
compared to a popular sports star who may have followed the diet under strict supervision of a team
of experts.

Check Your Biases

The ease of finding information we like makes the Internet great at confirming our biases and dragging
us into an echo chamber that magnifies our beliefs. As the World Wide Web has dramatically increased
our ability to connect with others, even the most outlandish ideas and conspiracy theories can have
large groups of enthusiastic subscribers, egging each other on.
This is an issue particularly with subjective opinions. There is a reason why we maintain our biases:
either we aren’t aware of their existence or wholeheartedly believe in their authenticity. Before
reaching out to the web to validate your opinions, you should take a moment to be honest with
yourself and understand if you are actually willing to change your initial opinion. Are you looking for
new information just to prove your point? Are you only seeking out people who’ll agree with you?
Can you argue the issue from the perspective of those holding the opposing view?

Bounce Your Ideas With Others

It is always a good idea to discuss what you have found on the web with friends, family, and teachers.
The power of community to sift out good ideas from bad ones can never be underestimated.

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 47

What Motivates the Source?
Web sites and search engines increasingly make money by encouraging you to buy things. They are
therefore motivated to prioritize displaying information for which they get paid. When you search
for a particular laptop for example, the first few search results are likely to be advertisements by
competing merchants and not necessarily the best/cheapest places to buy. The burden is on you
to check the results and pick the one that makes the
most sense.
Similarly, if you search for insurance agents on a search
engine, the first results are mainly advertisements
from various insurance companies. When you click
on any of the links, the advertiser pays Google a
“click-through” fee. Google stands to gain by showing
advertisers who pay the most, not necessarily those
with the best products and services.
Therefore, it is useful to be on the lookout to
understand if your source of information makes
money by influencing your decision. Reputable sites
clearly separate advertisements from other content,
but others tend to blur the difference.

Search Tracking
Another pitfall of searching for things online is search tracking. Most search engines tend to hold
on to queries and use them to gauge your potential needs, often showing targeted advertisements
on other sites you visit in the future. Your information might be shared or sold to other Internet
merchants, who will likely be storing the information in databases around the world. You might be
surprised with related ads long after you have abandoned the primary search engine. We will cover
more about this in Chapter 17 on “Ethical Issues in Information Technology.”

48 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web

 Chapter Terms and Definitions

Algorithm: A systematic and logical sequence Social Media: A digital platform for interaction
of steps designed to solve a problem between people

Influencers: Individuals who have a large Spoofing: Disguising the true or trusted identity
audience through a social media platform of a person or device

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC): Uniform Resource Locator (URL): The website/
Open access educational courses available to address of a resource on the Internet.
participants using an online platform
User Generated Content (UGC): An individual’s
Scrum Master: In the Scrum approach to agile content creation on platforms; platforms include
project management, the team member whose Instagram, Twitter or YouTube
responsibility is to effectively get the team closer
to the goals and keep everyone on track
Wiki: User generated content on a digital
platform that facilitates collaboration
Search Engine: An algorithm designed to find
resources related to what is input into a search
interface

Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web 49

 Chapter Case

Christopher’s Google Search

Christopher stepped off the school bus and started to walk home as he thought
about the homework assignment his teacher had assigned him earlier that day.
His teacher asked him to use a search engine to find information about the Florida
state bird. He was to research the topic and think about how the search engine
works.
Christopher sat down at his home computer, opened up an Internet browser, and
navigated to [Link]. While on the Google search engine page, he typed the
search terms, “Florida state bird”. The top result displayed the following:

“Wow!”, Christopher yelled. “144,000,000 results in .84 seconds!”. “It looks like the
Northern mockingbird is the Florida state bird”. Christopher thought to himself, “How
did Google know to put this reference to the Florida state bird in front of 144,000,000
other results?”.
To understand how the Google search engine worked to display the results,
Christopher looked over Google’s Documentation website:
[Link]
After he reviewed the information on the website, he realized that the Google
search engine works in three stages, and not all pages make it through each stage.
The stages include crawling, indexing, and then finally serving the search results.

Question 1: Research the terms “crawling” and “indexing” as they relate to the
topic “search engine.” Based on the results of your research, how do
these terms help search engines work?
Question 2: The results of a search using Google can vary depending on how
relevant the information is to the search engine user. According to
Google, relevancy can be determined by many factors to include
information such as the user’s location, language, and device
(desktop or cell phone). Why do you think Google considers this type
of relevant information when displaying the results of a search?

50 Chapter 4—Researching and Using the Web