The development of Web 2.0 has given people a new way in communicating with each other across the Internet. This new use of the Internet has sparked the creation of many social networking sites, such as Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. All of these sites have their own unique properties, but have the common theme of sharing information between networks of people. The medium I chose to conduct research on is Youtube, which is recognized as a social networking site with the main purpose of sharing videos.
During my initial research of YouTube, I examined three different search engines that included EBSCOhost, Google, and Yahoo. Within these search engines I looked to see which one brought back the most useful and relevant information. Google proved to be the best and most effective search engine out of the three.
My research process for Youtube began by determining which search engines to use. As I already mentioned, EBSCOhost, Google, and Yahoo were the three search engines I chose to use. EBSCOhost was the first search engine I examined and it turned out to be quite useful. This search engine is a library database that contains a mass amount of information including journal articles, news prints, and newspaper articles. The information coming from EBSCOhost in credible because the information is reviewed by the library before it is entered into the database. This is the main reason why I chose to use EBSCOhost as one of the search engines for my research. In EBSCOhost it contains three search fields, which give you the option to add more than one keyword to your search. In my searches I used two of the keywords at a time to try and retrieve more specific results. These consisted of YouTube and politics, and Youtube and history. By using the second keyword option, Ebsco gave me four specific, credible sources to use towards my research. The problem I encountered with EBSCOhost was the lack of articles that came up in the searches and the relevancy of them. In EBSCOhost some articles aren't available online and while searching I found an article that was unavailable both online and in the library. This could cause problems for people who don't have time on their side.
The next search engine I used was Google. This search engine was used in my research because it is known as the most popular search engine on the Internet. The familiarity of Google also made me decide to use it, as I use this search engine frequently. Unlike EBSCOhost, Google uses a page rank system which brings back the most linked web pages relevant to your keywords (Whitaker, 2002). When using search engines, Boolean Logic can be extremely useful in finding what you are looking for. As mentioned by Kaye and Medoff (2001) "Boolean logic consists of operators, such as AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR" (para. 25). The objective of these operators are to make the search more narrow and give you specific results in the topic you are searching for. While using Google, I entered a combination of Boolean logic and keywords into the search field. They were "YouTube" AND "history", and "YouTube" AND "famous". These keywords paired with the Boolean logic left me with three relevant sources to my topic. The process of finding the sources wasn't too long, as the page rank system clearly made it easy to sort through Google's vast database of knowledge (Kaye and Medoff, 2001).
The last search engine that I used is Yahoo. This search engine had a more cluttered interface than that of Google's. The search field was at the top of the web page, but underneath was full of news and all different sorts of information. I chose to use this search engine because I have some experience using it. As mentioned by Kaye and Medoff Yahoo uses a hierarchical search database which arranges it's information into categories. This type of system tends to give you more specific information which was also an influence on my decision (2001). While searching on yahoo I found three sources with specific information pertaining to YouTube. I again used the Boolean logic along with two key words and entered "YouTube" AND "history" into the search field. One thing I noticed while using the Yahoo search engine is that more of the information was from people posting relevant information on blogs and other information sharing sites, such as Wipeout44.com.
After evaluating the three different search engines, Google came out on top as the best search engine. While generally using the same Boolean logic and keyword terms for all three search engines, Google returned the most relevant and topic specific information. Google is as simple as it gets when it comes to a search engine, which is a beneficial characteristic. Instead of wasting time with the more complicated search tactics of EBSCOhost or the cluttered Yahoo search engine, Google proved to be simple and quick. The page rank system and Googles massive database were also far more superior than those of EBSCOhost and Yahoo. These characteristics are what makes Google the best search engine on the Internet.
While performing research through the search engines I found ten sources that seemed helpful towards my final essay. Using EBSCOhost I found four articles from journals. Two of these articles were not online and in print form only. They included an article in the journal Newsweek by Breslau and Skipp, which talked about the popularity of YouTube and how the 2008 presidential candidates were using this medium for relaying their campaign to the users of Youtube (2007). This was one of the sources that I will include in my final essay because of it's relevance to my topic and it's political influence on society. It also contained the credibility I was looking for in a source, as it came from a library index (Tensen, 2004). The other print source was the article "YouTube to Offer TV Shows With Ads Strewn Through," by Stelter. In this article, Stelter mentioned how YouTube had made a major deal with Discovery and other networks to show episodes of their television shows via YouTube (2008). I also found this to be relevant and credible which deemed it as another keeper.
While using Google, I decided to keep articles found in Time Magazine and BusinessWeek, which both talked about YouTube's history and important events that have occurred. While using search engines you receive both credible and non-credible information. This occurs because anyone can be an author through the Internet. Boolean logic helped me be more specific in my searches and filter out some of the non-credible sources found while using non-academic search engines (Tensen, 2004). The sources I decided to discard from my research were two I found via Yahoo. The common characteristic found in Wipeout44.com and Rev2.org were that they didn't have any citing and contained advertisements. This left their information non trustworthy and gave it the possibility of being non-credible (Tensen, 2004).
In conclusion, search engines are helpful resources to use while looking for information. Each one has a different technique, whether it being Google's page rank system or Yahoo's heirachial database. When using these different search engines you must be aware of the credible and non-credible sources out there. The internet contains a vast amount of knowledge, but at the same time some of this can be fictional (Tensen, 2004). This is why one must be aware of this fact and be prepared to take responsibility in which information they use for research.
Bibliography
1. Breslau, K., & Skipp, C. (2007). How to Run for President, YouTube Style. Newsweek, 151, 69-69.
2. Kaye, Barbara K. & Medoff, Norman J. (2001). The World Wide Web: A mass communication perspective (chapter 2). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.
3. Stelter, B. (2008, October 11). YouTube to Offer TV Shows With Ads Strewn Through. New York Times, p. B2.
4. Tensen, Bonnie L. (2004). Research strategies for a digital age (chapter 5). Boston: Wadsworth.
5. Whitaker, Jason. (2002). The Internet: The basics (chapter 1). New York: Routledge.
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