Blown to Bits: Chapter 4

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1. Is Wikipedia considered Web 1.0 or Web 2.0? Explain.
Wikipedia is considered Web 2.0 because users are able to contribute information
and change information.
2. Should a researcher place absolute trust in a search engine? Why or
why not?
A researcher should not place absolute trust in a search engine because a search
engine does not show its best information. Search engines display data that they
want you to see.
3. "The architecture of human knowledge has changed as a result of search.
" What does this claim mean?
The structure of our knowledge depends on what we search up and what
information is displayed after the search. As technology advances, the internet is
increasingly more necessary to look up information. The information displayed
affects our knowledge.
4. When you type a word or phrase into the Google search engine, what is
the search algorithm that is being used? Does Google’s search engine
search the web? Explain.
Google uses an algorithm called Page Rank. Page rank does not search the web.
Instead, it searches google’s database of the web. Google searches uses spiders
to traverse the web to find the most relevant and most important information.
5. What does it mean to “empty the cache”?
Emptying cache is deleting a copy of the stored information about the site or file.
6. It is possible to guess the number in 7 tries due to the binary search
engine that can eliminate choices to limit the guessing pool.
The binary search algorithm makes this possible by eliminating choices that are
not possible to reach the answer.
7. 7. What is the PageRank algorithm? How does it work?
PageRank measures the importance of each page and ranks them from most to
least important. This is used in search engines like google.
8. What is a captcha and why are captchas important? Free Response
Captchas are to tell computers and humans apart. They are important because
computers or bots are typically unable to solve captchas.

Free Response:
9. "The architecture of human knowledge has changed as a result of search."
Do you agree?
I agree because the information that pops up during my search is the information in
which I believe in. It can be scary knowing that search engines can influence they
way you think by its algorithm.
10. "Google emerged -- from this dilemma at least -- with its pocketbooks
overflowing and its principles intact." Do you agree?
I think that this is not true because usually the ads are placed first before the actual
relevant search result. When googling something, series of ads are shown before
the results needed, thus showing that google still would put ads first.
11. What do you think about the differences between Figure 4.10 and
Figure 4.11?
The difference is that Google China was able to manipulate the search where it
shows that China did something positive, thus skewing the way people would look
at things.
12. Would you retain your search history or delete it? Why?
Deleting it would give me the best protection against other people viewing my search
history. I keep my search history because it shows information of past things I have
searched and it helps me remember the last episode I watched of a tv show.
13. Bonus: Different algorithms can be developed to solve the same problem.
For web searches, Google has its patented PageRank algorithm as part of its
search algorithm. What does Yahoo! use? What does Bing use?
Bing uses a system called "best match", which is similar to Google's PageRank.
Yahoo! Is powered by Bing but it uses a system of PageRank where it ranks the
relevance of pages between 0 and 10.

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