The politics of search engines
Article Abstract:
The Web plays an increasingly significant social role, and consequently, the importance of access to information on it is increasingly important. Search engines provide access, but how they do so needs to be understood because critics say prominence is given to popular, powerful and/or wealthy sites at the expense of others. Getting indexed at all can be problematical because search engines use various criteria to decide what to include. Ranking is another concern. Most search engines display up to 10 of the most relevant hits on the first page of a search's results, and users can look through more pages after that. Knowing, however, that few users will bother to look through more than one or two screens, Web designers often try to manipulate a search engine's ranking heuristics, aiming to have their pages show up in the first 10 or 20 slots. Engineers and scientists should do what they can to ensure fairness and scope of representation in arrangements for indexing, searching accessing and raking of materials on the Web.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 2000
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Inside a search engine
Article Abstract:
Most search engines deal only in words, but new ones are being developed that work with images, animations, video clips and sounds. For example, SpeechBot, being developed by Compaq Computer Corp's Cambridge Research Lab (www.compaq.com/speechbot), searches audio files. Various approaches to searching for images are being tried, but so far, results are mixed. Search engines that work with text use various strategies. For example, Google (www.google.com) uses an innovative scheme when indexing, including the text in hyperlinks that points to a particular page. The assumption is that whoever created the hyperlink may also have provided a good summary of its content.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 2000
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Home appliances get smart
Article Abstract:
Household appliances are now getting smarter with refined sensing and controls, but cost is crucial in the development of sophisticated sensors used in appliances. Several factors are important to improve control technology, at the same time maintaining costs. Energy efficiency is one aspect in which the US Department of Energy and electrical utilities are encouraging improvements. Other factors are the environment, consumers and the availability of enabling technology. Such factors continue to evolutionize the control technology of household appliances, which have moved from electromechanical controls to electronic controls.
Comment:
Household appliances are now getting smarter w/ refined sensing & controls, but cost is crucial making sophisticated sensors
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 1998
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