Lesson video

This is Unit 1, Computing systems and networks - communication It is lesson four of six.

How are searches influenced? For this lesson, it will be useful if you've completed lessons one to three of this unit.

If you are going to be using an internet connected device to access websites, please make sure that you do so with supervision from a parent or guardian.

Hello everyone, my name is Jane Adamson and I am your computing teacher.

I'm really looking forward to teaching your lesson.

To prepare you will need something to write with, something to write on, and an internet connected device.

Please take a moment before you start to clear away any distractions including turning off any notifications on apps so you can focus.

Try to find a quiet space where you can work without disruption, during the lesson.

You may pause the video at any time when you need to.

Let's make a start on lesson four, how are searches influenced? In this lesson you will recognise why the order of results is important and to whom, describe some of the ways that search results can be influenced, recognise some of the limitations of search engines, and explain how search engines make money.

The key vocabulary that you will be covering is, searching, search engine, web crawler, content creator, selection, and ranking.

Searching the web.

What do you already know about selection and ranking? That's page ranking when searching the web.

Pause and think about the definitions for these terms. Once you've had time to have a think resume the lesson.

Selection: A search engine creates an index of the world wide web using web crawlers.

When a search takes place, results are selected from the search engine's index and delivered to the user.

Ranking - this is page ranking.

Some factors, including the name of the site, the presence of the search term on the site, and the number of links to the site influence the order in which results are delivered.

Searching the web.

You can look at searching the web from three different points of view.

One, the searcher.

That's you, me, and other people using browsers to find web pages.

Two, search engine.

This includes Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo.

Three, web content creators.

There are companies and organisations your school, or even a local running club.

Let's explore the impact that searchers, search engines, and content creators can have on the effectiveness on a search.

First of all, the searcher.

The searcher considers the search term, the links that they click on, the physical location of the searcher, the choice of search engine, and the settings they have chosen.

The search engine identifies the rules that their web crawler follows to find information on websites.

This helps to create an index.

The rules that the search engine uses on the index, as well as adverts and sponsored sites, also impact the effectiveness of the search for the search engine.

Content creators consider the keywords, text, and images used, and the links in and out of the page.

When thinking about the effectiveness of a search.

You have listened to information about the searcher, the search engine, and the web content creator.

It's now time for task one, searching the web.

You are going to think about the viewpoint of each of the roles in the headings on the table.

That is the searcher - you or me, the search engine, for example Google, and the web content creator.

Which things affect the pages that are viewed? There are some phrases for you to sort into the correct headings in the table.

For the searcher, the choice of search engine is going to influence the pages that are viewed.

For the search engine, the rules that their web crawlers follow is going to influence and affect the pages that are viewed.

For the web content creator, the terms, text, and headings used on the pages are going to affect the pages that are viewed.

Now complete the work sheet for task one by putting the phrases that are left into their correct columns.

Add your own ideas too.

Pause and resume, when you have completed the task.

What were your results? The things that affect the searcher are.

The choice of search engine, the words used in the search phrase or term, and the links that they click on.

The things that affect the search engine are.

The rules that their web crawlers follow, the rules that their page rank uses, and other rules that the search engine uses.

The things that affect the web content creator are.

The terms, text, and headings used on the pages and the links in and out of the page.

How did you manage on that task? Did you add any more? Pause if you need to compare your answers.

Then resume once you are ready.

The Web Searcher.

Priya has been told that in some countries this animal, in the image, is called a firefox, and she would like some more pictures of it.

Priya types "firefox" into Google search engine.

Look at the image on the right-hand side that shows Google search results.

You can see the results show that firefox, are all about Mozilla Firefox.

Let's look at question one in the table below.

How helpful was the first search term? This is Priya's answer: "This was not helpful because it gave results about the Firefox browser." Priya changes to search "firefox animal" using the Google search engine again.

Look at the image on the right-hand side that again shows the Google search results.

We're going to have a look at the suggested answer for question two.

Question two was why did the second search term return different results? "It is better use of appropriate keywords." Instead of just typing "firefox" Priya has added "animal" to make the keywords more precise.

Let's look at the suggested answer to question three in the table.

Which term was the most effective, and why? The answer, "the second search term was more effective because there was more keywords specific to what Priya wanted to find out".

It's now time for task two, the web searcher.

Here is the scenario.

Marcus has seen a picture of someone that he recognises but he can't remember why.

He can remember that her last name was Parks.

Look at the next slide to find out how you can help Marcus.

Go to task two in the work sheet.

Marcus has been searching on the web.

Let's look at the images which show the search results and then answer the questions in the table.

Here are the questions.

How helpful was the first search term? Why did the second search term return different results? Which was the most effective, and why? Remember you have just completed the scenario of Priya searching for "firefox".

Now you are answering three questions to help Marcus.

Pause the lesson, go to task two in the worksheet, and then resume once you have completed the task.

Let's look at some potential answers to help Marcus.

The first question, how helpful was the first search term? This was not helpful.

The first search term returned information on leisure parks.

Question two, why did the search term results return different results? Adding a famous lady to the search meant Google returned information which included Rosa Parks.

The third question, which term was most effective and why? The second search term was the most effective because it had more keywords to allow the search engine to provide better results.

How do your answers compare? Hopefully they were similar to this.

Not everything on the web can be found.

Think about what cannot be found, and also why.

Pause the video while you consider this question.

Resume the lesson when you have thought about this.

Things that can't be found on the internet.

Some things are hidden from search engines.

Private information such as medical records, anything that is difficult to quantify in words, for example smells.

sights and feelings, your own thoughts, feelings, and motivation, and human contact or face-to-face - social interaction like looking at people's mannerisms and body language or gestures.

Did you think of these different things that can't be found on the internet? Or did you come up with something different? How do search engines make money? You have decided that you would like to learn how to play the guitar.

You search Google for "guitar".

Here are the Google search results for "guitar".

Look carefully at the image and identify, ways in which Google search engine makes money.

Pause the video and resume the lesson once you have identified ways that Google can make money from this search.

What do you notice about the first few results? Did you notice that on the right-hand side there are sponsored links? And then, to the left of the website link it has "Ad" in a square box.

Links or adverts are ranked highly because companies have agreed to pay search engines for the links to be prominent for certain search terms. By providing this advertising space, the search engines can make money.

Searches also include certain results based on your location at the time of carrying out your search.

In this case, the location is Manchester.

Where else do you see adverts? If you watch football, you see sponsorship on football shirts.

Which is advertising.

When you go out you see adverts on billboards.

When you watch TV you see adverts on television.

Adverts are in newspapers.

Adverts are also on buses, public transport.

Targeting advertisements.

Let's examine these two images.

The bus with the Spider-man film is not targeted at anyone.

It's on the side of a bus in a busy city so it can be seen by as many people as possible.

This will include some people who are interested in superhero films, but also many who are not.

Comparing this to the Google search for "guitar" on the right-hand side, the guitar adverts in the image on the right have appeared in response to a specific search term.

So the advertisers and retailers can have more confidence that the advert is reaching its target.

By the product guitar and location, in this case Manchester.

This concludes Lesson 4, which covered.

why the order of results is important, how search engines can be influenced, and how search engines make money.

Thank-you, and good effort.

I'd really like to see your work from this lesson.

Take a photo or screenshot, and ask a parent or guardian permission.

Perhaps share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter making sure that you tag @OakNational and #LearnwithOak Well done.