UIR Practical 4 & 5

Topic: Development of Alcoholism Among Youths

Search Engine:
http://www.google.com/
Keywords used:
alcoholism+youth
URL and Purpose:
http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=1
Purpose: Information and News
Description: Provides information on alcohol advertising and youth. Interlink that advertising has an impact on alcoholism among youths.
Comments on Search Results:
Size of hits = 1,120,000
Relevant ranking = None
Relevant results = http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=1
Description:
Provides information on alcohol advertising and youth. Interlink that advertising has an impact on alcoholism among youths.

Meta Search Engine
http://www.metacrawler.com/
Keywords used:
alcoholism+youth
URL and Purpose:
http://library.adoption.com/Alcoholism/Youth-Drinking/article/4859/1.html
Purpose: Information
Description:
Provides information on the risk factors and consequences of alcohol abuse and statistics on youth have been mentioned.
Comments on Search Results:
Size of hits = 108
Relevant ranking = None
Relevant results =
http://library.adoption.com/Alcoholism/Youth-Drinking/article/4859/1.html
Description:
Provides information on the risk factors and consequences of alcohol abuse and statistics on youth have been mentioned.

Subject Directory
http://www.galaxy.com/
Keywords used:
alcoholism+youth
URL and Purpose:
http://www.tarzanatc.org/
Purpose: Business and information
Description:
Website to provide services and aid to youths on kicking out alcohol abuse.
Comments on Search Results:
Size of hits : Directory matches = 759
Site matches = 4
Relevant ranking = None
Relevant results
http://www.tarzanatc.org/
Description:
Website to provide services and aid to youths on kicking out alcohol abuse.

Reflections on Comparison and Evaluation on search effectiveness
You must then evaluate and compare the effectiveness of each search facility. You may use criteria such as the differences and similarities in terms of search capabilities, result ranking, size of hits, etc. You are encouraged to use your own initiative to suggest other areas of discussion and comparison.

Compare the search results. Identify 2 characteristics that make all 3 search facilities similar or different from one another.

Comparing the search results,

Do you find any strength/weakness of each of them, in terms of search capability?

There are different strengths and weakness between each search engine. Metacrawler which search through multiple search engine, thus getting better results. Google however, it display search results that is only available to google as google is using its own technology in search engine. And google does not seem to support boolean codes as I tested it with using the following keyword, “Alcoholism+youth” and “Alcoholism youth” and it yield me both the same results. But it does not meant that it cannot support other Boolean as I did not try all Boolean operators.

Overall, which search facility best meet your searching needs? Why?

Overall, I feel that meta search engine is the best facility that meets my needs as it uses multiple search engine to search for my results. But one down point is that it wasn’t able to provide as much hits than google, but still, it provides high accuracy and precision in the search result compared to google.

Comment whether your research topic has any co-relation to the purposes of the resources retrieved.

The resources retrieve from the search engine is greatly related to my research topic. It provide me with more ideas like an alternative thinking such as that beer advertisement also plays a part in influencing alcoholism. The statistics data is to provide concrete evidence on the uprising of alcoholism among youths. An alternative solution to solve the problem related to alcoholism among youths.

Bibliography
Resource 1
“Alcohol Advertising and Youth” Retrieved November 23, 2006 from World Wide Web: http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=1

Resource 2
“Youth Drinking” Retrieved November 23, 2006 from World Wide Web: http://library.adoption.com/Alcoholism/Youth-Drinking/article/4859/1.html

Resource 3“Tarzana Treatment Centers, Inc” (2001) Retrieved November 23, 2006 from World Wide Web: http://www.tarzanatc.org/

About Myself

Websites that excites me are
http://www.hardwarezone.com
http://www.vr-zone.com
Excites me a lot when i see new technology in the making in Singapore. So i can go buy the latest stuff to play!!

UIR Practical 3

Topic : Developments of alcoholism amongst youths

Resource 1:
http://health.nih.gov/result.asp/20
Purpose of resource: Information
Reasons :

The reason of the website is to provide ample information to the public about health related issues. In the website actual information is found and it provides many articles about the topic chosen-Alcoholism amongst youths. Furthermore the source is reliable as it’s from the National Institute Of Health.

Resource 2:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/health/main641832.shtml
Purpose of resource : News
Reasons :

News on the latest search related topic is provided. In my case, regarding alcoholism among youths. The latest news is provided of its major effect, for example, in this particular webby, news has been provided that the scientist has been able to find a particular gene that is related to alcoholism and depression. In this website, links are also provided to provide with the latest up-to-date news on alcoholism.

Resource 3: http://www.youthinformation.com/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=90278
Purpose of resource: Information
Reasons :

Shows information on the bad effects of alcohol on the life of youths. Many of the information provided shows the ways on how to overcome this serious problems and the step by step action to take in order to stop the habit. Also provide information on the amount safe to drink.

Resource 4: http://www.alcoholpolicymd.com/alcohol_and_health/alcohol_and_youth.htm
Purpose of resource : Information
Reasons :

A website that provides statistics (US) on alcoholism among youth. The statistics showed an alarming rate of youths abusing alcohol. And also to let internet users and parents know the rate of alcoholism among youth, as to serve a warning to them to have better care to their children.

Reflections

Using google to search for resources was quite a breeze. Alcoholism was a term that was used quite often on the internet. And most of the searched results shown were mainly from US as the problem seems to be quite serious over their side. As I browse through the result, it mainly cover the following theme, “news, databases, electronic magazines/journals.” As for multimedia and RSS feeds, I would require to put this term in "Images, video or RSS" to the search in order to get a better results. RSS feeds was the toughest and I had to search though more than 200 results to get a RSS feed, but it was not base on alcoholism but on health issues in US. The RSS feed was showing article links to health reports over US but not only concentrating on alcoholism. Database, news, electronic magazines and journals were the easiest to search. After a few search, I learnt that, by attaching a term like “news” or “database” to the “alcoholism+youth” I would get the lesser but my results will be more accurate to what I want to research on. Thus what I felt is that by using the correct terms, the search results will prove to be a lot easier than search on a simpler term.

UIR Practical 2

My topic on the research is
Discuss the developments of alcoholism amongst youths

Resource 1
http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/Stats/
Organization
Provide statistics and information on underage youth alcoholism in US. There are also solution and types of treatment listed to help the abuse of alcohol among youth. Also provides laws and offences on alcohol abuse.

Resource 2
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa37.htm
Subject-based
Provide articles in terms of subject and category. And alcoholism among youths was in of its category.

Resource 3
http://www.marininstitute.org/Youth/alcohol_youth.htm
Subject-based
A website that provides facts and details on alcohol, and alcohol abuse among youth was one of its sub topic on. Provided good overall info on alcohol but not alcoholism among youth.

Resource 4
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa34.htm
Organisation
An article of alcoholism among youths from one of a highly credibility as it’s from National Institutes of Health, from US. Providing FAQs and resources around the world.

Resource 5
http://www.unicef.org/voy/discussions/showthread.php?t=5549
Discussion Forums
A forum created by the famous “unicef”, a world wide organization. It has lots of discussion on health matters and alcoholism is frequently discussed in different subcategories.

Reflections
Which search facility/ies did you use?
I was using Google as the main search engine.

Write down all the keywords you had used for searching the resources. Identify those keywords that yield relevant or better search results.
These are the following keywords I used for my search. They are as followed,
- alcoholism
- alcoholism+youth
- alcoholism among youth
- forums alcoholism
These are the keywords used to reach my research data. "Alcoholism+youth" yield the best results.

What are the major differences amongst the three types of websites?
In organization websites, in-depth materials on the subject are available and maintain by the web-organizer. And for personal websites, the materials are normally written based on experiences and personal interest. In comparison, detail and materials may not be as accurate or in-depth as organization. Subject based website, information mainly concentrate on a particular topic and provide in depth information to users. It overlaps between the organization and personal websites for information.

Sick....

I am so sick, very sick, down with a flu, still have to endure the freeze of the lecture hall...
With my homework and schedule to do piling up, i am now getting sick of school...

My very first post on to the horrendous blog world

My Blog name
Idea from
NIKEiD

Really retro heros!!

And blogging sux when there is laws in singapore restraining u!! WTF