Aim and Objectives

Dissertation title

An investigation into search engine technology

Dissertation aim

• To determine how technology can influence a search and to find out whether the technologies of information push, pull and feed influence a search.

Dissertation objectives

• To review articles to gain background information on search, and to analyse if these articles provide information on the three information technologies of feed, push and pull.
• Recognise and show understanding of what is meant by information feeding, pushing and pulling
• Identify and explain the technology and its characteristics that lead a searcher obtaining personalised search (information feeding) viewing other searches / articles (information pushing) and to specifying a search (information pulling).
• To investigate the use of these approaches in the selected information services of the All Saints Library, BBC and a law firm.
• To analyse the search results obtained for a test set of query types from a free access service compared to those obtained from subscription services.
• To investigate perceptions held by major information users on the ‘added value’ of subscription services.

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