Post by title1parent on Jul 28, 2010 5:47:36 GMT -5
www.suntimes.com/news/education/2541484,CST-NWS-google28.article
Study: Students take what Google gives
NU | Too often when researching topic, they rely on top search result
July 28, 2010 SunTimes
Give college students an assignment, and the first thing many will do is to Google the subject, according to a Northwestern University study that offers this suggestion:
Don't stop at the top search result because first isn't necessarily best.
The Northwestern researchers had 102 freshmen from the University of Illinois at Chicago sit down in front of computers and asked them to find information on a range of topics.
Time and again, their research began with Google -- and ended with websites that appeared at or near the top of the search engine's results list.
"What mattered is that it was the No. 1 result on Google," says Eszter Hargittai, an associate professor of communication studies who was lead author of the study, published in the International Journal of Communication.
A potential problem, though: "Sometimes," says Hargittai, "the first hit has incorrect information."
And she says some students didn't seem to notice that "sponsored links" can appear on top of search listings, even though those ads are set off and are labeled.
Vernon Clement Jones
Study: Students take what Google gives
NU | Too often when researching topic, they rely on top search result
July 28, 2010 SunTimes
Give college students an assignment, and the first thing many will do is to Google the subject, according to a Northwestern University study that offers this suggestion:
Don't stop at the top search result because first isn't necessarily best.
The Northwestern researchers had 102 freshmen from the University of Illinois at Chicago sit down in front of computers and asked them to find information on a range of topics.
Time and again, their research began with Google -- and ended with websites that appeared at or near the top of the search engine's results list.
"What mattered is that it was the No. 1 result on Google," says Eszter Hargittai, an associate professor of communication studies who was lead author of the study, published in the International Journal of Communication.
A potential problem, though: "Sometimes," says Hargittai, "the first hit has incorrect information."
And she says some students didn't seem to notice that "sponsored links" can appear on top of search listings, even though those ads are set off and are labeled.
Vernon Clement Jones