Search Challenge 002

A very popular search challenge is the Kermit Challenge.

I'd rate this a novice challenge and a good one to introduce elementary level students to search strategy, search engines, keywords, snippets and urls.

When it was first created, we posted a time to beat of 10 minutes. The only thing that would ever take this long is an inability to describe in words what is in the picture. If someone failed to use the character's name, that could slow down the search.

 Today I lowered the time to beat to 5 minutes. It takes less than a minute if you know what you are looking for.

Search Strategy 
Start by asking, "what am I looking for?" The directions call for finding a URL of a matching picture of Kermit, a URL where Kermit can be heard talking. If students don't know what a URL is, this is a good opportunity to point to one. No need to define it, just call it the address where a page on the Internet lives. Show a URL.

Keywords 
Also part of the search strategy is, "what words do I already know that I could use to find the matching picture?" The most important is given in the directions: Kermit. This is a proper noun and as such, has a very specific meaning. We want to use words that have specific meanings--if we can--when looking for information on the Internet. Other words need to come from the picture. "What do you see in the picture?" Describe it. "What is Kermit wearing?" "At what kind of an event would you wear clothes like that?"

Search Engines 
Search engines use Keywords to find matching information. The engine used here is Yahoo. Students should know that there is more than one search engine (Google). You can put any combination of words in a search engine, but it's best to use just a few. The order of the words doesn't really matter. Like most searches today, this one does not require any Boolean operators, but I'd leave that topic for older grades.

Snippets 
Search engines return matches to your keywords on a page as snippets, shortened sections of text that include the URL of the page where matching words were found, maybe the date the page was last updated, some text from the page so you can see how the words are used, a link to the page and some other information that can be topics for older grades (cached, similar). Snippets are REALLY important in finding information that matches the keywords. The search engine just finds the words, you have to determine if the way the words are used makes sense. The top result may not be the best one. Snippets may also (often) contain better words than the ones you started with. Maybe the words commencement or graduation show up. That's where people wear caps and gowns. Those words could be put in a new query such as KERMIT GRADUATION.

URL 
A little more about URLS could be introduced, such as the parts of a URL and what they tell us. In this case, the answer has the name of the organization that owns the information and the names of several folders where that information is stored: first, a news folder. Inside the news folder is another folder called 'commence' and in that folder is another one labeled '1996.' Finally in that folder is the page that matches the challenge. This page is an .htm page which stands for the kind of file it is, a pretty common information file on the Internet.

Planting the seeds that information can be organized (structured) in folders is a good computational mindset to introduce. A discussion about how to organize information (one big pile, separate piles without names, all laid out in a row, etc.) might help students think about the fastest ways to find something and what works best on computers.

 Try the Challenge. Don't miss the opportunity for learning. What other lessons can you squeeze out of this experience?

2018 Update: The Kermit Challenge became quite a bit more difficult with Long Island University absorbed Southampton College and took down the latter's Website. The answer page has been updated accordingly.

New Search Challenge: Slinky

It was bound to happen.

Someone submitted a Search Challenge question to Answers.com and finally got a correct answer. Therefore, it's time to retire old Search Challenge #6, the Apollo 8 Toy Challenge.

I'd like to introduce its replacement; Search Challenge #102, the Slinky Challenge.

If you would, please test it; see if you can solve it. It could be classified as an intermediate challenge.

I designed this challenge to require careful reading of the question, the snippets that result from queries and the content of web pages that may hold an answer.  In addition to careful reading, an optimal strategy involves "deep web" searching. One of the best places to search is the NASA site. Relying solely on Google, the query is packed with keywords. On the NASA site, a query of only two words works quite well.

Go ahead and give me your feedback, but don't include the answer, because then this blog will become another source of the answer (and one that will work with a Google search).

Take Another Step

Information can be misleading.

This is why it's a good practice, once you've found potentially useful information, to take at least one more step to verify what you've found.

Consider the following example:

This is a snippet (or abstract, if you prefer) from Google for the query Isaac Newton fallacy.

January 4 is Newton's Birthday, and in commemoration, Google featured a pretty cool search box graphic. Looking to see if I could unearth some misinformation about Sir Isaac, on the tenth page of returns for the query, I came across the snippet above.

That reference to leprechauns is pretty interesting. If I were to stop here, I might think I just discovered a chink in the knight's armor. But it's never a good idea to form a conclusion on the basis of a snippet. It's hard to assess the big picture from bits and phrases of a larger work.

If you go an extra step by clicking on the page from which this snippet is extracted, you'll discover the author made up the part about leprechauns. First, you have to find the text (I used ctrl+F and looked for leprec) and see what else you can learn. This is the critical phrase:

"Remember, Isaac Newton believed in leprechauns! Well, not really, but you get my point."

Your students are likely to come to conclusions based on information in snippets. Impress on them the need to take an extra step and look at the actual material to which the snippet points.

If you want to make an activity out of this, challenge your students to answer the question: Did Sir Isaac Newton believe in leprechauns?

By the way, another really good snippet challenge is this: When is Isaac Newton's Birthday?  Query: sir isaac newton birthday -- it's hard to tell, just from reading snippets.

Relevance: An Easy Search, Unpacked

I don't speak Spanish, but can usually figure out the meaning of traveler's information printed in a couple of languages. My insufficiency became evident when searching online for information on La Posada, a Mexican Christmas tradition.

I wanted to know if there was traditional music for this Mexican celebration. I think I would have found it right away if there weren't other meanings and spellings for 'la posada.'

Let me unpack this search. I find it helpful to deconstruct search experiences to see what works and why.

I started with what I (thought I) knew: the name of the event is La Posada. I remember producing a musical a number of years ago with this title, so figured it would make good keywords.

My first query was: la posada
I tend to favor sparse queries, since every word creates constraints that may result in unexpected results.

Scanning the first page of results, it became apparent that la posada has other meanings. I ended up with a page of hotels, retirement communities, bungalows and lounges located mostly in the southwest and Texas.

Armed with this information, I knew I needed to add something specifically about music or Christmas to the query, so next I tried: la posada music. I hoped this combination would be unique to the activity I was looking for.

Now the results were relevant. There were enough keywords in the snippets related to my topic to make me think I was on the right trail: song, carols, lyrics, young children... These are keywords I think should be associated with the event.

Not only did I find a traditional song for La Posada, the results also provided a clue: there is another way to spell la posada: las posadas. I didn't need that to find the music, but it could have come in handy.

Thinking about the skills needed for this search, here are a few observations:

1. You have to start with what you know or what you're given
2. It's OK to start simple (my two word query)
3. You have to read and interpret search results to determine if your simple query was effective. That requires enough knowledge to know whether information is relevant or not. I suspect this could be a very deep rabbit hole to go down, since (to me) relevance depends on language skills and the making of meaning. With sufficient experience, however, most of us are able to tell that information about hotels and restaurants does not match information about a traditional Mexican Christmas practice.
   
4. You have to know associated keywords to tell if you are on the right track. I uncovered a lot of synonyms for music and those signaled to me I was getting close.

Working with younger students, I would use this search to give them an authentic experience to think about words they encounter in snippets that tell them they are getting warmer or colder. A simple question may be all it takes when looking at snippets: "How can we tell if we are getting warmer (closer) or colder?" Or, "what words do you see that show you are getting warmer or colder?"  Have the students name the keywords.

This may seem so elementary and resemble a language arts lesson rather than a search lesson. In fact, better searching could be a secondary goal.

Telling if results are relevant or not can be difficult. What if you encounter a bunch of words you don't know? Sometimes these turn out to be better keywords than you started with, but it's similar to using a foreign language. Taking time to look closely at all the keywords in snippets really can help you search better.

By the way, a single word search for 'posada' is even more interesting. Try this with students and see what they think is relevant.

Revisiting "as is" Keywords

Having revisited the fundamentals for turning a question into a query in the last post, the next question naturally is: of the concepts I should include in a query, which ones are good "as is?"

"As is" presumes there are some words to start with. This is where most students start: the teacher presents a question to be answered by turning it into a query and doing some online research. The vast majority (nearly all) of students will take the words they are given and enter them into a query. Very few try a different word than the ones given. Effective queries typically involve searching for the "right" keyword; "right" simply means the word used experts.

In the case of the Buffalo challenge (last post), buffalo is OK, but there is a better word: bison.

Words that are usually good "as is" are proper nouns and numbers. When turning a question into a query, it's usually a good idea to think about whether there is a proper noun that can be used in place of one of the concepts. Ineffective words tend to be verbs, adjectives and adverbs: parts of speech for which there are many options (remember the 1 in 5 rule). Pronouns and prepositions, by the way, tend to be "stop words:" ignored by the search engine.

Several Query Checklist items overlap: the number of concepts and how many to use, words that can be used "as is" versus those that are either too general or too specific. Most queries can be improved by using more specific words. Occasionally a keyword is too specific and produces few or irrelevant results. The technical terms, hyponymns and hypernymns, define words along a continuum from very specific to very general. Effective queries replace general terms with more specific ones.

Next time you query, think "is there a more specific word I could use?" If none come to mind, check the snippets.

Next time: words with multiple meanings.

Snippets: Another key to searching

While federated searching brings together a broader field of information for single-point searching, there's nothing especially intelligent about the results. The idea behind federated or meta searching is that it makes the Deep Web more accessible, by enabling searchers to tap into numerous databases at once. The Deep Web is only deep because the information you need is not in the database where you are searching. Knowing WHERE to look for information is critical and federated searching makes that easier (although there is no engine I know of that looks everywhere).

By looking in more databases, your chances of finding what you are looking for ought to improve. But unless you are new to searching and think the top results are always the best ones, pulling results from 10 databases is really no better than pulling them from one. One reason is the keywords you start with. You typically have to speculate about the words to use. Most of the time there are better words that could be used, but you don't know them yet.

To a limited extent, federated searching takes care of speculating where to look for information. But it doesn't eliminate the need for a critical skill you need once you obtain results.

Checking the relevance of results obtained remains extremely important. Effective searchers check how their keywords are used in the snippets, or abstracts, that are returned. If you know what you were looking for, the language of the snippet usually makes it clear whether the information is relevant--whether it makes sense.

The other thing scanning snippets provides is better keywords. Since the words you start with are not always the words you actually need, being observant for better words pays off in terms of search efficiency. A classic example is searching for 'buffalo', a term with many meanings. If you are looking for the number of buffalo alive today in North America, the term 'bison' actually shows up in the snippets. Bison is a better keyword that improves the initial query, because it has only one meaning.

Here are a couple of queries to try. It doesn't matter much which search engine you use (I used Google). Look for relevant results and better keywords in the top ten snippets. If you want to, submit the answers you find (not just the ones you think of) by commenting to this blog.

Relevancy Challenge: Other than the fastest time from bottom to top, what is another record for climbing the Sears Tower?
Suggested query: sears tower climb record
Scan the snippets for an answer other than the fastest time.

Better Keyword Challenge: What types of shoes have been used for climbing the Sears Tower?
Suggested query: sears tower shoe climb
Scan the top ten snippets for names and types of shoes. How many can you find? Are all your findings relevant to the question?