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Due Friday December 9 at 7pm PST. (Hard deadline)
Turn in project using this
link.
The purpose of the final project for this course is to allow
you to study a topic in a bit more depth than you have so far. It is
not meant to be a huge, time-consuming project. Each student should
spend about 10-15 hours on it total.
Below we provide several suggestions for projects. These suggestions
are intended to give you a general idea of the kinds of projects we
are looking for. If you would like to do to something other than one
of the suggested topics, then write a one-page project proposal.
Either way, you should turn in your topic by 2pm Monday, Nov 14th.
Suggested Projects
Essays
Essays must be done by students individually (not in pairs) and should
be 1500-2500 words in length. If you want to use someone else's words
verbatim, be sure to mark clearly that it is a quotation and cite the
source. Be sure to carefully proofread your essay before you turn it in.
- Privacy and Search. Write on the topic of
search and privacy.
A good starting point is an article that just appeared
at SearchEngineJournal titled
Google Patent: Organic Results Ranked by User Profiling (11/3/2005)
which states:
"... What is the difference between this new ranking system and
Google Personalized Search? Personalized Search was beta tested by
Google users who have opted in to Google profile building while the
new Profile Rank is based upon user profiles built by tracking a users [sic]
web habits in and outside of Google Search, even if the user has not
opted in to be served personalized results or is a registered Google
Account member."
What are the potential benefits and dangers of giving up personal
information (or gathering it, if you take the point of view of the
provider)? Your essay may choose one position and argue for it, or
weigh carefully the pros and cons of both sides of the issue.
Incorporate into your discussion at least 3 articles, book chapters,
or other reference material (more articles can be found in the
privacy section at SearchEngineWatch).
- Search and Culture. Write an essay about the
database of intentions and/or the cultural implications and effects
and/or the democratizing effects of the searchable availability of
huge amounts of information. If you choose this option, give a rough
idea of how you'll tackle it when you turn in your topic on Nov 14th.
- The Future of Search. Make some bold predictions
about how internet search will change in the next five to ten years.
To do this topic well, you should back up your claim with solid
support. So don't simply state something like "computers will be
able to fully interpret human language" unless you have a good reason
to think so, and state that reason.
- The Democratizing Nature of the Web and Search.
Sergey Brin stated the view that some access to the information on the
Web is better than no access at all, and that a company must respect
the laws of the countries it operates in. Discuss this topic.
- Study and Compare New Search Engines. New search
engines appear all the time (and now and then they are bought up by existing
search companies, as Teoma was by AskJeeves a while back).
This list at
SearchEngineWatch shows whole categories of search engines,
including specialty
search engines and
multimedia search engines. Choose two or three such non-standard
search engines, experiment with them, and write an essay assessing
how useful they are, how well they work, and (optionally) their
likelihood of financial success.
Programming and Design Projects
Programming and design projects can be done by individuals or teams of
two (2) students. For programming projects, your writeup should
include a pointer to your demo (even if it isn't working!) as well as
the source code. Describe what your goals were, how far you got, what
you did, and what tools you used. For interface design projects, you
should create mock-ups and you should show your design(s) to at least
3 people (not related to you and not close friends) and obtain and
report on their responses to the design.
- Design an interface for book search. Now that full text
of tens of thousands of books are online and searchable (at Amazon,
Google print, and soon Yahoo), how should the user interface for
showing results or issuing queries differ from standard search and
from the current book search interfaces? Justify your design
choices in your writeup.
- Use a search engine API: Use the Yahoo or Google or another
search system's API to build some kind of application or tool. (When you turn in
your topic on Nov 14, state what the application will be.)
- Make a Mashup. According to Wikipedia, a
mashup is a website or web application that seamlessly combines
content from more than one source into an integrated experience. (See
the recent
BusinessWeek article on the topic.) One of the more well-known
mashups is HousingMaps.com
which combines Craiglist apartment
listings with Google maps. To get more ideas, try browsing this Google maps mashup blog.
For this project, design and build a mashup. It's important that it
has some form of search in it so that it's relevant to the class.
To get you started, below is an example put together by MIMS
student
Ben Hill. It shows
where various MIMS students live. Here is some
un-documented code. (Ben notes that he uses the PHP "QuickForm"
function, which is most of the second half of the code.) Note that
this example isn't really tied into search, so you'll need to do
something different to make it relevant to the class.
Grading
For essays, grading will be based primarily on the quality of the arguments and the
quality of the writing. Essays should back up their arguments and
should not contradict themselves. References should be used and cited
appropriately. Programming and design projects should demonstrate
an interesting and/or well-executed idea.
Deadlines
- Monday Nov 14th, 2pm: turn in a one-page or less project
proposal. If you're doing one of the suggested projects, simply state
which one you are doing.
- Friday Dec 9th, 7pm: turn in your project
Turn in project using this link.
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