SIMS 141:   Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business

   Fall 2005
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SIMS 141
Final Projects

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.
  1. 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).

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.
  1. 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.

  2. 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.)

  3. 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.