Syllabus, Administrivia
Speaker Schedule, Lecture Notes
Readings and Assignments
Resources
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Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business
i141
(Note new time and location!)
Mondays 10:00am-12:00pm, (2 units)
1.5 hour of lecture per week, 0.5 hour of discussion per week.
CCN: 42706
Prerequisites: None.
Location: 155 Kroeber Hall
Open to all undergraduate students and designed for
those with little technical background.
(
Graduate student version of this course)
Speakers
We will schedule a set of top-notch experts to speak during Fall
2007. A speaker schedule
is now available.
You can also
see the schedule from Fall 2005.
The instructor, Prof. Marti Hearst,
is an Associate Professor at the School of Information at UC Berkeley.
She has done extensive research on search user interfaces, was on
the Science Advisory Board for Search at Yahoo from 2004-2005 and for
Altavista from 2002-2004. She will provide the introduction to the
course, devise the homework assignments, and create lectures for
topics that are not covered by other speakers.
Synopsis
The World Wide Web brings much of the world's knowledge into the reach of nearly
everyone with a computer and an internet connection. The availability of
huge quantities of information at our fingertips is transforming government,
business, and many other aspects of society.
For most people, Web search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) are technologies
which have enormous influence on how people find and think about information.
They are the gateways, (or some might argue, gate keepers) to this vast sea of
information. With the rising importance of search engines come new legal,
business, and policy questions and considerations.
This course will examine these issues via a series of lectures from experts in
academia and industry. Students will first gain an understanding of the basics
of how search engines work, and then explore how search engine design impacts
business and culture. Topics include search advertising and auctions, search
and privacy, search ranking, internationalization, anti-spam efforts, local
search, peer-to-peer search, and search of blogs and online communities.
Instructors
Prof.
Marti Hearst
212 South Hall, 510-642-8016
Office hours: Mon and Wed, 1:10-2:10
Check here for Prof's
Hearst's office hours cancellations
Eun Kyoung Choe, eunky@ischool.berkeley.edu
Ani Sen, asen@ischool.berkeley.edu
TA office hours take place in 210 South Hall at the following times:
- Tue 12:00- 1:00pm (Ani)
- Wed 3:30- 4:30pm (Both Ani and Eun Kyoung together)
- Thu 12:00- 1:00pm (Ani)
- Thu 2:00- 4:00pm (Eun Kyoung)
- Fri 10:00-11:00am (Both Ani and Eun Kyoung together)
Class Meetings
The course will consist of one 1.5-hour lecture per week and one 30 minute
discussion per week. Each lecture will be delivered by one or more
experts from academia or industry. Each lecture will include time
for question-and-answer sessions. Discussion sections will take
place in the same room as the lecture room; we will break into groups
for discussion after each lecture.
To better understand the issues, it is important to have an understanding of the
underlying technology. Thus, in this course, students will learn and explore the
basics of how search engines work via readings and homework exercises.
Discussion Sections
We are having TA office hours instead of discussion sections.
Grading
Students will be required to write a 5-10 page final essay in lieu of a final
exam. Technically-oriented students will be allowed to do a programming project
instead of a final paper. Grading will be a combination of scores for lecture
attendance, homeworks, and the final essay or project. Discussion section
attendance will not be graded.
Grading breakdown: Attendance 40%, Homeworks 35%, Final Project 25%.
Attendance is required. You may miss only one class all semester;
additional missed classes will result in significant grade reduction.
Readings
Required Book
There is a required book for this course,
The Search, by John Battelle.
Optional Suggested Book for Techies
For computer science students who are interested in
independently studying how search engines work in detail, I
recommend
Mining the Web by Soumen Chakrabarti.
(Another book will be coming out soon ... this is the revised version
of
Modern Information Retrieval ...
stay tuned.)
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