This document contains 26 sections summarizing Google doodles and articles about Google from 1999 to 2009. It includes summaries of doodles for holidays like Easter and Halloween, as well as articles discussing Google's algorithms, the impact of search engines on thinking and research, and evaluating information from the internet.

1. Google BETA, 1999
* 1

2. Easter 2000
* 2

3. http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html
* 3

4. 50th Anniversary of Understanding DNA - April 25, 2003
* 4

5. World Water Day - March 22, 2005
* 5

6. Edvard Munch's Birthday - December 12, 2006
* 6

7. Happy New Year & 25 Years of TCP/IP - January 1, 2008
* 7

8. 125th Birthday of Walter Gropius - May 18, 2008
* 8

9. First Day of Fall - September 22, 2008
* 9

10. Google’s 10th Birthday - September 27, 2008
* 10

11. Happy Halloween! Doodle designed by Wes Craven - October 31, 2008
* 11

12. Election Day - November 4, 2008
* 12

13. René Magritte's 110th Birthday - November 21, 2008
* 13

14. Martin Luther King Jr. Day - January 19, 2009
* 14

15. Jackson Pollock's Birthday - January 28, 2009
* 15

16. Darwin Day – February 12, 2009
* 16

17. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! - March 2, 2009
* 17

18. Research, Algorithms
and Thought Control… ?
Kathryn Knight
ARIN6912
* 18

19. Discussion Questions
Does anybody actually use any search engine

other than Google as a first preference?
(Why?)
How many of us have Google as their

homepage?
Who has a Google toolbar?

Who uses more than 3 Google apps on a

regular basis?
 Who uses it for academic purposes?
19

20. Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Nicholas Carr
1) The net (and Google in particular) is reshaping
the way we think.
2) Turning our backs on printed technology is
turning our backs on all the advancements that
come along with the printing press.
3) Google thinks of information as a
commodity, and intelligence as the result of a
process
4) Google’s concept of knowledge deprives us of
certain pleasures to be found in
ambiguous, non-mechanical thinking.
20

21. ‘The Algorithm’
* 21

22. ‘The Algorithm’
Randall* Stross
1) Google is a democratic and unbiased
resource.
(Problems with the objectivity of the Algorithm?)
2) The advantages of Google’s automated
processes and many, and easy to observe.
3) Google’s method of targeted advertising is
more successful than other attempts.
4) ‘Social search’ as a possible
alternative/competitor to PageRank*?
5) “More data is better data”.
22

23. ‘Internet Research’
William Badke
1) Google as an academic tool
“Google Scholar aims to sort articles the way researchers
do, weighing the full text of each article, the author, the
publication in which the article appears, and how often the
piece has been cited in other scholarly literature. The most
relevant results will always appear on the first page”1.
a) Advantages and Disadvantages*
b) Closest competitors
2) Evaluating information from the internet
1 http://scholar.google.com.au/intl/en/scholar/about.html* 23

24. ‘Content Evaluation’
Susan B. Barnes, Linda R. Barr & Marie L. Radford*
1) The article I had big problems with.
2) Anti-internet bias.
a) No online references in their reference list
b) Scare quotes around “publishing” on the internet (pg. 56)
c) That the democratic nature of the internet is ruining
information somehow.
3) Maybe in 1999, but not in 2006…
“One mistake students typically make is to assume that all
information on the web is of equal value”.
24

25. Further reading…
‘Better Searching through Science’ David Voss

‘Search Technologies for the Internet’ Monika Henzinger

‘The Triumph of Expediency: The Impact of Google Scholar on Library

Instruction’ David Ettinger
‘Confessions of a Librarian or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and love

Google’ Claire B. Gunnels, Amy Sisson
‘Google in Perspective: Understanding and Enhancing Student Search

Skills’ Nancy J. Becker
‘Building the Mind of God’ Julian Dibbell

‘An Opportunity, Not a Crisis: How Google Is Changing the Individual and

the Information Profession’ Kay Cahill
Find these at http://www.diigo.com/list/kathrynknight/DRP&v=p (until I can import them into
the class list).
25

26. Happy St. Patricks Day!
17/03/2009
26