Research Journal

My research topic is internet privacy but I decided to work in-depth by focusing mainly on the security of popular social networking websites and search engine phenomena Google. The search exercise last Thursday allowed us to be aware on the quality of the information rather than the quantity. My first search was done through Google Scholar, I did stumble upon a scholarly article but felt it didn’t do much justice to the topic, not to mention that the information was out of date. I kept in mind that when researching technology related issues–the information is never constant since technology is rapidly changing and information is constantly being updated. As I further searched, I noticed that there was a pattern to internet privacy–specifically about the security on posting content on popular social networking websites and became aware that this was something many people are occasionally concerned about.–why not search directly in the website itself?. I went ahead and started with Google, Google has a support site dedicated only for frequently asked questions, Google marketing and advertising, in-depth information about handling your Google account and an entire section purely dedicated to user privacy. They also have video illustrations of how and what Google does to protect privacy and several privacy related videos such as “what happens to our Google searches.” I noticed that instead of searching the free internet on these particular issues, why not just go to the various social networking websites and read their privacy statement.
I did find this different from using search engines such as Bing! and Yahoo because I was directed to specific sources containing only the information I was looking for rather than going through enormous volumes of content. I plan to take this information and compare and contrast the privacy statement with the various social networking sites I decide to state in my upcoming research paper.

-SSIRA9018

Readign Response – Web 2.0

With the development of web 2.0 you see a huge rise in social networking sites. Facebook and Myspace have grown so huge that I feel like they are a little out of control.  When Facebook first came out it was great, Nice and simple, easy for people to use.  It was right to the point.  Now it is flooded with advertisements and stupid games and some just really dumb fan pages.  I can see why there are advertisements, they help pay for everything, but where is the limit. All these games that people have created are pointless.  I don’t understand why grown adults are so into Farmville. It is a waste of time in my eyes. These games were all developed by just everyday people.  Without Web 2.0 those people wouldn’t have been able to develop something so simple that everyone would be able to see. I like simple straightforward web pages.  Some pages are very creative and well put together but can just be too much.  Pages like wikipedia are nice when the information you are reading is correct but there is really not that much fact-checking going on.  When you do find something though it can be really useful info.