Mr. Nolan's Presentation

I think I use Google every single day of my life, but have never understood why the particular results magically appear when I Google. In Mr. Nolan’s presentation, I learned about the criteria that Google has established for sources and why certain sources appear more frequently or higher on the list. I learned that the more times a site is referenced online, the higher its popularity “appears” to Google. Sites that are referenced more often, or are considered more popular, appear earlier in the pages of results that appear when I Google!

One thing that really surprised me in the presentation was Mr. Nolan’s point that not all sites are reliable, even if they are from the government (or .gov) or an institution of higher education (.edu). Sources from these types of establishments can also be biased or contain faulty information. He used the example of a student. This student could create a website here at Trinity about his science experiment, and there may not be anyone to edit or double check his information. If I do a search and his experiment results pop up and, thinking that any site with a .edu is reliable, use the content, I may be using bad information and not even be aware! His message: almost anyone can put information on the internet, so we should always be aware, even from sites that say there are from a university or the government.