Tutorial Assignment #11 - Final Exam Review: Apps

Tutorial Assignment #11 - Apps

The word app came from application software. Apps are designed to help the user perform a specific task. A lot of apps are made available for smartphone and tablets and those are called mobile apps. In order to create a really good app, the user interface needs to look really good, target a specific audience and it doesn’t make people want to delete it after they try it out. Really popular mobile apps include Flappy Bird, Angry Birds and Candy Crush. Individuals and organizations like to create apps because it can help them reach a broader audience, reach new people and provide information and market research. There is a website called Appy Pie and it is rated #1 mobile app builder in the world. After the app is created, there are many ways to promote and market the mobile app. Some strategies include: shortening the URL, generating a QR code, promote using social media, submit the app to review sites, target publications that think they will find the app useful, YouTube and use forums to post regularly to topics that are connected or similar to the app. 

Final Project - Google Instant

Google Instant

Google Instant is also an extremely effective way of coming across information in rapid succession. As you are just typing in your search query you may find under the search box google will predict your search and complete your unfinished sentence, phrase or word. Google Instant is much like a digital connection with your mind and individuality as a person. It becomes part of you and an extension of yourself that knows what you want automatically. It is amazing how accurate instant search is and you may find yourself never completing a full query when searching as there is no need. This ability really transcends the whole idea of research and makes you one with the digital realm. By predicting your search while typing this results in faster searches up to 2-5 seconds each time. It will also give you many options of searches that might have been better than what you had in mind. I.e. a better way of saying it or providing a search if you didn’t have a complete grasp on what you wanted to research. This is essential and should be used to work more efficiently and also clean up search results and get access to the digital world in a matter of a couple of seconds

Final Project - Advanced Search

Advanced Search

Google is an extremely powerful search engine but you need to know how to maximize it’s efficiency through advanced search methods that will help you increase chances of your discovery of knowledge much more effectively. I will now go over the specific commands and functions that are needed to achieve a refined search. Google operators are needed to be used as commands to omit and narrow down your search and get rid of the other material that is less relevant. Google operators are essentially search terms and here are some of the most useful ones that you should know to maximize your access to quality material.

-define: 

use the operator “define:” followed by the words of your choice to give you the definition of it

i.e. define: classical

-filetype:

use “filetype:” followed by the file extension then by the word

i.e. filetype:pdf fine art painting

-site:

“site:” to only search the content in that specific website

i.e. site:ryerson.ca photography

-double quotation:

putting words in the double quote will search for exact phrases and the phrase as a whole

i.e. “Rosie Hardy” 

-allinurl:

only provides results with the words that appear in the page url

i.e. allineurl:paint

-related:

will list searches in which are similar to a specific web page

Final Project - Effective Search

Effective Search

Google syntax is important in everyday lives. Whether it is for a student who is doing a research essay or just a regular day to day person trying to look for something on Google, learning how to search effectively and efficiently is important. It can save you lots of time because key words are the key when doing a Google search. When we use the right words, we will be able to find the information much faster. Learning how to do an effective search is a powerful skill. Think about all those times where we went to Google to search for something. Once we understand the way search engines work, we have the ability to look for information quickly, effectively and more relevant to the search. Like all of us, when the correct results don’t show up, it can get frustrating. Learning how to find the right combination of phrases and keywords is difficult. Looking through Google’s search guide will help you do a more effective search with the suggested methods.

Here are some tips to do an effective search:

1.    Keep it short

2.    Use quotes

3.    Search a website

4.    Search a domain extension

5.    Tell the search engine what you don’t want and be specific about it

6.    Use OR between words

7.    Avoid using synonyms

8.    Do a specialty search

For a more detail information visit this website.

Final Project - Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the short form of search engine optimization and it refers to a method that people utilize to help their content increase to the front page on Google or other search engines. There are two techniques: black hat and white hat. Black hat refers to a system that is against the standard rules and practices. White hat refers to a system that is considered moral and encouraged. No matter which technique people use, Google doesn’t like SEO because Google wants to focus more on developing their own algorithms to help deliver better quality content. Google suggests that instead of using SEO strategies, they recommend web users to create good quality content, update their websites daily and follow Google’s own “Webmaster Guidelines”. When web users are trying to build their content, the best thing to do is post good content, post frequently and create links with other members of the same community. Another strategy is to have a guest blog because it can help their website rise in a Google search especially with another name added as a tag. Being able to social with other members in the community is a great way to help build engagement and exposure without relying on Google. Another important strategy is to have good quality photographs. This is important because every web user will want to see images that are in focus. It is always good to have more images uploaded than to have not enough. Here is a link to 8 SEO stats that are hard to ignore.

Final Project - Why Use Google?

Why Use Google?

Google is the leading search tool on the Internet today. Not only is it the best web search engine, it also includes features such as image search, map, news and much more. Google is fast, appropriate and the largest single catalogue of web pages made available today. As shown here, this website has a list of top 15 most popular search engines. It is made up of over 60 trillion individual pages and it is constantly continuing to grow bigger and bigger. Google searches the web by crawling. It means that we follow links from page to page. As searchers we sort each page by their content and other factors. All of the contents are kept tracked of in the index which is over 100 million gigabytes. Then, Google write programs and formulas to distribute the top results possible. As we begin to search, algorithms look for clues to get a better understanding of what we mean. This includes different search methods, spelling, auto complete words, phrases or sentences, synonyms and query understanding. Based on all those clues, Google brings up relevant documents from their index. Each result is ranked based on the quality of the site and page, how fresh the page looks, safe search, user context, worldwide search and translation. Every webpage may include spam and Google works hard to fight them to help keep our results relevant to our search. Most of the spam is removed automatically. Every time we type something into the Google search bar, it goes through these steps. What’s even better is that all these steps happen in 1/8^th of a second. 

Tutorial Assignment #10 - Piktochart

Six Visual Solutions To Complex Digital Marketing/Analytics Challenges blog by Avinash Kaushik

Tutorial Assignment #9 - Codeacademy

Learned HTML.

Tutorial Assignment #8 - PSA Copyright

Here is a video about Copyright posted on Youtube created by Derrick Wee and I.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWYiRVE5Prs&feature=youtu.be

Tutorial Assignment #7 - Design

An app built for phone users on Arches National Park, Utah.

http://apps.appypie.com/html5/arches-national-park

Tutorial Assignment #5 - Curate

For this module, I had to curate information using Twitter searches and hash tags instead of using Google. I find that the process of searching for Internet privacy/security and Cloud Computing was quite difficult. It was harder to find relevant information, but once I did, it got easier. The information that I got from using Twitter is more complex than the first page on Google search. For example, the first link that appeared on Google search for Cloud Computing was Wikipedia. We all know that Wikipedia isn't a reliable source because anyone has access to it. 

I believe that with having the skills to curate information using Twitter search and hash tags will overall be better than Google search because the information that Twitter provides is more in-depth and reliable. 

Tutorial Assignment #4 - Firefox Lightbeam

The graph that lightbeam provided shows that I visited 17 sites and within those 17 sites, there were 247 third party sites. Third party websites are websites that are not owned by that site. For example, I visited lonelyplanet.com and it says that there are 33 sites connected to lonelyplanet.com. The number of third party websites required to render a primary site means that there are more opportunities for intruders to introduce malicious content. This is not good because we want to have less third party websites to prevent our computers from getting viruses, Trojan horses and worms. 

This picture is very true. We don’t know what goes on under the websites or where the information came from. What we see on the website is just a small piece of it. If it wasn’t for Firefox Lightbeam, I wouldn’t have known that there were 33 sites connected to lonetplanet. Lonelyplanet is a very popular and highly used site to help people plan their vacation and look for information on a particular place. If it was a site like this, there will be even more third party sites connected to it. 

As of 2010, there are 54 million malware pieces on PCs, macs, smartphones and tablets. With technology emerging, the number will just continue to increase. To prevent these, we need protection! Every device should have an anti-virus software to help protect viruses from coming and some is also used as internet security. For example, McAfee, AVG, AVAST. These are just a few examples. We can also create a password with two words combined together. Most people tend to just use one word. The best passwords include capitals, lower case and numbers. For example, G0rt3x. And of course, don't open any emails from someone you don't know. 

Tutorial Assignment #3 - Final Project Proposal

Google syntax is important in everyday lives. Whether it is for a student who is doing a research essay or just a regular day to day person trying to look for something on Google, learning how to search effectively and efficiently is important. It can save you lots of time because key words are the key when doing a Google search. When you use the right words, you will be able to find the information much faster.

By: Derrick Wee & Fionn Luk

Tutorial Assignment #2 - Google Syntax

1. How would you search for an exact word or phrase?Use double quotes for a phrase search. Double quotes keeps the words together.
Ex. “travelling to Tanzania”

2. How would you search for something on a specific site?
Use (ctrl F or command F). This isn’t the same as doing a search, this is a find on a specific page. When you hold down (ctrl F or command F) a small toolbar will pop up at the top and you can type in the word that you are looking for on the page.

Ex. ctrl F/command F wanderlust

3. How would you correctly search for a definition?

Use "define" to identify the meaning of words. If the word does not appear in traditional dictionaries, use the dictionary mode.

Ex. define: wanderlust

4. How would you search for a specific product available within a specific price range?

If you want to search for a house in a specific price range use two periods (.) between the minimum and maximum price.

Ex. House for sale 700,000..900,000

5. How would you search for a specific filetype?

Type in filetype, colon and then the filetype (PDF, XML, DOC)

Ex. filetype: pdf

6. How would you include or ignore words in your search?

Using the minus sign (-) will ignore words in the google search. Links that are related to Spiderman will appear, but not the movie. To include words you add quotations around the word you want to include.

Ex. “Spiderman” -movie

7. How would you find related pages?

You type in related: (then the URL address).

Ex. related: toughmudder.com

8. How would you find a topic, searching all available synonyms of a word?

You use ~ in front of the search term.

Ex. Summer ~vacation

9. How would you find the time in another country? 

Type in time and then the country you want to search.

Ex. time Antarctica

10. How would you find out how many Egyptian pounds you get for $20 Canadian dollars?

Put the word 'in' between the two currency that you want to convert.

Ex. Egyptian pounds in Canadian dollars

Tutorial Assignment #1 - Digital Etiquette

Digital etiquette is a set of rules that we should all follow in order to make the internet better for ourselves and others. When we have our own brand that we want to advertise, we turn to social media first because nowadays, everyone is connected through social media in one way or another. It could be Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or even Flickr. In order to create a successful brand, we need to know exactly what we are trying to sell and who the target audience will be. Knowing the target audience is important because it will be easier to sell the product. For example, if we are trying to sell cosmetics, our target audience will be females. In terms of age groups, this will cover teenagers and up. After knowing exactly what we want to sell, we turn to social media and advertise it. To be more effective, we must be social to other companies or workers who are in the same industry. It is also important to always be online so other people know you are active. Trying to promote or sell something is not easy. It requires a few hours a day being online and engaging with other people. 

http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing

http://www.qrcodepress.com/mobile-social-media-marketing-will-take-2014/8524987/