Self-paced course

Inside the Belly of a Search Engine

Offered by Dr. Anne Kayem

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Week 1

In this week we cover introductory material into the general field of web-based search engines, specifically ones that are index based. We study the basic architecture of search engines, in terms of its components and how they work together to respond to user queries. As a side effect, we discuss the implications for search engine optimisation and the reasons why highly linked web pages are generally more discoverable by search engines.

Welcome to Week 1

Text

1.1 An Overview of Search Engines

Video

1.1 - Overview of Search Engines

Self-test

1.2 Search Engine Types

Video

1.2 - Search Engine Types

Self-test

1.3 Index-based Search Engines I

Video

1.3 - Index Based Search Engines I

Self-test

1.4 Index-based Search Engines II

Video

1.4 Index-based Search Engines II

Self-test

1.5 Index-based Search Engines III

Video

1.5 Index-based Search Engines III

Self-test

1.6 How Search Engines work

Video

1.6 How Search Engines work

Self-test

1.7 Web Crawlers

Video

1.7 Web Crawlers

Self-test

Learning Material

Text

Homework Week 1

Graded Test

Week 2

We build on the learnings in Week 1, to proceed to cover material on the information gathering procedure that search engines employ to analyse documents on the web to determine relevance to queries. Data preparation and analysis are also studied as a means of understanding how search engines match document content to queries based on a relevance model guided primarily by keyword occurrences. As an example, we delve into the mechanisms used to evaluate or compute document relevance, discover documents and rank documents in terms of relative importance with respect to search engine queries. We conclude with some further considerations to take into account with respect to how search engines operate not just in terms of textual data, but also multimedia data such as images, and videos.

Welcome to Week 2

Text

2.1 Information Gathering and Retrieval

Video

2.1 Information Gathering and Retrieval

Self-test

2.2 Data Preparation and Analysis I

Video

2.2 Data Preparation and Analysis I

Self-test

2.3 Data Preparation and Analysis II

Video

2.3 Data Preparation and Analysis II

Self-test

2.4 Document Discovery

Video

2.4 Document Discovery

Self-test

2.5 A Relevance Model

Video

2.5 A Relevance Model

Self-test

2.6 Some Further Considerations

Video

2.6 Some Further Considerations

Self-test

Learning Material

Text

Homework Week 2

Graded Test

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Post-Course Survey

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