Scavenger Hunt

SCAVENGER HUNT: using www.yahoo.com

1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?
1,502 pounds
"Coventry 'pumpkin king' grows mother of all pumpkins"
By NICOLE WIETRAK
10/14/2006
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1720&dept_id=74554&newsid=17324876&PAG=461&rfi=9

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
I could only find FAN websites!

3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
A giraffe's tongue is 18 to 20 inches (46 to 50 centimeters)
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html

4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
Ontology is the study of being or existence. To me, it means challenging the concepts of reality of the idea of 'self'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology

5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
Stereo (1969) (also writer, cinematographer, editor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cronenberg#Bibliographies

6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
written January 8, 1986
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker's_Manifesto

7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?
FOR MANY years, 555 was unassigned as a dialling code in the US and could thus be used to prefix fictional numbers with impunity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2357,00.html

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
Flying is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way of getting to Crete to Rhodes.
http://www.statravel.co.nz/cps/rde/xchg/nz_division_web_live/hs.xsl/travel_guide_to_greece.htm?dest=131046&sec=transport.xsl

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
I'll Never Find Another You - The Seekers
http://www.onmc.iinet.net.au/topspot/1965.htm

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?
Stephen played keyboard for Brisbane punk band, the Black Assassins.
http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

- What is a search engine?
An online program that searches websites for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found.

How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
Search engines rank sites in different ways:
some engines list sites by how many times your keywords appear. The more often a keyword is found, the higher the rank
some engines rank sites by counting how many other sites are linked to them
some engines put paid listings on top
http://www-navigator.utah.edu/module3/searchengines.htm

who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?
The relevance and if the word is being used numerous times or even in the same context.

what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?
I tend to use Google almost all of the time because it always seems to find whatever I need. It also it really easy to navigate, for example, looking for images is incredibly simple.

Can you find some current news stories about search engines? (for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately).
"Google has poured cold water on claims it is developing a mobile phone."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/mobiles--handhelds/google-quashes-mobile-phone-talk/2007/03/21/1174153139660.html