- How is searching in a specific database, such as Ashford’s library, different from searching in Bing, Google, or Yahoo?
Searching in an online library is different from searching using search engines in that the results returned by online libraries consist mostly of scholarly sources, such as engines include both scholarly and non-scholarly sources. In other words, the results returned by search engines include a wider variety of content, which can include websites, blogs, wikis, and others. As such, it is possible for search engine results to include the same content returned by online libraries but online libraries will not return all of the results returned by search engines. Still, another difference is that the search engines have better capabilities in performing searches compared to online libraries. With online libraries, a user needs to be quite precise with the keywords they use in order to achieve results. In contrast, search engines tend to be more powerful in that they can detect synonyms or words related to the search keywords that the user entered. Finally, search engines can be used for free while the use of online libraries requires a fee.
- Culture is a major facet of any organization. Given this, what role does the culture at Google play in its continual innovative solutions and entrepreneurial applications?
Google’s culture fosters continuous innovation because their culture can bedescribed as open. Their processes are not bureaucratic and any employee can directly approach the CEO or any of the other executives. Their cubicles and cafeterias are also designed in a way that enables employees to easily interact with each other and exchange ideas. As well, Google tries to make the environment fun and relaxing and also encourages its employees to achieve a work-life balance and this enables creativity. Likewise, Google employs employees from diverse backgrounds, which enables diverse ideas to also flow into the company. Finally, Google imposes a 70/20/10 rule (Morrow, 2009), which means that employees are required to spend only seventy percent of their time on the core business and they can spend twenty percent on related projects. As for the remaining ten percent, they can spend this time on unrelated new businesses. This rule allows employees to be as creative as they want to be. They are allowed to work on projects that they enjoy, which can later turn out to be Google’s next product.
- The founder of Wikipedia has a noble mission: to share all the world’s information with everyone everywhere, anytime. In what ways has this mission been successful? In what ways has it not been successful?
Wikipedia has been successful in its mission of providing free content to Internet users. Today, users can find information on almost anything and anyone on the Wikipedia website. Even if Wikipedia cannot be used as a source for academic papers, it can still be used as a starting point for any research due to the comprehensiveness of the information it provides on almost any topic. Indeed, any Internet user would automatically think of Wikipedia if they need information on anything. However, the thing where it is not successful is that the information posted on the site is usually not properly referenced, which means that the information cannot be verified. Also, anyone can write or edit content on the site, which means that it will be difficult to trace accountability for any incorrect information. Because of the lack of security on who can post content and without the verification of the content’s validity, it is possible for users to pose malicious or degrading content.
References
Morrow, B. (2009, October 9). Leadership & culture at Google Inc. Retrieved from
http://benmorrow.info/blog/leadership-culture-at-google-inc.
