COMP516 Research Methods in Computer Science (2008-09) -- 2,000 word essay

Your task for this assessment is to write a 2,000 word essay on the subject stated below. This is the first of two essays which form the basis for the assessment of COMP516 `Research Methods in Computer Science' and accounts for 15% of the module mark. Failure on this assessment can be compensated by higher marks on the other assessment(s).

The topic of your essay is

Google's 10th birthday: The Rise, Present State and Future of Google

You can use the following questions to guide your essay, but you do not need to limit yourself to their consideration:
  1. What is a web search engine?
  2. Who were Google's predecessors? How and why did Google become No. 1?
  3. How does Google make money? What does their income stream depend on?
  4. Google is no longer just the operator of a web search engine. What other fields have they moved into? Why?
  5. What does the future hold for Google and Google's users? (You can look at this question from an economical, technological, and/or regulatory perspective)
  6. Google's motto is `Do no evil'. Is Google's success indeed a blessing?

You should spend a total of 30 hours over four weeks on this task.

Your essay should be about 2,000 words in length, using a 12 point size font, 1.5 line spacing, with on outer margin of at least 3.0cm. The essay must be written in your own words (see the University guidance on plagiarism and collusion, which can be found at http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~ullrich/adm/GuidelinesforPlagiarism.pdf, for additional information). Quotes are allowed if appropriate, limited in their extent, and clearly indicated as such. A list of references should be included and does not count towards the word limit.

General information on essay writing can be found at http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~ullrich/COMP516/assess.html#essay_writing.

Do not indicate a name, student id, or other information which could identify you in your essay. When submitting your essay, it will be assigned a unique number, and a list mapping that number to your name will be compiled. The intention is to mark essays anonymously.

Submission proceeds in two steps:

  1. Submit an electronic version of your essay (either PDF format, which is the preferred format, or MS Word 97-2003 format, but NOT MS Word 2007 format) either via the departmental electronic submission system which can be found at http://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/practical.pl?module=comp516 or via VITAL->COMP516->Assessment.
    Your submission will be checked for collusion/plagiarism by TurnitinUK. The VITAL submision system should allow you to see a so-called `originality report' which indicates whether TurnitinUK believes that there are indications for plagiarism in your essay.
  2. Submit a printout of your essay together with a completed declaration on plagiarism and collusion to Janet Lowry in the Student Office.

The deadline for the first essay is

Thursday, 30 October 2008, 15.30

Earlier submission is possible, but any submission after the deadline attracts the standard lateness penalties. See http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/department/regulations/practical.html for details. Regarding lateness, the later of the two submission steps will be considered as the date/time by which the essay has been submitted.

This assessment is intended to primarily address the following learning outcomes of the module:

while the activities involved in the assessment will also indicate that you Finally, conformance with the University guidelines on plagiarism and collusion indicates that you have basic understanding of how to

Detailed information on how the essay will be marked can be found at http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~ullrich/COMP516/marking.html.



Maintained by Ullrich Hustadt, U.Hustadt@csc.liv.ac.uk, last updated . © 2001-2007 by Ullrich Hustadt.