In recent weeks, University of Brighton professor Tara Brarbazon has described Google as "white bread for the mind," bemoaning students' inability to vet online sources found in search engine result lists.
Brabazon's concern is that every piece of online information seems equally valid to her students, who are, she
href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3182091.ece">claims, increasingly unwilling or unable to differentiate between refereed work and anecdotal postings.
Her classroom solution: ban online search engines for first-year students, use peer-reviewed articles, and impart what amounts to an academic algorithm for evaluating source material.
Users of local news aggregators such as Outside.in have been plagued with similar problems sorting (seemingly) unweighted information, watching in dismay as local blog posts of varying relevance bury other types of content in aggregated local search results.more
