Almost anyone, and any machine, can publish online. So finding the answer is the easy half. Finding it fast, in few words, and knowing which results were paid for is the skill.
You will play five rounds, and there are points on offer in each of them: for the fastest correct answer, for the shortest search that still works, for spotting something somebody paid to put in front of you, and for rescuing a search that has died on you.
Round five is on a topic of your own, and what you write down there is the thing you will use again next lesson.
A search box will answer almost anything you type. The quality of what comes back depends on the quality of what you ask.
Compare these two starting points on the same idea:
- Vague: stuff about phones and sleep
- More precise: teenagers smartphone use sleep quality research
On a results page you will usually see three kinds of thing:
- Sponsored or Ad: labelled Sponsored, Ad or Promoted, paid for visibility
- Ordinary (organic) results: unpaid listings the tool ranked as relevant
- Extra blocks: maps, shopping carousels, short answer boxes; useful sometimes, but not a full source you have checked
Warm up on the activity below: drag each thing into the box it belongs in. You will be scored on exactly these in the last round of the lesson, so pay attention to what gives each one away.
Ad, result, or something else?
In pairs, on a device. Five rounds, points on the board by table. Write down every search you type, exactly as you typed it, because two of the rounds are scored on the words.
Do gaming headsets damage hearing? Find something that actually answers it. First three tables with an answer and a source they would stand over take the points.
Same question. Now get there in as few words as possible. Write your shortest search that still finds a real answer.
The shortest working search in the room wins the round. A short search that returns junk scores nothing.
Search best running shoes for beginners. Do not open anything.
Name one slot on that page somebody paid for, say what gave it away, and say where on the page it sat. If your school filter hides adverts, say instead what a paid slot would look like and exactly where it would appear.
This search is dead: best boots. It returns shopping, nothing else.
You may change it once. Make it find out whether football boots need to be broken in before a match. One change only: add words, remove words, or both, but one go.
Your topic, your points. Pick something you actually care about (sport, music, gaming, a hobby, a school subject, something local) or take one from this list: how sleep affects focus, safe strength training for beginners, practising an instrument, common birds in Ireland, what drains a phone battery.
Write these four lines and keep them, because you will need them next lesson:
- Topic:
- Best search string:
- One ordinary (not sponsored) result worth keeping:
- Who published it:
A point for every line filled, and a point for a search under six words.
The race runs from the board. Your pair calls out the exact words, the teacher types them without editing, and every round is scored the same way. The shortest working search still wins.
Last round, and everyone plays this one. Join with the code on the board.
Each round shows one thing you might meet on a results page, and the same three boxes you sorted at the start: sponsored or ad, ordinary result, extra block. Everyone answers, not one person per table.
Stake what you think you know. Right, and the stake is yours. Wrong, and you lose it. Being confidently wrong about who paid to be on a page is exactly what this round is testing.
Class Play: ad, result, or something else?
Look at the scoreboard and at two things in particular:
- The shortest search that still worked, beside the longest one. What was in the long one that the search tool did not need?
- The round where the most people staked high and lost.
A good search gets you better candidates. It does not tell you whether to trust them. That is the next lesson, and you already have a topic and a result waiting for it.
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