Assignment #1: Information Literacy

Lou Vernet
Assignment #1
I. Technology Current Event Article
The article I chose was about Google choosing a CEO for their self-driving car program.
Google has been testing their gum-drop shaped self-driving cars on public roads and
highways. This gum-drop shaped car has been specifically designed for Googles selfdriving car. Google has picked John Krafcik, a former CEO of Hyundai Motor America,
product development executive of Ford Motor and president of TrueCar, to head their
self-driving car program. Krafciks executive selling experience hints at Google will lean
towards selling the car themselves and not licensing their program to other car
companies. Google has not set a specific date when the self-driving cars will be put into
action. The self-driving car program will fall under the new corporate structure called
Google X.
II. Additional Web Articles
The two additional web articles on the topic I accessed via Google and Bing. The
keywords I used for both search engines were google self-driving car CEO. Both search
engines came up with a lot of information. I am more accustomed to Google, only
because it is heard more often than Bing.
Google had 82,300 results in 0.29 seconds. The newest, most relevant articles were on
top accompanied by a picture. There were numerous articles one right after the other
and then a break with related images. Then more in-depth recent articles followed by
more related images. Then toward the bottom it had listed more articles, but each article
was accompanied with an image to the left of the headline.
Bing had 2,430,000 results in total. The time it took to search the web was not stated.
There were many recent web articles, each with an accompanying image to the left of the
headline. They were spaced out evenly. But between the third and fourth result, there
was a bunch of images from Bing news that had nothing to do with my search.
Both search engines were very effective and efficient. I was quite surprised to see that
Bing actually had more results than Google. The font on Bing was bigger and was evenly
spaced out. Google was clumped together and hard to differentiate between articles.
Taking everything into account, I would have to say that Bing was the better search
engine for this project.

Assignment #1: Information Literacy

Lou Vernet
III. TRRAAP Sources
TRRAAP Source:
Time:
Relevance:
Reliability:

Authority:

Accuracy:

Purpose:

IM Soup (Internet Marketing News)

Written on September 21, 2015
Not updated
It does relate to my topic directly
The source of the information is known for some of the information
provided. Some of the information comes directly from Google X,
some direct quotes from the new CEO, other information is said to
be from industry experts.
You cannot tell what the research methods were used
The author is unknown. All it states is that the author is a staff
member of IM Soup. It is unknown whether the author is qualified
to write about the topic.
The information is trustworthy. The information provided matches
what other reputable websites and articles.
The information is not supported by evidence.
The information does not appear to be tested for accuracy.
The purpose of the article was to inform on the recent acquisition of
a new experienced CEO to head Googles self-drive car program.
The article is not biased. Article is material objective.

IV. Scholarly Journal Articles

I chose to use the Access Science database and ABI/Inform Complete with ProQuest
from the CCBC Library databases. The keywords I used for both databases were google
self-driven cars. I chose Access Science because it was under the Science/Technology
section of databases and the description stated that the articles were from the McGrawHill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. My topic had to do with technology, so I
that why I chose to use Access Science. I also used ABI/Inform Complete with ProQuest
because in the description it stated that it covered the latest business trends. And my
topic is a fairly new business trend in technology, so I chose this database.
V. Comparison of Web and Journal Articles
In comparing the web article and journal article, I was able to see the similarities and
differences in both. The web article from IM Soup was easy to access, the search engine
pulled it up quickly and it was only a matter of clicking the link to read the article. The
article had good information pertaining to the expertise of the newly appointed CEO for
Googles self-driven car program. It was easily accessed and took no time at all to find
what I was looking for. The authority of the IM Soup article is questionable. Because
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Assignment #1: Information Literacy

Lou Vernet
there is no specific author, I could not identify whether the author was qualified.
Although in my mind I presume that the editors of the website check the work of the
writers before they are posted online.
The journal article on the other hand was not as easily accessed. I had to go to CCBCs
main website, then go to the library tab and then find the database/research link. From
there I had to sort through many databases to find the one that would best fit my need.
It took a lot more time than I had expected because there are so many options for
databases. The great aspect of the journal article is that it was full of pertinent
information about Googles self-driven car program. The author of the journal is
Graham Templeton, from ExtremeTech.com. He has written hundreds of articles for the
company and therefore has the authority needed for this topic.
VI. Citations in MLA format (7th edition)
Isidore, Chris. Google hires a car guy. CNN Money. CNN, 14 Sept. 2015. Web.
21 Sept. 2015.
New Expert Hired for Google Self Driving Car Efforts. IM Soup. N.p., 21 Sept.
2015. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
Korosec, Kirsten. Google hires TrueCar president to head self-driving car
project. Fortune Tech. Fortune, 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
AccessScience Editors. Self-driving Cars. AccessScience. McGraw-Hill
Education, 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
Templeton, Graham. "Google's Autonomous Car Gets a 'B' in Driving Test: Not
Great, but Better than most of Us." ExtremeTech.com (2014)ProQuest. Web. 21 Sept.
2015.