March, the company began recruiting representatives to spread the word on college campuses across the country. “It’s hard for students to make it through class without checking their phone or text messages,” Nancy Baym, professor of communication studies, said. “If they have a laptop they have trouble staying off the Web. There is an expectation of continuous communication.” Ginevra Figg, marketing manager for OneRiot, said the company’s objective was to index the “real-time” Web by arranging current information and displaying what articles people were looking at. The site features articles and videos on topics ranging from politics to celebrities. Figg said said the company has more than two million users who have agreed to have their Internet-surfing activity tracked, which helps OneRiot.com determine the content placed on the site. “The crucial question on college students’ minds is ‘What doesn’t Google answer?’ and that’s what’s going on right now,” Figg said. “It’s important that we bring these guys the hottest results on these topics. It allows college students to become trendsetters and stay ahead of the game.” Social networking and interactive sites such as Facebook, MySpace and You Tube are frequented by students regularly. Nobleza Asuncion-Lande, professor of communication studies, said these public forms of communication were becoming more and more a part of students’ lives. “My students from ten years ago are very different from my students right now in terms of being connected,” Asuncion-Lande said. Becca Nyman, St. Louis, Mo., junior and marketing representative for OneRiot, said she and her friends looked at videos and articles on the site during study breaks. She said the site stayed timely because information was updated constantly. “With the fast paced world we are living in everything has to be current and this gives it to you,” Nyman said. Although Baym said she thought search engines were great resources, she said it was important for people to recognize credible and complete information and baseless claims. “I think there is a shallow conception of information in that whatever Google or Wikepedia says is all I need to know about something,” Baym said.Source:www.kansan.com/stories/2009/apr/09/search_engine/
