Darci Chapman: Search

High Praises for Reference Librarians

Sat, 18 Oct 2003 19:06:11 GMT

Geniuses at Your Fingertips. Ron Force writes "They're geniuses, and they're at your fingertipsLong-forgotten public library reference desk stocked with answers, Doug Clark says.This is the Information Age, when fact-seekers surf the cyberwaves via powerful search engines like Google, Alta Vista or the ever-popular Yahoo. Not this yahoo.When Doug needs data, he puts down the computer mouse. He picks up the telephone and dials up Dennis, Jean or Louise.Google's cool, sure. But my search engines would kick your fanny on Jeopardy.Which is why I'm taking today to sing the praises of this oft-overlooked informational resource:The library reference desk..." [LISNews.com]

Google Expert with More Search Tips

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 22:53:33 GMT

Search Tips From Google Expert. 20 Great Google Secrets, by Tara Calishain, author of Google Hacks, offers useful suggestions to make your use of the... [via beSpacific]

Which is just another reminder for me to get a copy of Google Hacks too.

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:55:20 GMT

Google Alert Adds Features [ResearchBuzz]

Don't Use Just Google but Don't Ignore It Either

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 05:06:29 GMT

Don't use Google exclusively, but don't count it out, either.. David Dillard invites us to read his lengthy post on NetGold about how search engines, while not the end-all of research, do have their place in scholarly information retrieval. Specifically, he was looking for references to the term "Tourismification" in order to respond to a discussion thread in a sociology forum. He had no luck with the social science databases he normally turns to, but Google found him paydirt: Notice the Google search picked up in the first ten records sampled mostly scholarly work.... Peer reviewed literature may be much more palitable [sic] to the academic scholar in terms of its academic ethnic heritage, and the World Wide Web may be viewed as having been raised on the bad side of town. Nevertheless, not looking at all possible search tools for a topic, particularly a hard to find topic may only result in impoverishment of the search result, and we all know that low income can send publications to live in the bad side of town. [LISNews.com]

New Blog Search Engine

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 05:05:25 GMT

It's a New Blog Search Engine: Bloogz

If you can't get enough of searching Weblogs, check out Bloogz at http://www.bloogz.com/ . The front page allows you to search Weblogs in five languages (Italian, English, German, Spanish, or French.) I can't find any indication of how many 'blogs are indexed here, though there is a link to list all posts made today (look at the bottom of the screen) and right this minute there are 935 posts available.

[ResearchBuzz]

Donald Case wins ASIST's 2003 Best Information Science Book Award

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 21:39:50 GMT

Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior

This is the book I'm reading for LIS 510 / Information Behavior (University of Washington)

"About the Book:
Looking for Information presents examples of information seeking and reviews studies of the information-seeking behavior of both general and specific social and occupational groups: scientists, engineers, social scientists, humanists, policy experts, the aged, the poor, and "the public" in general. It also discusses general research on information seeking, including basic research on human communication behavior as found in the literature of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines."

[Read More @ ASIS&T Mailing List Archive]

Interview with a Search Engine

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 00:43:12 GMT

Ever wonder what it would be like to talk with Ask Jeeves? Well, wonder no more and take a look at this interview instead!

Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters

Wed, 24 Sep 2003 02:52:30 GMT

I'm currently reading Helen Nissenbaum's article, "Accountability in a Computerized Society" for the module on Accountability and Liability in my LIS550 class. Of course I wandered around the rest of her website and want to make a note to read "Shaping the Web: Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters" soonish.

Trusting MSN Search Results

Sun, 21 Sep 2003 15:18:21 GMT

How can you trust a search engine that returns these kind of results from search terms like "black people ebay" and "white people ebay"?

Thanks to Riba for this one!

Microsoft vs Google

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 17:23:39 GMT

Microsoft brains take on Google brawn. The software titan hires top scientists and mathematicians in its quest for search algorithms that will allow Microsoft to compete directly with Google. [CNET News.com]

False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 23:05:21 GMT

Gary Price posts about an interesting study on what consumers (don't) know about search engines and how they work.

In Other Search Related News...

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 03:45:56 GMT

On Search: Intelligence. Hereâ€™s the problem: searching for words isnâ€™t really what you want to do. Youâ€™d like to search for ideas, for concepts, for solutions, for answers. Instead, your typical search engine moronically sorts through its postings, and tries to solve your problems by looking at which words appear where, and how often, and so on. What weâ€™d really like is an intelligent search engine. This essay is mostly about why weâ€™re not likely to get one any time soon.... [ongoing]

"Clustering" Search Engine Worth a Review. Vivisimo, co-winner of the 2002 Search Engine Watch award for Best Meta Search Engine, is featured in this new article,... [beSpacific]

New Search Toolbars. (23 Jun) Two separate search services -- Dogpile and Hotbot... [TVC Alert]

What's New in Google's World

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 03:43:05 GMT

There's a lot going on with and around Google this week. Love it or hate it, you can't afford to ignore Google!

Google Ads. Interesting write-up chez Zawodny about the Google AdSense program; pretty well anyone can sign up and put Google ads on their site, and get paid when someone clicks on the ads. So I signed up, although I donâ€™t plan to run â€™em for the moment. Except on this essay right here, along with some commentary on the program (soundbite: looks pretty reasonable so far).... [ongoing]

MapQuest Teams with Google. (23 Jun) MapQuest users will now find search results from Google....[TVC Alert]

Vivisimo Could Improve Google. (23 Jun) Even those who gush over Google will admit it returns... [TVC Alert]

Google.rss. Outer-Court links to Google.rss !, a new tool (currently in beta) which will deliver Google results via RSS to your aggregator. While this seems useful on the surface, I'm not to sure how much of the Google results are listed here (looks like just the top 10), but it may be worth playing with. All of the search syntaxes are available, including link:.[Library Stuff]

Google calls in the language police [LISNews.com]

MSNBOT— The MSN Search Prototype Web Crawler

Sun, 22 Jun 2003 18:24:53 GMT

This was the link I was looking for yesterday when I posted about MSN's new SearchBot. Additional questions can be sent to msnbot@microsoft.com :-)

And here's some insider information from an anonymous source (via Scripting News).

MSN vs. Google: Latest Buzz on the Web

Sun, 22 Jun 2003 03:17:27 GMT

I suppose there's a bit of irony that I'm just going to point the Google News results for all the latest buzz about MSN launching their new search bot ;-)