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Resources and News for Information Professionals
ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Librarian Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com Editor and Compiler, The ResourceShelf Editor and Compiler, DocuTicker
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Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Information Retrieval On ResourceShelfPLUS: A New Compilation of Recently Awarded Search-Related Patents & Patent Apps The March compilation of selected search-related patents and patent apps is now available on ResourceShelfPLUS. New patents to Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, and many others. You'll also notice two patent applications from Google. Did I Just Mention Google? Hello GMail (via News.com) Google has announced that they'll start testing a free email service called GMail. It will offer 1GB of storage space per user. The service (going live today) will only be available for 1000 "invited" users. No date was mentioned as to when Google will make the service available to the general public. More from Markoff (NY Times) and Sullivan (SEW). From the NY Times article, "At Google, one official said, the company has engaged in an intense debate over how extensively to exploit the content of e-mail." One of the patent applications listed in the roundup deals with serving ads in email. Here's the GMail privacy policy. See Also: SearchBlog Comments on the Google Annoucement Battelle with some interesting comments. The press release also might lead one to have these notions. See Also: Google developing ad service for e-mail (via Reuters, 1/19/04)
Health Research Vivisimo Officially Launches ClusterMed We've mentioned ClusterMed on several occasions prior to its official launch today. Very cool! ClusterMed allows you to dynamically cluster results from PubMed using Vivisimo's technology. What's also useful is the ability to create different clusters based on different fields. You can create clusters based on terms in the: + Title, Subject Heading, Abstract + Title and Abstract Only + Subject Heading Only + Author + Author's Affiliation + Publication Date Unregistered users can cluster up to 100 results. You can also register for a demo (two weeks) and cluster up to 500 results. See Also: DYK That Vivisimo Also Offers Tools to Cluster Results from FirstGov and eBay? See Also: Official Announcement
Web Search--Dipsie Source: Chicago Sun-Times More About Dipsie An article from the Chicago Sun-Times mentions that Dipsie will launch on May 10th as a public beta. The article also names Gary Slack, the managing director of a Chicago-based marketing firm, as a member of the Dipsie Board of Directors. I asked a company spokesperson for the names of other board members and was told that this info was still not being released. Like I said a few months ago when we ran an interview with Dipsie CEO Jason Wiener, we've seen Dipsie mentioned in many publications but until we can demo the software and see more than a few logos on their web site, we just have to keep wondering what the company is or is not up to. In a nutshell, actions speak louder than words. Let's see what happens in May. Thanks to Bobbie B. for the news tip. See Also: ResourceShelf Interview with Jason Wiener (2/18/04)
Social-Networking Software Source: Technology Review "Reality Mining" the Organization From the article, "Data mining is a start, but it misses the critical pieces of information that are transmitted by word of mouth. Social networking systems can foster collaboration." See Also: Internetworking Another article from Technology Review that discusses social-networking software.
Information Retrieval Source: News.Com Sketch and Search From the article, "Researchers at Purdue University have developed a search engine that retrieves results based on an image or a sketch. Draw a picture of a wing nut, and the engine will search a database and retrieve all the images that match the drawing..Its earliest appearance outside the research lab is expected to be in industrial databases, rather than in commercial search tools. But in 10 to 15 years, image searches will likely be taking place on the Internet, according to Karthik Ramani, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, and director of the university's Research and Education Center for Information Systems in Engineering." Btw, LTU, a company mentioned in the article, offers an interesting demo. Details in this 11/12/02 ResourceShelf post. Even more about this technology in this 2003 Search Engine Meeting presentation.
Information Visualization Newsmap: Mapping Google News If you like visualization tools, you're going to like this one. From the site, "A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap's objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe." Searchblog reminds us that SmartMoney's Map of the Market offers the same type of service with financial data. This tool has been available for several years. Thanks to BoingBoing, Bill D., and Searchblog for the tip.
Industry Briefs + Merriam-Webster CEO moving on (via The Republican) A profile of Gordon T. Macomber who becomes the new CEO at Thomson Gale on Monday. + New Fee-Based Database for Federal Grant Info (via Washington Business Journal) The new database is called GrantsWeb and is produced by Eagle Eye.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Military Law--United States Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress New Resource Compilation: Military Legal Resources -- Election 2004 Factiva Posts Media Visibility Index (Week Ending 3/28/04) "The Factiva Media Visibility Index will track the number of weekly media mentions garnered by each of the candidates competing in the 2004 Presidential election." -- Travel--United States Source: BTS BTS Announces New Air Travel Price Index Official Announcement/Tables ||| Home Page -- Online Music Source: Harvard Business School CD Sales Not Reduced by File Sharing, Say Researchers at Harvard Business School and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "A new study by two researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, finds that sharing digital music files has no effect on CD sales. This is the first study that directly compares actual downloads of music files and store sales of CDs." Some findings from the study: + "File Sharing Cannot Explain the Decline in Sales of Music during This Period" + "More Popular CDs Benefit from File Sharing" + "File Sharers Download a Small Selection of Songs" + "Songs from Top Current Albums Are Most Often Downloaded" + "Marketing Strongly Influences What People Download and What They Buy" + "U.S. Has Largest Number of File Sharers" + "Germany Is the Most Important Foreign Supplier of Music Files" See Also: Direct Link to Full Text of Study (PDF; 360 KB) -- Special Collections Source: Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University Pastimes and Paradigms: Games We Play "The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections investigates the evolution of games since 1800.... The exhibition includes a wide variety of antique and contemporary games, as well as rare books on rules, strategies, and recreation. Featured items include early nineteenth-century geographical board games; a Civil War game; suffrage games that garnered support in the battle for women's votes; a vintage Monopoly game...; gambling punchboards; and a selection of games inspired by television programming." Thanks to SDK for the link. Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Legal Information--United States Source: AP (via MSNBC) Database Tools Help Lawyers Track Clients "Lawyers in many states can now track down the names and addresses of prospective clients — within hours of their legal entanglements — with the help of electronic records and information vendors."
News Search Topix.net Increases Number of Sources Crawled, More than 6000 Available Topix continues to impress! After officially launching three weeks ago, the company has announced they're now crawling more than 6000 sources, up from 3300 sources. Almost a 100% increase. Topix.net CEO Rich Skrenta was nice enough to provide us with a breakdown of sources by category: 24% Daily newspapers 19% AM & FM news radio stations 15% Weekly newspapers 15% B2B and consumer magazines 12% TV stations 9% College newspapers 5% Government websites 1% Weblogs It's good to see that Topix is including business press/trade publications and college newspapers in their crawl! Their "pre-built" pages on thousands of business topics are very useful. I've been using Topix.net quite heavily in the past few weeks and regularly turn-up USEFUL articles I don't find elsewhere. Skrenta also let us know that the Topix crawler is now able to navigate javascript and pages utilizing frames. You should also notice that the name of the news source is now being provided. Until today just the domain name was visible. You can learn much more about Topix.net in this overview article from earlier this month and a new article from J.B.'s Searchblog.
Web Search--Google Source: News.com "Google hit with 'geo-location' lawsuit" From the article, "A Georgia company is suing Google over technology that the search giant uses to target advertising at Web surfers based on their location. Digital Envoy filed the lawsuit Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, charging that Google violated a licensing agreement when it began offering ads on third-party Web sites, the lawyer representing Digital Envoy confirmed Tuesday."
Editors Note: ResourceShelf welcomes a new contributor. Along with Shirl Kennedy and yours truly, Dan Giancaterino, a librarian based in Philadelphia, has agreed to share his thoughts (and some useful sites) with us from time to time. Making a Case for the Open Web by Dan Giancaterino A frequent topic on ResourceShelf is the importance of educating people about the high-quality electronic information sources from content aggregators and producers that are often available via libraries. However, in the areas of business and law, the "open web" can sometimes offer information, features and pricing options not found on LexisNexis or Westlaw. Here are a few examples: + D&B - Both LexisNexis and Westlaw have additional charges for D&B searches. Zapdata, D&B's database of 13 million U.S. companies, lets you do a simple company lookup for free (includes headquarters/branch designator, address, industry, and alternative names). More information is available for $5. + Delaware Corporate Records - Also available from both Lexis and Westlaw for an additional fee. With Lexis, however, you need to contact your rep to have the database activated for your account. (I've run into that problem in two different jobs.) The DE Department of State database is free and is more than adequate for a simple company lookup. Status information is an additional $10; filing history and tax information is $20. Both, however, are cheaper than LexisNexis or Westlaw. + Federal Register - The GPO's site allows you to bookmark or have delivered via email the table of contents of the current day's issue. To check daily for notices on a topic, click on the bookmark, then use Edit-Find on Page to search for the term. If there's a relevant notice, right-click on the link to it and select Copy Shortcut. Then open an email and paste the URL into it. Elapsed time: about a minute. In many cases, this procedure is simpler than setting up, testing, and managing an ECLIPSE or WestClip alert. + Non-profit organizations - GuideStar's database of 850,000 non-profits includes (if available) copies of the organization's IRS Form 990, sometimes going back several years. Not available on either LexisNexis or Westlaw.
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Source: International Federation of Library Associations Full Text, Ross Shimmon, Selected Writings 1999-2004 Shimmon is retiring as IFLA's Secretary General. "This booklet contains ten selected papers Ross composed during his years at IFLA (1999 - 2004). They cover a broad variety of subjects, giving a special insight into the issues that inspired him during his tenure of this IFLA office." -- Knowledge Source: ManagingInformation.com The Knowledge Proposition From the site, "The Knowledge Proposition is a concise document that will help both senior executives understand the potential value of knowledge within their organisation and prove to be of interest to other knowledge and information professionals. It was developed by 20 of the world's leading knowledge practitioners through discussion and debate at the sixth tfpl CKO Summit." See Also: Direct Link to the Document
Primary Sources Source: Miller Center, University of Virginia Learn About: The Presidential Recordings Program From the site, "The Presidential Recordings Program is a unique and ambitious effort to transcribe, edit, annotate, and publish the secret White House recordings of Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. This primary source material allows the listener 'into the Oval Office,' affording an unprecedented opportunity to experience first hand how these presidents made key decisions and exercised leadership as they led the United States in peace and in war. From 1940 to 1973, these presidents recorded hundreds of their most significant meetings and telephone calls. The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson tapes together comprise well over 1,000 hours of recorded meetings and telephone calls. The Nixon tapes alone consist of 3,800 hours." A few audio clips are available on the web site.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) U.S. Government Source: GAO Full Text, Continuity of Operations: Improved Planning Needed to Ensure Delivery of Essential Government Services -- Critical Infrastructure--United States Source: GAO Full Text, Critical Infrastructure Protection: Challenges and Efforts to Secure Systems Monday, March 29, 2004
Web Search--Google New From Google Here's a review. 1) Tweaks to the Google Home Page and Other New Services Some users have been seeing this "new look" for several weeks. If you want to compare, here's what the "old" home page looked like. You'll notice that tabs to various Google databases are now links. Google's shopping database, Froogle, is now linked on the home page but the link to the Google Directory has been removed from the home page. The directory remains available here. This might be a good opportunity for some of you to become familiar with a few of the impressive non-commercial web directories available online. They include Infomine, Librarians Index to the Internet, AcademicInfo.net, and the Resource Discovery Network. Results pages also look slightly different. For example, your search terms are now located on the right side of the page, where they are hyperlinked to Dictionary.com. It would have been useful if Google would have taken a few cues from Yahoo. First, by numbering each result on results page. Second, by allowing the user to customize which tabs are visible. Btw, Froogle also sports a new look. Finally, thumbnail images (if available) are now placed next to Google News results. Want more? Google also introduced numrange searches. You can decide how well this works. Thanks to S.C. for his help with this post. 2) The other news comes from Google Labs Two new beta services. + Google Web Alerts Web Alerts will let you know when "there is new information on the web matching the search you specify." Results can be deilvered daily or weekly via e-mail. The FAQ tells us that Google Web Alerts looks for new results in the "top 10 news results (news.google.com) as well as the top 20 web results." This means if a new page comes on the web and is ranked at number 30, it will not be sent to you as an alert. What happens if the page never makes it into the Top 20 results? You'll never be alerted to it. Even if it does, it might take a long time to make it into the Top 20. Be careful. Btw, this is not a new idea. A service called Google Alert has been offering a similar tool for a couple of years. + Google "Personalized" Web Search From the FAQ, "Google Personalized web search delivers custom search results that are based on a profile you create describing your interests. For example, people with an interest in the outdoors will see different relevant sites for a search on 'bass' than people who are interested in music." After your results are delivered, you can resort them using a slider. Yahoo Shopping has offered a personalization service, Yahoo SmartSort, for several product categories. It's been available since October and also uses sliders to tweak results. See Also: In September, Google Acquired Kaltix This company offered search personalization technology. See Also: Complete Google News Release
Web Search--Google Source: The Wall Street Journal The Grownup at Google A Q&A interview with Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt. Google folks are sure doing a lot of press these days. Is the IPO getting closer?
Engineering Resources Source: Information Today NewsBreaks GlobalSpec Introduces "The Engineering Web" Last week we ran an item about the launch of GlobalSpec's new specialized search tool. Today, ITI's Paula Hane provides a closer look. From the article, "In announcing the enhancements, Jeffrey M. Killeen, GlobalSpec chairman and CEO said: 'We have built the specialized search engine and content repository for engineers and technical buyers—everything of relevance, expertly classified and indexed in one place. In fact, we believe we have built the definitive search platform for the engineering community.' John Schneiter, president and co-founder of GlobalSpec, said: 'Extensive research of our online community, as well as our own engineering experiences, told us that engineers and technical professionals are frustrated with general search engines and having to wade through pages of irrelevant results. We have built what they asked us for—and what we frankly wished we had ourselves as practicing engineering professionals—The Engineering Search Engine.'"
Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Internet Beginning Today: Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Free access is made available via Emerald's Journal of the Week program. Vol.4 No.1 (1994) - Vol.14 No. 1 (2004) will be accessible. Here is a list of a few articles from recent issues that might be of interest. + "Assisting the searcher: utilizing software agents for Web search systems" (Vol. 14 No.1) + "Information seeking on the Web by women in IT professions" (Vol. 13 No.4) + "A structural and content-based analysis for Web filtering" (Vol.13 No. 1) + "Methodologies for crawler based Web surveys" (Vol. 12 No. 2) -- Government Secrecy--United States Source: The Washington Post Nuclear Security Decisions Are Shrouded in Secrecy -- Library and Info Science Education Source: American Library Education Recently Released, Online Directory of ALA-Accredited Master's Library and Information Studies Programs From the announcement, "The directory exists on the ALA Web site in a database format, and allows users to easily search for programs that offer distance education, school library media programs, and degrees other than the ALA accredited degree. Program information may be searched by state or province, and programs are able to make changes to their listings, thus improving the currency of the directory between annual updates. Its online format also allows users to download a PDF version of the entire directory."
Enterprise Search Briefs (2 Items) + Fed Gov Selects Verity Technology for Regional Information Exchange System (JRIES) "JRIES utilizes the advanced search features of Verity K2E to locate, evaluate and analyze intelligence information stored within the system’s content repositories from all 50 states, five territories, the District of Columbia and 50 major urban areas." + Spain's Main Electric Operator Chooses FAST
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Economic Information--United States Source: U.S. Census Just Released, First 2002 Economic Census Report Summary ||| Direct to Tables -- Language George Mason University Speech Accent Archive "The speech accent archive is established to uniformly exhibit a large set of speech accents from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English all read the same English paragraph and are carefully recorded. The archive is constructed as a teaching tool and as a research tool. It is meant to be used by linguists as well as other people who simply wish to listen to and compare the accents of different english speakers. It allows users to compare the demographic and linguistic backgrounds of the speakers in order to determine which variables are key predictors of each accent. The speech accent archive demonstrates that accents are systematic rather than merely mistaken speech." 306 speech samples currently archived. -- Spyware Source: University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering Measurement and Analysis of Spyware in a University Environment "We first discuss background material on spyware, including the various types of spyware programs, their methods of transmission, and their run-time behavior. By examining four widespread programs (Gator, Cydoor, SaveNow, and eZula), we present a detailed analysis of their behavior, from which we derive signatures that can be used to detect their presence on remote computers through passive network monitoring. Using these signatures, we quantify the spread of these programs among hosts within the University of Washington by analyzing a week-long trace of network activity." See Also: Full study (PDF; 187 KB) See Also: Full study (HTML) Sunday, March 28, 2004
Search Technology Education--Resources for Educators A Faceted Approach to Searching: A New Demo Using Materials for Teachers First, the content. "The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) project is a consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to the substantial, but uncataloged, collections of educational materials found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites." Now with the description of GEM out of the way, let's move to the technology. This "new and enhanced" version of GEM has been online for about six weeks. It's powered with search technology from Siderean, a company based in LA that takes a "faceted approach" to searching. Those of you who took a cataloging class in library school can skip the next part. What are facets? "Faceted searching combines searching for specific words and phrases with browsing descriptions of resources - based on what are called facets." The famous or infamous Dewey Decimal Classification is a faceted system. I've always thought that this approach (easy to understand/learn) would be very useful for certain types of collections. Learn more in this brochure and white paper from the company. More on Siderean Semark in the future. Happy testing! See Also: Other Demos Using Siderean Technology The recipe demo contains thousands of entries. Useful!
Public Libraries--Databases Source: The Seattle Times Countless Levels of Data on Libraries' Web Sites From the article, "Google, the No. 1 search engine, can't offer all the information we might want from the Internet. In fact, we can't get to some extremely useful information that's on the Net simply by asking Google. I'm talking about those information-rich databases that are generally expensive and require membership for access. Public libraries, for example, subscribe to several of these databases and make them freely available to patrons." Those of you who are affiliated with a university or community college also have access to these types of tools. Note: Many other public libraries in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere offer similar services. Check your library's web site or just give them a call and ask. Most colleges and universities also offer remotely accessible databases for their students and faculty.
Professional Reading Shelf Online Searching Source: The Globe and Mail George Boole: The Isaac Newton of Logic "It was 150 years ago that George Boole published his literary classic The Laws of Thought, wherein he devised a mathematical language for dealing with mental machinations of logic. It was a symbolic language of thought -- an algebra of logic (algebra is the branch of mathematics that uses letters and other general symbols to represent numbers and quantities in formulas and equations)."
Government Documents--United States Government Printing Office--United States Source: GCN GPO signs on to using PKI From the article, "The Government Printing Office by mid-summer will authenticate government documents using a public-key infrastructure and digital signatures. Judy Russell, the GPO's superintendent of documents and managing director of information dissemination, yesterday said the office will apply the technology to all documents agencies submit to www.gpoaccess.gov. 'We want to mark content as it comes in and to take the final product and digitally sign it so others can determine it is authentic,' Russell said at the Federal Library and Information Center Committee Conference in Washington."
The Internet Archive The Internet Archive's Live Music Archive Reaches A Milestone The Internet Archive might be best known as the home of The Wayback Machine. However, it's also home to many other collections. Last week the IA's Live Music Archive (it's been online for about 18 months) announced that it currently contains more than 10,000 live recordings. Here are some stats courtesey of Brewster Kahle. + More than 10,000 shows + 150,000 tracks, from almost 500 bands + Almost 1,000 people have uploaded recordings + A few more stats here See Also: In Other IA News, Brewster Kahle Files Lawsuit (Kahle v. Ashcroft) "Plaintiffs in this case — the Internet Archive and its Chairman, Brewster Kahle, and the Prelinger Film Archive (formally, Prelinger Associates, Inc.) and its President, Richard Prelinger — are filing suit seeking a declaratory judgment that the current system of unconditional copyright is unconstitutional." Saturday, March 27, 2004
Web Search--Microsoft Microsoft To Offer Weblog Search Engine More from MS today. + More press for their news search service. Kudos to the reporter for mentioning that Newsbot has been online (for 10 countries and regions) since October at this url. Also, why is MS touting a 4000 source crawl? Rocket News, Yahoo News, and NewsNow offer thousands more. I would also bet that Topix will soon offer more sources. + From the article, "Microsoft is claiming a first with MSN Blogbot, a service that will let users search Web logs, or "blogs," personal-journal type Web pages that have become increasingly popular. MSN Blogbot will aggregate content from hundreds of thousands of Web logs and index that content based on which Web logs are most popular and credible, Redetzki said. The service should go into beta soon, and Microsoft plans to introduce MSN Blogbot worldwide..." Perhaps I should take the kudos I just gave to the reporter back. Microsoft might be claiming this is a first but the reporter should know and have mentioned that it's NOT. Search tools like Feedster, Daypop, and Technorati, and Waypath have been available for several years and do an impressive job. A few comments from Scott Rafer, CEO of Feedster, in this post from the Seattle Times MS Weblog. + For your long range (very long range) radar. From the article, "Microsoft said it is working on a natural language search engine, dubbed MSN Answerbot. This service will take questions from users and find answers on the Internet, rivaling a similar service from Ask Jeeves. No release date for MSN Answerbot has been set, but [Karen] Redetzki, [a product manager for MSN] says it is about three years away." See Also: Want to See A Massive List of Weblog and RSS Search Tools? Check this Page from FaganFinder See Also: "Web Question Answering: Is More Always Better?" A 2002 paper by Microsoft researchers. See Also: "An Analysis of the AskMSR Question-Answering System" Another 2002 paper by Microsoft researchers.
Web Search--Eurekster Source: Pandia & Search Engine Guide A Conversation with Grant Ryan from Eurekster Available via Pandia or Search Engine Guide SEL's Any Beal asks Eurekster's CEO, Grant Ryan, a few questions. From the interview, "Eurekster makes use of its own SearchMemory technology which remembers the sites a user finds useful and presents them higher in the results the next time they search. Then, Eurekster lets a user and their friends share their searches and sites, so when they do a “hotel” search, for example, they'll see the hotel sites their friends also found useful, moved up in the results and marked with an icon." See Also: A Recent Post About Social-Networking Software
Internet Source: New Scientist Spim: The New Spam From the article, "The volume of so-called 'spim' is set triple in 2004, according to a new report from the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm in Palo Alto, California. The company projects that 1.2 billion spims will be sent, 70 per cent of which are porn-related. This is a mere trickle compared to the 35 billion spams expected, but the researchers warn that spim is growing at about three times the rate of spam, as spammers adapt their toolkit to exploit a rapidly rising number of new instant messaging (IM) users.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Geospatial Information Source: RAND Corporation New Report, Publicly Available Federal Geospatial Information of Little Unique Use to Terrorists, RAND Study Finds "Less than 1 percent of publicly available federal Web sites and databases contain geospatial information not readily available elsewhere that could help terrorists and other hostile forces mount attacks in the United States, according to a RAND Corporation study...." See Also: Mapping the Risks: Assessing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information (Summary) See Also: Full Text of Report (PDF; 1.7 MB) Thanks to ResourceShelf's SDK for the links.
Professional Reading Shelf The Top Ten Things a new Sci/Tech Librarian Should Know: Developing Core Competencies Source: Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship A report from Sci/Tech Library Management Discussion Group ALA Annual Meeting in Toronto. Panel discussion incorporated supervisory viewpoint as well as new librarian viewpoint. Tips on how to get hired and what to do once you are hired. Friday, March 26, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Information Architecture Now Available: Presentations/Handouts from the Fifth Annual ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit The summit took place at the end of February in Austin, Texas. Presentations Include: + Taxonomies, Controlled Vocabularies, and Ontologies Panel + Fun with Faceted Browsing + When Ninety-one Years of Content goes Digital + Information Search Experience: Emotions in Information Seeking -- Scholarly Publishing Open Access Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education "Scientific Societies' Publishing Arms Unite Against Open-Access Movement" From the article, "'It feels good to say everything should be free,' says Martin Frank, executive director of the American Physiological Society and one of the organizers of the new coalition, in an interview. 'But we'd rather get there using a business model different than the one used by PLoS and the open-access advocates. It's our contention that there's nothing wrong with that, that it makes the literature available to the community of individuals who need it, in a timely manner.'" See Also: Washington DC Principles for Science Home Page
Search Tools Source: Technology Research News Search Tool Aids Browsing "Many research teams are working on the problem of how to make finding information on the Web faster and easier. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have devised a scheme that gives existing search engines some extra help. The software, dubbed ScentTrails, shows a user how strongly the links generated by a Web search correlate with the topics she is searching for. The software grades the links a search engine returns by increasing the font size of links that have more connections to relevant pages." See Also: complete paper as published in the ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction: ScentTrails: Integrating Browsing and Searching on the Web (PDF; 428 KB)
Web Search--AllTheWeb Source: Search Engine Showdown AllTheWeb Now Powered by Yahoo Database Greg N. reports that the ATW site remains online but is now using the Yahoo database of web pages. This move was expected. The article also mentions that while some of ATW's advanced search options remain available, others have been removed. ATW's "Query Rewrite" option is also no longer available. Notess also mentions that ATW will only index the first 500kb of an html web page or pdf document. Google stops indexing web pages at the 101kb mark. In other Search Engine Showdown news, the wonderful Search Engine Features chart as well as several search engine reviews have been updated. Hooray!
News Alerts Source: The Virtual Chase RSS Search Engine Feedster Adds E-Mail Alert Service Free e-mail-based keyword alerts from an RSS search tool. The TVC post also shares a caveat. Many sites only syndicate the headline or a snippet in their RSS feed. So, if your alert terms appear, let's say in paragraph two and the site is only syndicating a headline, an alert will not be generated. Nevertheless. I still think the service will be of value especially for competitive intelligence and marketing types who want a simple way (and free) method for keeping track of product or company mentions in the blogosphere. Kudos are in order for Scott J., Scott R., and Francois, for continuing to add new features and services to Feedster.
Local Search Mapquest Beta Tests Local Search Tool Mapquest is also giving local search a try. The company (part of AOL) is beta testing a business search tool called MQ Search. A company spokesperson told me that that beta has been available for a few weeks but provided no info about future plans for the service. + Directory information is provided by InfoUsa. + Search interface located on MapQuest home page or this url. + Search by category or business name + Each entry is linked to a map + Sort results alphabetically or by distance (25 or 50 miles) + Ads on results pages provided by Google + Like other Mapquest products, maps can be downloaded to a pda + AOL Yellow Pages is Also Linked from Mapquest site
Shopping and Directory Search Tools Two More Acquisitions in the Search Arena 1) Infospace Acquires Switchboard Infospace pays $160 Million. -- 2) Yahoo Acquires European Shopping Engine Kelkoo Yahoo pays $575 Million.
Copyright Source: UNESCO New Resource, National Copyright and Related Rights Legislation of UNESCO Members From the announcement, "Full texts of national copyright and related rights legislation of UNESCO Member States can now be accessed on the website of UNESCO's Culture Sector. The collection currently comprises about 100 laws and is constantly being updated and completed." See Also: Direct to Collection of National Copyright Laws
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Campaign Finance Source: FEC Just Released, Major Parties' Fundraising Summarized Several spreadsheets are included. -- Aviation Industry--United States Source: FAA Just Released, Full Text, FAA Aerospace Forecasts Fiscal Years 2004 - 2015 Fact Sheet ||| Full Text -- R&D--United States Source: NSF Just Updated, Master Government List of 36 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers Fiscal Year 2004 -- Sports Business--United States Revenues From Sport Venues "We're Revenues From Sports Venues and our business is providing that information to you." While most of the information here is fee-based, the site offers free, current data on naming rights sales and prices, and the average high and low prices for luxury suites and club seats. There's also a comprehensive listing of "major and minor sports venues, organized by state, city, venue and teams that play in the venues." (PDF; 64 KB) Thursday, March 25, 2004
Resources of the Week Two items this week. --- 1) The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources This impressive compilation is the web companion to Nick Tomaiuolo's new book. It's "must review" material. Although more than a few of the 350+ sites listed might already be favorites (you'll spot many that have been featured on ResourceShelf), you're VERY likely to discover many new gems. Of course, the book might also be of interest since it includes numerous interviews and other useful material not found on the web site. Btw, Tomaiuolo continues to add new material to the web site on a weekly basis. The layout of the web site is simple and easy to use. Various subject-based compilations are listed (corresponding to different chapters in the book). After just a few minutes of browsing, I was able to identify several resources that were new to me. Including: + FreeFullText.Com "Direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by ANYONE with Internet access for free (though some may require free registration)." + The Visual Dictionary of Fashion "Covers the 18th through 20th century in womenswear, menswear, and childrenswear. Search or browse. Geographic search is available." + University of Michigan Instrument Encyclopedia "Not an exhaustive site, the content of the encyclopedia is developed by graduate students. Browse or search for a musical tradition or a specific instrument." Nick Tomaiuolo is an associate librarian in the reference department at Central Connecticut State University. The cover of his book (edited by Barbara Quint) includes positive comments from Tara Calishain, Lisa Guernsey, and Peter Jacso. --- --- 2) Digital Collections University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections "This site showcases some of the online multimedia collections built under auspices of the University of Washington Libraries' Digital Initiatives Program," and there is a wealth of material here -- mostly photographs, but also including newspapers, reports, pamphlets, posters, and maps. Although many of the collections have a local focus -- Washington State and the Pacific Northwest -- there a number of collections worth bookmarking by anyone located anywhere. The Cities & Buildings Database, for example, includes "7,500 recent images of architecture and city views from around the world." The Fashion Plates Collection contains more than 400 19th and 20th century fashion magazine illustrations of women's and men's clothing. The Freshwater and Marine Image Bank offers more than "10,000 historic images relating to freshwater and marine subjects including dams, fisheries, fish species, vessels and maps." Collections are grouped into nine main subject areas: Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Alaska & the Yukon, Art & Architecture, Expeditions & Adventures, International, Labor & Industry, Natural World, Politics. They're all searchable -- by keyword, across all collections, or via an advanced search form that allows you to pick and choose collections to search, and to search by subject, title, creator, date, etc.
Web Search Information Retrieval For the Search and IR Geeks Out There: Papers from the Upcoming WWW2004 Conference Those of you with an interest in what's going on in web search and IR research might find a compilation I've put together to be of value. It offers direct links to several search and search-related papers to be given at the upcoming WWW2004 (Thirteenth International World Wide Web Conference). The compilation is posted on ResourceShelfPLUS.
Engineering Resources Just Launched, A New Resource for Engineers GlobalSpec, a company that provides access to over 10,000 product catalogs (they call it a product discovery system) launched, "The Engineering Web" today as a new tool on their web site. We first mentioned this new service about two weeks ago. "The Engineering Web" is a "focused crawler" the deals with engineering and technical information. According to the site, they've crawled about 10,000 sources and provide direct access to several IW resources including the U.S., European, and WIPO patent databases. More later and look for a write-up from ITI on Monday. To access "The Engineering Web" look for the the links on the left-side of the Global Spec home page or via the pull-down menu attached to the main search box. See Also: EEVL A massive engineering directory and search tool developed by librarians in the UK. It's part of the RDN. Here's an overview article about EEVL that was published in SearchDay.
Web Search--Microsoft Source: News.com Microsoft's Ballmer, "Search Was Our Worst Mistake" From the article, "'People say that Microsoft does it all, but this is the case where we didn't do it all,'" Ballmer told an audience of marketing and media executives here at the software giant's fifth annual advertising conference. Then, like an eager football coach pumping up the team for the second half, Ballmer reasserted that Microsoft is still in the game and plans to win...Ballmer did not comment on the European ruling, but did sound an upbeat note for Microsoft's growing impetus in search development. He said the company has hired many top search software developers and plans to be the absolute best in search over time. He also downplayed the mystical reputation of Google's search tool. 'There's no magic here, it takes good hard work…and hard-core software' to deliver relevant results, he said...Ballmer would not plot an exact timeline for the launch of a new Microsoft search engine, but he said that first-generation technology from its development team would likely appear in the next 12 months."
Web Search Source: NY Post In Google Many Trust (Too Much) Just because you don't find something when running a Google search doesn't mean the info isn't out there. Here's an example. From the article, "Had anyone bothered to Google Shamoon "Sam" Rafiq a month ago, they would not have found much information about the man. A now-removed profile from the Amsterdam American Business Club's Web site listed Rafiq as a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Other than that, you could assume that Rafiq is a soccer fan - messages attributed to him are posted on a soccer fan Web site. Rafiq never was a partner at Kleiner Perkins, however, and today he sits in jail charged with wire fraud for selling non-existent shares of Google. Rafiq's alleged exploits, which the feds say netted him almost $3 million, were detailed in yesterday's Post (you can find the story online). He is accused of conning corporate executives and Wall Street types - an investment banker and stock broker. That people would salivate over Google's IPO - despite the fact the company has not yet even filed for one - is not surprising... But all that Googles is not gold. Just ask Shamoon Rafiq's alleged victims. Had anyone bothered to look somewhere other than Google for information on Rafiq, they would have found information that made them think twice about trusting the man. Searches for Rafiq on LookSmart, Yahoo! and AllTheWeb.com turn up a 2001 press release in which the mysterious man was named an executive at now-defunct Ripcord Systems. You can find the same press release through Factiva and Lexis-Nexis as well." Thanks to Seth F. for the link. See Also: Read More in this 3/18 SF Chronicle Article
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) National Archives--United Kingdom Source: The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council Just Released Report, Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future: The Report of the Archives Task Force From a Resource news release, "The report, Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future, comes at a time when unprecedented numbers of people at home and overseas are beginning to use the UK's archives for genealogy or to explore the history of their community. It highlights the importance and remarkable diversity of British archives and points to ways in which access to these resources can be developed." -- Information Seeking Behavior Health Information Source: Journal of Medical Internet Research Online Pediatric Information Seeking Among Mothers of Young Children: Results From a Qualitative Study Using Focus Groups "Women appear to be high information seekers during pregnancy and the first few years following delivery, and this period represents an important window of time for providing online health information. Participants suggested that online information sources and motives for providing online information should be clear in order to increase perceptions of trust. Participants expressed preference for online clinical health information that is presented by clinical professionals, and online parenting advice that is presented from other parents."
Access to Information--United States Web Site Preview, OpenTheGoverment.org From the site, "What OpenTheGovernment.org will do? We'll highlight alerts, reports and analyses from dozens of groups. This coalition includes librarians, journalists, good government and environmental groups, and labor. We are advocates defending the First Amendment, promoting free expression, strengthening national security and fighting censorship." The public launch of the web site will take place later this spring. Several library organizations have signed the OpenTheGovernment.org "statement of values." See Also: A Bit More From OMB Watch "OpenTheGovernment.org is a new, unprecedented coalition of over 30 organizations created to fight increased secrecy and promote open government."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) WMD Source: Congressional Research Service New, Full Text, Weapons of Mass Destruction: Trade Between North Korea and Pakistan 23 pages; PDF. -- Internet Source: United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force Home Page, Global Forum on Internet Governance The forum begins today. -- Internet Usage--United States Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Just Released Report, Older Americans and the Internet Summary ||| Direct to Full Text From the summary, "The percent of seniors who go online has jumped by 47% between 2000 and 2004. In a February 2004 survey, 22% of Americans age 65 or older reported having access to the Internet, up from 15% in 2000. That translates to about 8 million Americans age 65 or older who use the Internet. By contrast, 58% of Americans age 50-64, 75% of 30-49 year-olds, and 77% of 18-29 year-olds currently go online." -- Education Technology--Schools Source: Bureau of Educational Technology, Florida Department of Education and the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida Educational Technology Clearinghouse "For your convenience, we've grouped the pages into three sections: + Subjects: Here you will find links to the best of the Web, sorted by subject and grade level. + Resources: Valuable links for teachers, administrators, grant-seekers, and other members of the educational community. + Reference Desk: Quick links to the most useful reference sources on the Web." Includes database containing more than 3,500 pieces of clipart licensed for free educational use. License says: "A maximum of fifty (50) clipart items may be used in any non-commercial, educational project (report, presentation, display, website, etc.) without special permission. The use of more than fifty clipart items in a single project requires written permission from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) at USF. -- Counties--United States Source: NETRonline New, NETR County Locator "You can search for counties by supplying either a City/Town OR a Zip Code..." Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Social-Networking Software Source: Technology Review Internetworking A look at several social-networking software companies. From the article, "The premise behind this new social-networking technology is simple: you may know a lot of people from work, college, church, or your neighborhood, but you probably don’t know exactly who their friends are—and forget about their friends’ friends. But join an online social network and invite a few acquaintances, and the software will begin to reveal previously hidden second- or third-degree connections that can lead to an interview, business meeting, or tee time with that elusive potential client or employer." Companies mentioned: + Tribe.net + Visible Path + Spoke Software + Broadband Mechanics + Ryze
News Search Source: San Jose Mercury News All the news that's fit for searching A short article on what MS is up to in the news search arena. From the article, "...NewsJunkie, could help Microsoft develop a search function in Windows to compete with Google. It's also planned as part of MSN's upcoming news page, called Newsbot. Using principles of artificial intelligence and information retrieval, NewsJunkie keeps track of what a reader has already seen. It reorganizes news stories to rank those with the most new information at the top and push those with repetitive information to the bottom, or filter them out entirely. NewsJunkie can help improve news alerts beyond key words to offer only new information, the researchers said. [Susan] Dumais is working on a similar project to make search happen behind the scenes to recognize what you're working on, search your hard drive and automatically present related files." Thanks to Andy B. for the news tip. NOTE: The article does not mention that a public beta of Newsbot has been online since November. You can learn a bit more in this ResourceShelf post. See Also: Findory is a "Just Launched" Adaptive News Search Resource
Web Search--Google Google's Craig Silverstein Chats from ZDNet UK Silverstein is Google's Director of Technology. Here are a few passages from the article. + "Silverstein said he believes that within a few years Google could have a voice interface for everything from driving directions to help you finding the aisle for a particular food in your local supermarket." + "Silverstein said speech-based searching presented a real problem but not because of the recognition technology. Instead he said the problem lies in the way results are returned. 'The problem is, how do you get the answers back? Do you have someone reading them off to you like one of those voicemail mazes where it takes so long to speak to someone? A big list works visually, but doesn't work very well in audio,' he said." + "Silverstein said he was unconcerned about the phenomenon known as Google Bombing." + "Silverstein said that Google is also interested in adding new kinds of content that were not previously available in any electronic form. 'I think we probe much if not most of the static Web, which consists of pages that are not dynamically generated. From the dynamically generated stuff it is hard to say. We cover a lot of it, but probably not close to everything,' he said." See Also: Silverstein Introduces the Idea of Search Pets (via Searchblog.com)
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Journals Ranked by Impact: International Relations + Science in Brazil, 1998-2002 + Economics: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Energy Geochemistry Source: USGS Just Released, One-of-a-Kind Database of World’s Petroleum Resources Now Available Summary ||| Direct to Database -- Political Action Committees Source: Federal Election Commission PAC Statistics 2003 Includes several tables and rankings. Including: + Top 50 PACs by Receipts January 1, 2003 - December 31, 2003 + Top 50 PACs by Cash on Hand as of December 31, 2003 -- Population--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Moving Rates Lowest in 50+ Years, Census Bureau Reports Summary ||| Direct to Full Text Report -- Documents in the News September 11th Source: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States + Staff Statement No. 5: Diplomacy + Staff Statement No. 6: The Military + Staff Statement No. 7: Intelligence Policy See Also: Transcripts and Other Documents from Hearings Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Information Retrieval--Visualization Source: Technology Review Sketchy Information The articles asks if "graphical search interfaces make a picture worth a thousand links?" From the article, "'The biggest challenge with visualization is data overload,' says Greg Coyle, general manager of Ancubis, a Cambridge, UK-based developer of search visualization tools. 'When the data sets get large, it’s a challenge to usefully visually represent that and not scare the hell out of the user.' Effective presentation requires understanding how to categorize it and relate one piece of information to another. So developers need descriptive information about the underlying data that people want to search." Products Discussed: + Gnod.net (More About Gnod.net soon.) It's a "self-adapting community system." + Endeca ||| Demo + Anacubis ||| Demo
Professional Reading Shelf (5 Items) Reference Services Source: OCLC Webcast: Next Generation Reference Services "Five experts discuss next-generation reference services at the OCLC -- Awards LITA Names Several Award Winners + 2004 LITA/Library Hi Tech Award: Eric Lease Morgan from the University Libraries of Notre Dame + LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award: Susan McGlamery from 24/7 + Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology: Carl Lagoze, Cornell University + Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award: Jerome Yavarkovsky, Boston College -- Open Access + New Open Society Institute Grants Program Will Promote Open Access Publishing + (Mis)Leading Open Access Myths (via BioMedCentral) "BioMed Central responds to criticisms of the Open Access publishing model." -- Wireless Libraries Source: Government Computer News Library of Congress Sets Wireless Course "With little or no wireless connectivity in the three main LOC buildings, the library IT team has awarded a $2.9 million contract to EMS Technologies Inc. of Atlanta for a system to support wireless voice and data access via cell phones, personal digital assistants and notebook PCs." -- Government Libraries--United States Source: Federal Computer Week NIST Honored for Library Tech "The Library of Congress' Federal Library and Information Center Committee will give awards on March 25 to federal libraries and librarians for outstanding work and technological innovations in 2003. The National Institute of Standards and Technology Research Library will be recognized as federal library of the year among libraries with 11 or more staff members or contract employees, the Library of Congress committee officials said. The Library Services Department at the Naval Medical Center, in Portsmouth, Va., will be commended as federal library of the year among libraries with 10 or fewer staff members."
Web Browsers An Upcoming Version of Opera will Include IBM's ViaVoice Technology No need to type your search, just say it. From the announcement, "Opera Software announced the upcoming release of a multimodal desktop browser that incorporates IBM's Embedded ViaVoice speech technology. By leveraging IBM's voice libraries in this version of Opera, users can navigate, request information and even fill in Web forms using speech and other forms of input in the same interaction. 'Voice is the most natural and effective way we communicate. In the years to come it will greatly facilitate how we interact with technology,' says Christen Krogh, VP Engineering, Opera Software ASA. 'By making this technology available today for the wider Web audience, the serious work of voice-enabling the Web can commence.'...Opera will make the IBM integrated voice browser available in English for Windows with initial targets being enterprise customers and developers"
Enterprise Search (2 Items) + Yet Another Deal for FAST Reuters has announced that they will utilize FAST technology to monitor the web for copyright infringements. Reuters also uses FAST to power their news alert service. + ProQuest Licenses Its Taxonomy to Convera
Web Search--Google Source: MarketWatch.com More on Google's Possible SEC Filings, IPO From the article, "Google.com has been coy about going public even as Wall Street's collective mouth waters, but the Internet giant may soon have to reveal its closely guarded financial performance through another type of public filing, according to securities lawyers tracking the company. If Google has $10 million of total assets and more than 500 stockholders, it will have to file a Form 10 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934...Such a filing will make public Google's earnings and revenue information. It would also trigger the need for other public filings such as proxy statements and annual reports...If Google reached the threshold of 500 stockholders by the end of 2003 and if that is the end of its fiscal year, it would have to file a Form 10 by April 30, said Matthew Gilman, a partner at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels in Boston."
Web Search--Dogpile Dogpile Releases Toolbar That Features Scrolling RSS Feed Ticker Two days and two toolbars. Yesterday, a new toolbar with RSS and hard drive search capabilities from Hotbot. Today, Dogpile releases an upgrade to its toolbar. Dogpile Search Toolbar 2.2.0 offers an RSS reader and the chance to view your feeds (headlines only) as they scroll across the toolbar. See Also: Reuters Publishes Article About RSS Thanks to S.C. for the news tip.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Iraq War Source: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Committee on Goverment Reform (U.S. House) Searchable Database, Iraq on the Record From the site, "The Iraq on the Record database contains statements from the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on the Iraq war: President George Bush; Vice President Richard Cheney; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Secretary of State Colin Powell; and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice." Methodology info is also provided. -- Philanthropy--United States--Statistics Source: Foundation Center Just Released, Foundation Center Statistics on Grants Awarded in 2002 Includes Top 50 U.S. Foundations by Giving rankings for each state and the District of Columbia. -- Budget--Canada Source: Department of Canada Just Released, Canada Budget 2004 -- Election 2004 Factiva Posts Media Visibility Index for Democratic Presidential Hopefuls (Week Ending 3/21/04)
Public Records--United States--Databases Source: FCW NTIS Makes Web-Based Version of Social Security Master Death Index Available (Fee-Based) From the article, "The official Social Security Administration Death Master File, a database of all deaths reported to the SSA, is now available over the Internet for a fee. Today the National Technical Information Service, which offers online access to Social Security data, announced that government and commercial organizations can buy annual subscriptions, starting at $995. Organizations that buy an interactive subscription can make an unlimited number of queries in the database, NTIS officials said. Previously, organizations that relied on their own copies of the Death Master File had to buy weekly or monthly updates to prevent the database from becoming inaccurate." See Also: Learn More/Subscription Info See Also: Free Access to the SSDI is Also Available This version (via Rootsweb) was last updated in January and contains 72 million records. The new NTIS product states that it provides access to 65 million records. Monday, March 22, 2004
Search Tools Source: InfoToday NewsBreaks New from Hotbot: Index and Search Your Computer, RSS Feeds, and the Web With New Desktop From an overview article that I've co-authored with Barbara Quint, "Lycos has launched a free toolbar search product [IE, Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP] from HotBot, their search service, which the company says is 'the first product to integrate traditional desktop search with Web search within the browser.' The same search tool can now reach the Internet, e-mail folders for Outlook or Outlook Express, and user documents stored on a hard drive. The free application does not even require registration. It also incorporates a blocker for pop-up ads and an RSS News Reader syndication. Searching reaches six file types: MS Office, PDF, RTF, and text. Indexes created to track e-mail and user files remain stored locally to protect user privacy." Key Features: + Web Search + Hard Drive Search + Search Your RSS Feeds (RSS Reader Also Included) + Keyword Search Your Browser History File + Ability to Add Most Search Sites to the Toolbar + Other Common Toolbar Features (pop-up blocker, highlighted search terms, etc.) Also, from the article, "Is it perfect? Hardly. The Lycos toolbar has several issues of concern. Luckily, the company plans to address many of those issues in an updated release of the toolbar scheduled for the end of this quarter or early summer. Nonetheless, Lycos should be given kudos for being the first major search company in many years to offer hard drive search capability with a free toolbar. It's something that many searchers have been asking for since AltaVista offered a local search toolbar called AltaVista Discovery several years ago...Bottom line? Lycos HotBot DeskTop is worth attention since the price is right (free) and many searchers need as much help as possible finding content on their computers." NOTE: Several years ago AltaVista offered AltaVista Discovery. This publicly available (and free) tool offered desktop search. It's no longer available. See Also: Learn More via the HotBot Desktop Download Page See Also: Hotbot's Deskbar (Released Last Year) Remains Available See Also: And Speaking of RSS...The Washington Post is now making several feeds available. Thanks to Steven C. for the news tip.
Web Search--Google Source: Searchblog How Does Google See Itself: Search Technology Company or Media Company? John Battelle writes from PC Forum where Google's CEO Eric Schmidt spoke today, "Eric views Google as a media company, or at least that's the take I came away with. That is new, last time we spoke, Google was a technology company driven by media revenues..." See Also: Google to find place for Orkut network in search
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Federated Searching Source: TechNewsWorld Federated Searching: A Viable Alternative to Web Surfing NOTE: This article also appears in the current issue of MultiMedia & Internet@Schools -- Digital Preservation Source: Canadian Heritage Information Network New, Full Text, Digital Preservation: Best Practice for Museums
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Population Source: U.S. Census Just Released, U.S. Census Publishes World Population Estimates Summary ||| Full Text Report ||| Download Report by Chapter See Also: Global Population at a Glance: 2002 and Beyond -- Peacekeeping Source: United Nations New Web Resource, Peacekeeping Best Practices "Publications; extensive database of reports, papers and speeches related to peacekeeping; events calendar; directory of organizations active in the area of peace and security; etc." -- Weapons--Country Profiles Source: Nuclear Threat Initiative NTI Country Overviews "These country profiles and overviews provide insight into why countries pursue nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and missile programs, how they develop their programs, and why they may choose to stop developing such weapons. The researchers at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies have been studying these countries for more than a decade. They have drawn from their knowledge and extensive databases to provide in-depth profiles and short overviews of each country's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and missile development programs, policies and activities." Ted Turner and Senator Sam Nunn founded NTI in January 2001. It is "supported by a pledge from Mr. Turner and other private contributions." See also: NTI Research Library -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Updated Data, 2001-02 Private School Data Now Accessible Through Data Base Applications "The data for these search applications comes from the 30,377 schools that responded to the 2001-2002 Private School Universe Survey (PSS) conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics." -- Aviation--United States--Statistics Source: NTSB Just Released, Preliminary Aviation Accident Statistics 2003 Summary ||| Additional Stats
Research Tools New Versions of GuruNet Available, Now Accessible Without the Need to Download Software Wonderful news from Gurunet. Until today you needed to download and install a small application to access GuruNet's impressive list of 150 reference sources. That's all changed. The company has launched a web-based version of their product (fee-based). However, GuruNet's client apps remain available. A two week free trial is available. GuruNet charges $29.95/year to access the service. What does GuruNet Offer? + GuruNet on the Web + GuruNet IE Tool Bar + GuruNet 5.0 for Windows ++ NOTE: The company has announced that a Mac version will be available in Q2. + GuruNet Kids See Also: In his review of GuruNet (3/2003) Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal did an excellent job in explaining how the product works and how it provides potential answers, not just links. See Also: An Interview With GuruNet's CEO, Bob Rosenschein (via eMarketer)
Briefly Factiva Launches iWorker Search Technology From the let's make it easier to use department..."Factiva iWorker Search Technology is a patent-pending system and method that seamlessly matches simple, keyword searches to the filtering capability embedded within Factiva's proprietary taxonomy. The taxonomy consists of company, region, industry, language, and subject codes that are universally applied to Factiva's entire content set to help ensure more precise and accurate results. In addition, the search experience is personalized as users set their preference for a specific region and industry, which influences the relevance of their results." -- Learn About iXmatch (via The B |
