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Perennial Searcher

December 31, 2008

Deep Web 2008

Happy New Year! Feliz ano nuevo. Be happy; be healthy. LLRX has released its Deep Web Research 2008.

“Deep Web covers somewhere in the vicinity of 900 billion pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats that the current search engines on the Internet either cannot find or have difficulty accessing. Search engines currently locate approximately 20 billion pages.”

In short, this webliography is chock full of helpful background information, tools, databases, and more. It even delves into the Semantic Web and bots (i.e., intelligent agents).

posted by Brian at 2:28 pm | Comments (0)

December 22, 2008

Web 3.0

CNN explains the Semantic Web for the masses in this article.  The future of search – - as well as Web 3.0 – -  may involve intelligent agents, descriptor languages, touch screen navigation, and voice commands. Heady stuff, no doubt. Thankfully these developments are supposed to work invisibly and seamlessly. Perhaps the most interesting remark in the piece is this: The Semantic Web will not replace the current Web. Rather, it will complement or supplement it. The piece also mentions a search tool called Cluuz, which may be a window to the future. Here’s what Cluuz says about itself: 

 

“The Cluuz search engine is different from traditional search engines in that we don’t only show the links to result pages but we also show entities (people, companies, organization, phone numbers, concepts, etc.) and images that are extracted from within the search results.”

posted by Brian at 10:31 am | Comments (0)

December 18, 2008

Top 100 Websites: 2009

The UK’s The Guardian has rounded up its top Web pics for 2009.  The list covers blogging, online collaboration, location-based services, photography, music, video, and more.  You’re bound to discover a new tool.

posted by Brian at 1:52 pm | Comments (0)

December 12, 2008

Google SearchWiki

I’d best let the Google engineers explain the Google SearhWiki; here’s a video overview. 

In short, you must be logged into your Google account to use this service, and it lets you rearrange and comment on your search results.  You can also add and delete content. 

These edits affect only you and your search results – - not what the mass of Googlers see. 

See this blog post from Official Google Blog for more background on this 2.0 feature.

posted by Brian at 4:54 pm | Comments (0)

YouTube as a Tutor

USA Today  - –  in its Education section – - included this interesting piece about Web surfers using YouTube for homework help and tutoring. 

I myself will need to reframe how I view TouTube; I have used it primarly for entertainment — tracking down video footage of my favorite bands, etc. 

“YouTube’s potential for instruction is one reason Internet search leader Google Inc. bought the video site for $1.76 billion two years ago.”

posted by Brian at 4:42 pm | Comments (0)

News from Official Google Blog

Lately the Official Google Blog has reported on myriad developments. For one, Google’s browser — Google Chrome — is now out of beta and ready for primte time. Download and test drive it. To date, it has captured some 10 millions users. Next, the year-end zeitgeist peers into the collective consciousness of searchers during 2008. Sarah Palin appears higher on the list than Barack Obama. And the Jonas Brothers made it into the Top 10. Last, watch out information providers, vendors, and aggregators. Google now searches magazine archives in its Google Book Search. Researchers can now find articles from the likes of such publications as New York Magazine, Popular Science, Ebony, etc.

posted by Brian at 10:13 am | Comments (0)