Perennial Searcher

Data Everywhere

brian — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:16:08 +0000

Cool article from The Economist: “Data, data everywhere“. Salient quote:

“The amount of digital information increases tenfold every five years.”

What’s more, the amount of data exceeds the amount of storage space currently available.

A great read . . . with many implications for librarians, information professionals, knowledge workers.

And perhaps the article may stimulate some investment ideas; specifically, take a look at companies that specialize in Information Management (IM), Personal Information Management (PIM), etc.

The Web’s Shady Side

brian — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:29:41 +0000

Fascinating article – - “The Dark Side of the Web” – - reminds us that Google only indexes a fraction of online content. Yes, Google trapped its trillionth Web document some time ago. Vast repositories of digital material, however, are beyond the reaches of its bots. Remember the prhases “Deep Web,” “Invisible Web,” “Hidden Web”? This piece is an excellent review of those concepts and reality. What’s more, it talks about more sinister topics such as the “Dark Web” and “darknets” (restricted, private networks) . . . as well as several initiatives to combat activities (e.g., terrorism) that occur on / in the Web’s seedier underbelly. The writer mentions several cool tools such as Tor, Freenet, and I2P . . . all of which are anonymous networks

Open Access

brian — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:15:47 +0000

The open access bug has bit me, and I’m not allergic. Recently, I’ve been thinking about free, fulltext articles that are of comparable quality to content within fee-based aggregators (e.g., Ebsco, Gale/Cengage, etc.). The fruit of my pursuit: I landed on Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). It provides access to more than 4,000 peer-reviewed, quality-controlled journals and more than 300,000 articles. The scope is academic, and includes arts / humanities as well as hard sciences. Take a look at DOAJ’s subject tree. Then conduct a search for fulltext articles here. Another tool that I learn about in my quest: Open J-Gate, which claims to offer access to more than 6,000 journals . . . and more than 1 million articles. Then there’s Open Thesis, a free repository of dissertations, theses, and assorted academic documents. Curious to know more about open access? Take a look at this definition. See also this Wikipedia entry.

Google Wave

brian — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:11:03 +0000

Google Wave, the real-time communication and collaboration tool, is available for limited preview. Unfortunately, I have not been able to test drive it. I have, however, been reading up about it as well as watching YouTube explanations of this much-hyped service:

In short, ” A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

It’s best just to watch this video:

Google News Archive Now 4x the Size

brian — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:50:20 +0000

According to the official Google blog, Google News Archive has quadrupled in size.

“News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. Users can search for events, people or ideas and see how they have been described over time. In addition to searching for the most relevant articles for their query, users can also see a historical overview of the results by browsing an automatically generated timeline. ”

So far the oldest newpaper is the Halifax Gazette from 6/2/53 . . . that’s 1753

Microsoft and Yahoo! . . . Allies

brian — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:39:49 +0000

Microsoft and Yahoo! finally join forces, according to USA Today. In short, Microsoft will assume search responsibilities while Yahoo! will concentrate on sales and advertising. Here’s an excerpt from the article and trenchant remark about MicroHoo:

“Even with Yahoo’s help, Microsoft still has its work cut out. Combined, Microsoft and Yahoo have a 28% share of the Internet search market in the United States, well behind Google’s 65%, according to online measurement firm comScore Inc. Google is even more dominant on in the rest of the world, with a global share of 67% compared to a combined 11% for Microsoft and Yahoo.”

Twitter Facelift

brian — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:21:44 +0000

Twitter has radically redesigned its home page. The popular microblogging service brings search to the forefront, realizing that indexing people’s “tweets” is a goldmine of data, current awareness, trends, news, and real-time phenomena. Not only does Twitter allow users to share, but also it facilitates “discovery,” in the company’s words. Here’s an excerpt from the official Twitter blog post about the recent development:

“Twitter has moved from simple social networking into a new kind of communication and a valuable source of timely information.”

Video in Wikipedia?

brian — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:13:45 +0000

CNET reports that Wikipedia, the collaborative encyclopedia, plans to add video to its entries. Apparently, Wikipedia will include a link to “Add Media” in a few months, which will allows users to search for copyright-free video content, which, in turn, can be added to Wikipedia articles. Perhaps you’ll soon be able to watch a how-to clip on performing brain surgery or tying a windsor knot.

Explore Google Search

brian — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:25:17 +0000

Google – - perhaps in response to Bing and Wolfram Alpha – - has created a page called Explore Google Search to tout its cool features and tools. The page highlights using Google as a dictionary, calculator, unit converter, and more. Video tutorials and graphical examples are provided. See, for instance, this video (in the series 15-second Search Tips) on Google’s public data feature:

Hunch

brian — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:54:41 +0000

Right on the heels of the release of Microsoft’s Bing, another tool surfaces that also claims to be a “decision engine”. It’s called Hunch:

“In 10 questions or less, Hunch will offer you a great solution to your problem, concern or dilemma, on hundreds of topics.”

To take full advantage of its features, you’ll need to register for a free account.

The best way to learn about this tool is to take the tour and read the factsheet.

And put Hunch to the test.

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