Library Stuff

BBC – “We've got Google, Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves and Dogpile, among others. Now Microsoft has re-launched its search engine as Bing.com. So, what makes a good search engine name?”

Associated Press – “Yet after testing the service for a few weeks, I think WolframAlpha is unlikely to become a household name – and not just because of the gauze-in-the-mouth logjam of two “f” sounds in the title. While WolframAlpha is brilliant at times and elegant in its display, there aren't many ways everyday Web users would benefit from using it over other resources.”

NYTimes.com – “OPPORTUNITIES for social networking abound on the Internet, but not when it comes to one standard job: using a browser and search engine to comb the Web for information. That task is still typically done solo, because browser displays and search procedures have traditionally been designed for a single user.”

ITI – “Deep Web Technologies (www.deepwebtech.com) recently launched a beta version of a free, federated search portal, Biznar (www.biznar.com), a publicly available business research website.”

Wired Campus – “Have you ever wished for a personal reference librarian, an information guru to point you to the most reliable sites whenever you search the Web? A new search-engine project aims to simulate something like that. The trick? Weighting search results so that librarians’ picks rise to the top.”

Very interesting.  Of course, not all librarians are good web searchers. [Thanks Joshua]

ReadWriteWeb – “In this post we look at the pros and cons of human powered search engines in general, look at some differentiating strategies and ask “what is the future for Human Powered Search?”

Mashable – “Hakia recently announced an outreach to librarians and information professionals to help make its results even more credible. The company will be expanding its focus beyond the medical scope and wants the assistance of professionals to make sure that the next market it turns its focus on delivers results as trustworthy as its health results have been.”

Technology Review – “Social software is proliferating online, but many of the most common Internet tools, such as search engines, are still used in isolation.” (via)

Andy Oram – “The next time you have to search for information on any topic, try recording your efforts in a survey I’ve just put up.”

Technology Review – “Researchers at MIT have released a video and audio search tool that solves one of the most challenging problems in the field: how to break up a lengthy academic lecture into manageable chunks, pinpoint the location of keywords, and direct the user to them.”

Whoa!!!! (via)