March 28, 2003
Demystifying Search Language
This excellent summary by Lynn Frances in the March 27 2003 issue of Law Technology News provides an essential glossary of search terminology that every serious searcher and trainer should know, plus good links to additional information resources.
Disaster-Related Web Sites
Concerned about floods, terrorism, health scares? Or are you serving customers with disaster-related questions? Be sure to check out CBS NEWS Disasterlinks.net , a compilation of links to dozens of disaster-related websites.
March 27, 2003
A Case Against Teaching Google
During my lectures to librarians, I'm asked how much time they should devote to teaching "common" search engines (e.g. Google) and directories (e.g. Yahoo!) to their users. Many library instruction sessions start with Yahoo as an "example" directory and Google as the "best" search engine. The rationale used to justify the choices is that these are "starting points" that most users understand and can relate to. No wonder librarians are crying the blues about how students bypass the library and think that Google=research. We're introducing them to things that they already know, and end up reinforcing their own inadequate search behavior with our own modelling.
Although Google is great for certain types of questions (reference verification, finding known web sites), it's a poor single-source choice for most topical searches. When we use Google to help our users find topical information, we are simply proving to them that we know nothing more than they do about web search. The solution? Introduce users to high quality, less well known directories and other web resources that will not only surprise and delight them, but help them to realize that librarians continue to be a source of truly useful guidance and advice.
March 25, 2003
Directories OUT, $$ for Clicks IN?
CNET's March 24 2003 article "The changing face of search engines" notes that webmasters are bypassing commercial directories for their listings in favor of pay-for-placement direct advertising. What does this mean for searchers?
The power shift has forced well-branded directories like Yahoo to reinvent its search business to look more like those offered by Google and Overture Services. Meanwhile, altruistic ventures like the Open Directory Project, Librarians Index and others seem to be the only options left that are really grounded in the original concept of the Net as an information source.
March 22, 2003
Evaluating Health Information on the Web
Thanks to Gary Price for alerting me to an excellent toolkit on evaluating health informaation on the Internet -- another superb guide from the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINEPlus.
March 18, 2003
Top 10 Medical Web Sites from the Medical Library Association
From the Medical Library Association, their list of "Top 10" health-related web sites. It's a pretty solid list, and to it I would add the Hardin Meta Directory and for Canadian readers, the Canada Health Network
March 15, 2003
PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites
In the March 25 2003 issue of PC Magazine, "Top 100 Web Sites" features a mix of amusing (All About Hangovers) and baffling site selections. The links in the Computing section are the best -- offering great information and support sites for tech do-it-yourselfers. Keeners can download the entire Top 100 list in a zip file.
Internet Filtering Facts and Fiction
If you're interested in hearing how Internet filtering works, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg is your man.
Nunberg is a senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University and before that, worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. He also served as an expert witness in the case against the Children's Internet Protection Act, which required US schools and libraries to install software filters to screen out obscene sites as a condition for receiving various federal subsidies.
Herewith two articles on the topic: the first, "The Internet Filter Farce" and a shorter, softer take on the topic in "Computers in Libraries Make Moral Judgments, Selectively" from last week's New York Times.
Do I Search Fee or Free?
How do you make a decision between fee and free web sources? Do you play spend your valuable search time using free web sources or do you pay the price for fee-based web sites that offer copyrighted content, or value-added information?
Free web sites can be great sources of information, but they can be hard to find and even harder to use. Free sites aren't often designed for easy download of information, and there's often no "peer review" to ensure that information is current or correct. Users need to assess the source of free web information carefully in order to validate data that may or may not be adequately referenced.
Fee-based web sites that offer copyrighted information, like journal articles, are an important extension of the free web for any serious researcher. Much high quality information is published in journal articles, and will never appear for free on the web. Searchers seeking comprehensive coverage of a topic need to make sure that they cover the journal literature as fully as possible. There is a smattering of free journal content on the web (e.g. FindArticles.com) and journal indexes (e.g. PubMed) but the great majority of journal content lives in licensed databases, off-limits to non-subscribers.
Value-added services, which allow the searcher to search multiple databases at once, are good alternatives when time is money. Examples include services like Factiva, Dialog, or Lexis-Nexis. Some (or portions of) the databases available in value-added services can be found for free on the web -- if only you knew where to look. Even so, many of these value-added services offer deep archival coverage, easy and powerful search options, updater services, and content download features that are rarely offered on the free counterparts.
Is there a "rule of thumb" to help make the decision on fee-versus-free? In our experience, the more commercial or "saleable" the information, the harder it will be to track down on the free web. Business, investment, sales and marketing searches can benefit significantly from value-added services. For academic research, there is good free web content in many disciplines, but journal articles remain essential. You can try some searchable journal article services like Findarticles.com or document delivery services like Ingenta but their search capabilities are primitive and frustrating. A visit to your local library to access the best indexes and databases will probably be required.
March 14, 2003
Search Toolbars as Spyware
If any readers have downloaded and used the special search toolbars from sites like Google or Teoma, you might want to think again after you read Cade Metz's article "Is Google Invading Your Privacy?" in the February 26 2003 issue of PC Magazine.
Marketed as a tool to let you use the web more easily, some downloadable toolbars are simply spyware products that let the companies track your clicks. This information comes as no surprise to those of us working in the search business, where so much free stuff comes with a price -- either privacy or quality -- but most users remain blissfully unaware.
March 10, 2003
Overture Buys Search Engines
Last week two major search engines, AltaVista and AlltheWeb were sold to Overture, a web advertising firm that sells search keywords to advertisers. These events follow AskJeeves' purchase of the search engine Teoma earlier this year and Yahoo's purchase of the Inktomi search engine this summer.
As a result of these purchases, Google remains the only independently produced search engine not owned by an advertising or marketing e-company. However, it's worth noting that Google itself is one of the world's largest keyword sellers, rivaling Overture in advertising revenue but remaining morally upright by clearly labelling sponsored search results that appear on its pages. It's hard to predict how long Google will resist an appropriate, monied suitor willing to pay for Google's value as the most recognized brand in the world, and its favored position with advertisers.
Whenever a Google takeover happens, expect Google to change. No, don't stop using Google. Not yet. But it would be useful to consider a runner-up search engine in case Google starts behaving badly (Greg Notess' Search Engine Showdown has a good list of search engines charted by size) plus a selection of best-of-breed subject directories (see a few of our favorites, extracted from the Search Portfolio, at our Search Portfolio Litesite that will unearth some of those hidden gems.
March 08, 2003
Planning a Trip with the Web
Consider going beyond search engines to find better and more varied information for multi-faceted projects. Trip planning using web sources can demonstrate how using multiple sources improve search quality.
Try finding information on travelling to London for a week-long holiday -- and test your search in Google using the keywords london and travel
The search results are illustrative of one of the limitations of search engines -- that they are good at helping you find something that you know is on the web already. Using our travel example, Google will turn up links to the most popular links -- hotel sellers, the BBC, and some popular dotcom web sites.
Test a similar information search in Librarians Index to the Internet . Instead of using keywords, browse under the heading Travel. In both the General Resources section (often mistaken for a title in LII, not a link!) or any of the travel subcategories, you'll discover some gems -- a universal packing list, customs regulations, links for sernior and youth travellers, a world museum portal and much, much more. Keyword searching in the LII search template using britain reveals useful subject headings that can lead you to more regional resources, route planners, art guides, historical information, locales that served as models for the Harry Potter book series, and the list goes on and on.
Consider the role that browsing and serendipity play in information retrieval. Above all, when you are using browsable tools, browse them rather than search using keywords. You may be surprised at how much you are able to find.
March 06, 2003
Not-for-Profit Web Directories in Trouble
Genie Tyburski's March 5 column in TVC Alert, notes that the very best non-profit web directories like the Internet Public Library are in dire financial straits.
In his article, "Why is the Internet Public Library Broke?", Joseph Janes, one of the original members of the IPL team, explains that even though the project received funding from local and regional sources, "it's not anybody's responsibility to fund a 'public library' for the entire Internet."
How short-sighted. Wonderful resources like these deserve to flourish. Without them, we would be completely captive of search engines, which can only deliver answers to questions that you know how to ask. Good directories enable serendipitous browsing and resource discovery, and nothing can replace them.
Commercializing subject directories hasn't proven to be a reliable survival tactic -- most free commercial web directories now reek of preferential treatment for paying customers. Every search engine except for Google now features pay-for-placement options in search results, and in doing so drives the best content out of sight. I frankly can't imagine what I would do without high quality web directories to find the hidden gems that search engines miss.
Can regional, state, and federal funders find the vision and funds to sustain these unique web directories until they become so well known that their value as essential services will make them politically difficult to shut down?
March 05, 2003
Search Engines ≠ Search
In the January 2003 issue of EContent, David M. Scott's article "I Don't Google Madonna" keenly illustrates the problem with using search engines as one-stop web search tools for all types of questions.
Scott states that sites like Google exist only to answer questions, and users must already know what they want before proceeding. But people also need services that tell them something that they don't already know, or things that they did not think to ask.
March 04, 2003
Big6 Teaches Information Skills
Learners who require a step-by-step method to learn better search skills should spend some time at Big6. Developed by librarians Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, the Big6 is an approach to teaching information and technology skills.
The Big6 learning model (6 steps, hence the name) can be applied whenever people need to find and use information. For any serious web searcher, it's reasonably easy to integrate links to high quality web sources into Step 2 (Resource selection) and Step 3 (Resource searching) of the Big6 model. For teachers, the site contains lesson plans, downloadable slides, a wallet-size reference card, and many links to educational projects that use the Big6 method.
March 01, 2003
A Cautionary Tale of "Or"
Chris Sherman's article in the April 9 2002 issue of Search Day sheds some light on the dangers of using the OR operator in Boolean searches. "To Or is Human" provides useful examples on the pitfalls of using OR. The article also links to others about Boolean AND and NOT.