1 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman Top Tips for Expert Searching Inforum 2005, Prague Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services

1 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Top Tips for Expert Searching Inforum 2005, Prague Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk rba.co.uk

2 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk What will be covered? ■ What Google has been doing over the last year ■ Alternatives to Google ■ RSS and Blogs ■ Desktop Search ■ Storing, managing and sharing resources ■ Top Tips to reduce overload

3 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google ■ New services – Google Mail – Google Print – Google Scholar – Google Suggests – Google Local and Maps (only US, Canada and UK) – My Search History – Web Accelerator – Personalized News – Google Desktop ■ Look in labs.google.com

4 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google ■ Increased database to over 8 billion pages – more rubbish to sift through – need to use advanced search features to get more useful results ■ New search features – increased number of search terms to 32 – numeric range search  toblerone 1..5 kg  DVD player $100..200  2000..2005 – synonym search (~ before a word)

5 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google: use advanced search ■ language ■ file format (filetype:) ■ date modified ■ domain (site:) ■ Similar pages (related:) ■ pages that link to a known page (link:) ■ Also define: for definitions ■ Use * to stand in for a word in a phrase ■ Use + sign before a word to stop automatic stemming

6 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk

7 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk "Google sinker" ■ Works in most search engines (not MSN) ■ Repeat the most important word in your search several times e.g. – beer "market share" france germany czech – beer "market share" france germany czech czech – beer "market share" france germany czech czech czech  all give different results!

8 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google Scholar ■ scholar.google.com – "search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research" – no source list – includes citations and books – limited "advanced search" and author search unpredictable – articles ranked by relevance only – many articles are priced

9 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google print ■ Books supplied to Google by publishers ■ Google digitizes them ■ Search on: – books about...... – e.g. books about hubbert ■ 3 books listed near the top of the results list ■ Search within the book ■ Limit on number of pages that can be viewed ■ Information about the book and links to book stores

13 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google Suggests ■ labs.google.com and click on Google Suggests ■ Start typing in your search and Google suggests additions to your search together with the number of results

15 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Variations on Google ■ Lots of search tools based on Google ■ bananaslug.com – takes your search, adds a random term and searches Google – pulls up results that would usually be hidden far down your results list – can select a random term from a category  animals, random number, Shakespeare  random number works well when looking for statistics or market data

16 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Why try alternatives? ■ Different coverage ■ Different way of sorting results ■ Different search features ■ Different types of resource ■ Compare some of the major search engines using Thumbshots Ranking – ranking.thumbshots.com – shows overlap in first hundred results  varies depending on the search

21 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Dogpile Missing Pieces ■ missingpieces.dogpile.com/WhitePaper.pdf ■ missingpieces.dogpile.com/missingpiecestool.aspx – compares Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves – graphic shows how many results are in only 1, 2 or in all 3 search engines for a particular search and includes sponsored links from the top of the pages.

23 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Yahoo! ■ search.yahoo.com ■ Launched at the beginning of 2004 ■ ? billion pages ■ Search features very similar to Google ■ Key features – searches first 500K of a page (Google only 100K) – full Boolean search – link and linkdomain command better than Google – RSS/XML filetype search – News alerts available as RSS feed

24 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Yahoo link and linkdomain commands ■ Google – link:www.zefix.ch (68 results) ■ Yahoo – link:http://www.zefix.ch/ (1100 results)  finds pages that link to this individual page – linkdomain:www.zefix.ch (1290 results) – can also exclude your starting point using -site:

25 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk MSN ■ www.msn.com ■ Launched in autumn 2004 ■ 5 billion pages ■ "Search Builder" = advanced search options ■ No filetype search option in advanced search ■ Results tend to be "consumer" oriented ■ News Alerts available as RSS

26 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Exalead ■ www.exalead.com ■ 1 billion pages ■ Full Boolean search ■ NEAR command - within 16 words of each other ■ Supports wild cards – middle and end of the word

27 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Exalead (2) ■ Advanced Search – phonetic search – approximate spelling – automatic stemming ■ Pattern matching – good for solving (cheating at?) crossword puzzles  start pattern with a forward slash, represent each missing letter with a full stop and finish pattern with a forward slash e.g. /.h.s.c..n/  use a full stop followed by an asterisk to represent one or more letters e.g. /psych.*ist/

28 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Exalead (3) ■ Results – can be sorted by date (newest to oldest or oldest to newest)  select option on Advanced Search screen – results display thumbnail of page next to each entry – related terms displayed – can be viewed by file format e.g. PDF, DOC

30 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Kartoo ■ kartoo.com ■ Meta-search tool ■ Graphical representation of results ■ Extracts related terms from documents ■ Different layouts available including straightforward text listing

32 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Unique search features ■ Google – numeric range search, synonym search, define command, Google Suggests ■ Yahoo – RSS/XML format ■ Exalead – phonetic search, approximate spelling, pattern matching, wildcards, NEAR command, related terms ■ Kartoo – graphical representation of results, related terms

33 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Which search tool ■ Synonyms and related terms – Google, Exalead, Kartoo ■ Wild cards, variations on words – Exalead wild card, phonetic search, approximate spelling, pattern matching ■ Proximity search – Exalead ■ Numeric range search – Google

34 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Quick facts and reference queries ■ Answers.com – "topic-based snapshot" – 100 authoritative encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries and atlases ■ Wikipedia – www.wikipedia.org – free-content encyclopaedia that anyone can edit – editors required to compile a balanced article including references to other sources – several language versions – good for quick reference and for links to other related sources

35 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Quick facts and reference queries (2) ■ More examples: – acronymfinder.com – dictionary.com – Encarta – encyclopedia.com – brainboost.com

36 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Evaluated listings ■ Annotated directories on a particular subject, industry or type of information ■ Provide access to recommended resources on a topic ■ Expert human assessment of resources ■ Examples: – eco5.com for finance and economics – Biogate biogate.lub.lu.se for "1000 best links in the biological sciences" – Official Statistics on the Web www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/stats/offstats/

37 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Evaluated listings ■ How do you find them? – BUBL Link bubl.ac.uk – Pinakes, a subject launchpad www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html – professional or trade association – by personal recommendation – by chance

38 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Meta search tools ■ Take your search and run it in several search engines at once ■ For: – saves time and effort – combined results sometimes better than individual search tools – some arrange results into folders e.g. Killerinfo ■ Against: – cannot use the advanced search options of individual search tools

39 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Examples of meta search tools ■ kartoo.com ■ killerinfo.com ■ vivissimo.com ■ ixquick.com ■ dogpile.com ■ turboscout.com (searches one at a time) ■ turbo10.com (build your own!)

40 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Turboscout ■ Interface to a range of different search tools and types of resources – 21 "standard" search tools e.g. Google, Teoma – 12 image search tools – 17 reference sources e.g. Wikipedia, Scirus – 10 news search tools – 13 product search e.g. Amazon – 9 blog tools e.g. DayPop, Technorati – 8 audio visual ■ Type in your search once and click on each tool in turn

43 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Turbo10.com ■ Build your own meta search tool – select search tools from existing list of search engines and sites – add your own search tool or site  wizard take you through the steps  not all tools and sites can be added  dependent on cookies to keep and display your collections so problems if you move from one PC to another

45 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk RSS and blogs ■ What is RSS? – a way of delivering headlines and stories – stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary – more information at www.rba.co.uk/rss/rss.htm ■ Need a program to "read" the feeds – web based e.g. bloglines.com  Bloglines tutorial at tinyurl.com/ap42n – desktop program e.g. FeedReader, FeedDemon – list of readers at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_aggregators

46 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk "Raw" RSS feed

47 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk RSS feeds in a Feedreader

48 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk RSS and blogs ■ Many news services now offer RSS feeds – Yahoo News – MSN News – Newstrove.com, Moreover.com and FeedDirect – look for the RSS or XML logo ■ Blogs – online journal or diary – can range from superficial irrelevances to extreme erudition – try and find blogs by industry "gurus"

49 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk RSS and blogs ■ Searching for RSS feeds and blogs – Yahoo Advanced Search, RSS/XML file format – syndic8.com – bloglines.com – blogdex.net – blogdigger.com – daypop.com – technorati.com – feedster.com – blogpulse.com

50 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Desktop Search ■ Searches documents, emails, chat, IM messages, web pages etc. stored on your PC – search both file names and content ■ Can combine local search with web search ■ Indexes documents and folders on your PC – do not generally index documents on other machines on the network (some exceptions) ■ Useful for tracking down "lost" files but.... ■ Not a replacement for structured, well managed document folders

51 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Examples ■ Blinkx - www.blinkx.com ■ Ask Jeeves - sp.ask.com/docs/desktop/ ■ Google Desktop - desktop.google.com ■ MSN - www.msn.com ■ Copernic Desktop - www.copernic.com ■ Yahoo desktop - desktop.yahoo.com

52 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Desktop search - what is indexed? ■ Your documents, email, cached web pages etc ■ How? – varies with search tool e.g. Google first creates a cache and then indexes the cache, others create just an index ■ First time indexing can take along time ■ Updates handled differently by different tools – scheduled e.g. every hour, once a day – continually as new or edited documents appear (dynamic indexing)  can interfere with work  need to be able to pause or "snooze" indexing if necessary

53 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Document types supported ■ Varies depending on the desktop search tool ■ Crucial when choosing a tool ■ Usually at least MS Office, html, text files – may not support OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Eudora, Firefox, Netscape etc. – may only index default folders e.g. My documents ■ Preview will vary depending on type of document ■ Check treatment of secure web pages – https e.g. bank statements, Intranet pages ■ Check treatment of password protected docs

54 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Also check... ■ Can the content of a particular document format be searched or is only title searched? ■ Can the tool support files without extensions? ■ Do you really need network or Enterprise Search rather than just local PC search? ■ Also check that you have at least the minimum spec on your machine to support the desktop search tool - some are resource hungry ■ Operating systems supported – MS, MAC, Linux?

55 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Three useful references ■ UW E-Business Institute "Benchmark Study of Desktop Search Tools" - www.uwebi.org – free of charge ■ Desktop Search Handbook - an Office Watch guide - shop.office-watch.com/dsh/ – US$ 14.95, e-book, updates are free ■ Desktop Detectives, Davey Winder, Information World Review, May 2005, Issue 213, pp.19-21

56 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk UWEBI criteria ■ Usability – how easy to use, intuitive? ■ Versatility – e.g. which document formats are supported? ■ Accuracy ■ Efficiency – memory usage, indexing time, index pause options ■ Security ■ Enterprise readiness

57 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Blinkx ■ "blinkx changes the way you interact with all kinds of information by reading the content on your computer screen and automatically linking you to related information - Web sites, the latest news on the Web, even documents and email on your computer." ■ "Without having to actively or explicitly fire off a search or even choose words to search on, IQ uses intelligent analysis of the page a user is reading or writing to find related information, again regardless of its source, whether the local computer, the internet or television."

58 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Blinkx ■ Limited range of file formats supported ■ Indexing is very slow ■ Memory hungry ■ Not intuitive ■ "Intelligent Analysis" loses the plot if you have a wide range of interests

59 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Ask Jeeves ■ sp.ask.com/docs/desktop/ ■ Document support limited ■ Not easy to pause indexing ■ Does not search content of PDF, ZIP or Excel files ■ No web history search ■ Can be unstable – regularly crashed my machine

60 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Google Desktop Search ■ desktop.google.com ■ File formats supported improving ■ Third party plugins provide support for file formats ■ Indexes documents as you view them, even password protected files unless you tell it not to ■ Includes https files unless you tell it not to ■ Sends back anonymous info about your searches unless you tell it not to ■ Problems with persistent cache and indexes – remove function not easy to use

65 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk MSN Desktop ■ www.msn.com ■ Document formats support is limited ■ Spots when you are active on your PC and suspends indexing quite quickly – also a "snooze" button you can use to stop indexing immediately. ■ Good sort options

66 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Copernic Desktop ■ www.copernic.com ■ Supports "the usual suspects" plus Firebird, Mozilla Netscape and Thunderbird – Advanced options allow you to  add file types to index  add text file types to index ■ Searches as you type ■ Dynamic indexing ■ Has a good pause button to stop indexing ■ Uses Alltheweb for the Web search

67 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Copernic Desktop (2) ■ Individual results are displayed in a Quick Preview pane below the search results ■ Results categorised into groups that change depending on search type e.g. email, file, music ■ Search terms are highlighted ■ Enterprise option - Coveo

69 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Yahoo Desktop ■ desktop.yahoo.com ■ Based on X1 Desktop Search ■ Supports over 200 document types + media files ■ Searches inside zip files ■ Good preview ■ No dynamic indexing ■ Enterprise search - X1

71 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Which Desktop Search? Karen's choice 1. Yahoo 2. Copernic 3. MSN 4. Google 5. Ask Jeeves 6. Blinkx UWEBI's choice 1. Copernic 2. Yahoo 4. MSN 5. Google 6. Ask Jeeves 11. Blinkx

72 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Alternatives ■ Windows Search ■ Agent Ransack/File Locator Pro – www.mythicsoft.com – "Unlike other search products FileLocator Pro does not consider any file too small or insignificant to examine." – sophisticated (geekish?) search options – like Windows Search can take a long time to search your PC

74 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Should you install desktop search? ■ Security issues to consider and conflicts with document management policies ■ Safest one so far seems to be Yahoo ■ All limited in file types supported – Yahoo most comprehensive ■ Do not rely on desktop search to find your documents – far better to have well organised, structured documents folders

75 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk The future for desktop search ■ Limited take up at present in the corporate environment – some are specifically prohibited ■ Many tools need to improve drastically – many will not bother ■ Microsoft to integrate desktop search into the operating system ■ Will still need tools for non-Microsoft platforms and non-Microsoft document formats

76 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Storing and organising resources ■ Organise bookmarks/favorites ■ Add frequently used sites to links tool bar – www.rba.co.uk/search/toolbar.htm ■ Copy URLs and descriptions to your own web page or word document ■ Firefox users – Copy URL extension  copy URL, page title and any highlighted text  paste into application of your choice

77 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Storing and organising resources ■ Netsnippets – netsnippets.com – "Capture. Organize. Share" – stores selected text, whole web pages, files along with your comments – organise research and pages into folders or "projects" – share that information with colleagues and friends – help produce a report from your research

78 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Storing and sharing bookmarks online ■ Store, comment on and organise resources via third party web site ■ Can keep your bookmarks private, make them totally public or share them with selected individuals ■ Ideal for sharing project resources amongst a group of widely dispersed co-workers ■ But service could vanish so make backups ■ Examples – Furl.net, Spurl.net, del.icio.us, de.lirio.us, Connotea.org

79 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Contact details Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services email: karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk web: rba.co.uk Tel: +44 118 947 2256 Fax: +44 20 8020 0253

1 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman Top Tips for Expert Searching Inforum 2005, Prague Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services

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1 21 May 2005Karen Blakeman Top Tips for Expert Searching Inforum 2005, Prague Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services

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