I just played Guess-The-Google. It’s a little game where it shows you a series of pictures and you have to guess what search term got those results. I got a score of 202 - and I couldn’t figure out a few pictures. What’s your score?
Do you remember 5 or 6 years back when tv commercials would tell you the AOL keyword at the end of the ad? Maybe it wasn’t that long ago - I can’t remember. Well I am watching Scrubs (awesome show) and a commercial for Pontiac just came one and at the end they said “Google Pontiac to discover more” - but that’s not all! They actually took their car off of the screen you show you the Google search page where they were typing in the word “pontiac” - Yikes!!
It’s like Google has replaces AOL as the household internet name. I know most of us already knew this - but it’s just weird to see it seeping into the media. I had gotten so used to tuning out the AOL keyword parts of ads - and now it’s something new.
And guys who love to shop 
I just read on Techcrunch about the Likeness search - Like.com - from Riya. The reason I say this is for girls - well - look at the example that Techcrunch uses. You no longer have to scour the web to find that accessory you’ve been dying for - you can now search for it.
When I was looking for my wedding dress, I had seen one on an actor in a TV show that I loved - I spent forever looking for a dress to match the picture I had - that’s going to my “When I was young” story (you know - like your grandparents who says they walked to school barefoot, up hill, in the snow )
Anyway, pretty neat toy - I’m off to play.
I’m wondering what everyone searches for and watches in their ego search feed. My search (blended by FeedBlendr) reads:
Blogdigger search for nicole engard, Technorati Search for: http://web2learning.net, Yahoo! Search: “nicole engard” or “nicole c. engard” or “nicole c engard”, Technorati Search for: “what i learned today” AND (nicole OR engard), Technorati Search for: nicole engard, BlogPulse Search Results for: nicole engard and Bloglines Search: “Bcite:web2learning.net”.
I’m wondering what other people search for and if I’m missing something important
LISZEN is here - and it lets you search over 500 library blogs - give it a whirl!
This found on the Official Google Blog:
A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device that identifies a particular company’s products or services. Google is a trademark identifying Google Inc. and our search technology and services. While we’re pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let’s face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you're actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.
Steven Arnold is a kick He came into the room and was just exuding friendliness. He asked people their names and where they were from.
Steve started by offering $1 to each person who asked a question after his talk - much better than the tiny candies I got at IL for asking a question
I guess you want to know what I learned from Steve - well here we go.
First off, he is no fan of the word findability - he feels that data should be pervasive. He said that people don’t want to search for information - they just want it to be at their finger tips - which I guess is why when people search they only use one or two words in their query. The other problem is that each year search becomes more complex and precision isn’t going anywhere. The challenge to raise precision.
Steve showed us some examples of search engines. He started with Exalead with I wrote about earlier. While Exalead is impressive and offers amazing filtering options - Steve feels it’s too overwhelming for the average searcher - it’s too complicated and too much is going on on the screen. I guess I’m just optimistic in thinking that people would learn to use and when they had they wouldn’t want to use anything without filtering options.
Next, he went over Live.com (Microsoft). He said that if you do a search on Live.com you’ll get you results faster than you will on Google - but the reason is because the content is all cached on the servers - so you’re not searching live up to date info. He mentioned (and I have no experience with this) that if you use the same search technology in SharePoint it will take forever.
Lastly, Google. Apparently Google is working on way to refine their search results. They did some studies and came up with a much simpler interface - one that I don’t like at all - for filtering results. They will be providing 2 pull down menus above the search results list - so if you search for recipe you’ll get a box with cuisine and one with course - this way you can narrow it down to the type of recipe you’re looking for. This contradicts what I heard last week about web design - which is that users don’t like pull downs. So, where is the data in the pull downs coming from? It’s generated based on search patterns found in the Google databases.
The question is, will this help? My answer is “No” - for the reasons I just stated - If I have to scroll through a pull down menu of filtering options - I ain’t gonna do it - and if I’m not going to do it - who’s to say someone who’s unfamiliar with search technologies is going to use it?
Steve did make one last point that I think you’ll all appreciate - he said not to forget about librarians, they go to school to learn how to find info - use them.
Just a quick post on Exalead - who provided us with breakfast this morning. Exalead is Europe based search engine (and enterprise search vendor) that is making it’s way over here to the U.S. They pride themselves on having one focus - search. Unlike the other popular search products out there that have spread themselves over many different areas.
As librarians we know the answer to this question - but we were asked “Why does search matter?” The answers: The explosive growth of data has made it impossible to find anything without search capabilities and this need to find information is critial to doing business - and doing business efficiently. Exalead wants to make search easier (sounds like Intellext’s Watson - are we sensing a theme here?) - not just for the user, but for the content manager and the IT staff.
The demo we saw of Exalead (the enterprise solution) in action seems to match the way a lot of search tools seem to be headed. In addition to the list of search results you have a left column full of filtering options like language, file size, file type, author, and source. It also offers a desktop search functionality that lets you choose to search the web and your PC at the same time - or any other combination of available options.
The thing I liked the most was they way the combined results appears (see my pictures) next to each result it would read “My PC” or “Web” to make it clear where the result was coming from. Pretty nifty little search - and like I said something we’re seeing more and more of - especially in our library catalogs (like the one I mentioned the other day).
I just read about Missing-Auctions on Library Stuff.
Every day thousands of items are listed on auction sites around the world containing spelling mistakes such as ‘comuter’, ‘coomputer’ or ‘c0mputer’ instead of ‘computer’. Because these items don’t appear in the regular search results less people bid on them so they sell for a lot less. … Now you can easily find these mis-spelled auctions and grab yourself a bargain!
Fun! And way handy!
After all of the fighting and foot stamping - it turns out that Google Book Search is actually helping publishers sell books - not hurting them. Techdirt says:
Luckily a few publishers have realized how this can be beneficial, and they’re now speaking up to say that Google’s Book Search has helped to “significantly” increase sales. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, just like with the web, making it easier for someone to find you and your content tends to drive more business.
That’s right, CNet, a technology news site is telling users to visit their local librarian instead of using Google for research. In an article titled Most reliable search tool could be your librarian Elinor Mills tells readers:
While the Web is good for offering quick results from a broad range of sources, which may or may not be trustworthy, librarians can help people get access to more authoritative information and go deeper with their research.
Go out and read it - then find a way to let all of your patrons know about it!!
LibrarianInBlack has a great post on the Ten Reasons Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google.
The most handy reason (in my book):
4. For all types of searches, Ask.com offers one-click links to narrow your search, expand your search, and provides links to results for related terms.
Yahoo! is hoping that you will!
Yahoo will offer coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page this Friday.
Found via Lifehacker.
Dan Giancaterino at Jenkins Law Library (my library) makes a very good point on our blog about the new Google News Archive:
Libraries have been offering free remote access to interesting and useful databases for awhile now. It’s not front page news. But let Google launch a news archive and I hear about it at 6:00 am on KYW 1060. As a librarian, I get an idea of how it must feel to be a mom-and-pop store fending off Wal-Mart.
Go to your public library’s Web site — you’ll be surprised at the resources that are available to you if you have a library card.
Makes sense to me!!
How much fun is that? Ask has added the ability to search for smilies and other chat shorthand.
I just learned that :-* is a smilie kiss - did you know that?
Found via Quick Online Tips.
I read over on blyberg.net that Google Book Search was including Find in Library links so I went to Google Book Search and did a search for my handy “PHP Cookbook” - no library links - then I did a search for “Anna Karenina” - no library links. What am I missing?
Bruno Fonseca at the Official Google Blog says:
Today, we’re launching the Library Catalog Search feature in Google Book Search, designed to help casual readers and bookworms everywhere find gems in the libraries around the world. Queries on Google Book Search will automatically include results from library catalogs when appropriate. Each result includes a “Find Libraries” link to help readers find libraries that hold the book — ideally a library nearby, or if need be, a library far away.
Does that mean my searches weren’t appropriate? What is an appropriate search?
Anyway, I like the idea, I just wish I could actually see it in action.
[update] I clicked on advanced search and saw a library catalogs option - but that may have always been there - is that what they were talking about? [/update]
That’s right, the long awaited site from WorldCat is now live - visit WorldCat.org. I have one major complaint - there is no easy way to get back home. I keep trying to click the logo in the top left - but that doesn’t work - and there is no link to home.
Hopefully that’s fixed soon.
Technorati Tags: WorldCat
Yahoo!’s blog mentions their travel site FareChase.
Yahoo! FareChase (which is now in general availability) is a travel search engine that searches across many airline sites like AA.com, hotel sites like Sheraton.com, and on-line travel agency websites such as Orbitz.com and Cheaptickets.com, to give searchers a comprehensive set of prices and availability for flights and hotel rooms that is available on the web. Now with a simple web search, you can see what's available across multiple sites without a separate visit to each site. And, the new satellite imagery we just launched in maps is also available on Yahoo! FareChase.
My opinion - well let’s put it this way - if I say “This is soo cool” one more time my husband and mother are going to gag me 
This makes me happy! I’m house hunting and I don’t know the area we want to move to very well so I like that I can see my results on a map. The problem is that there aren’t a lot of listings yet.
Search Google for “real estate” and you’ll see a search box in your results to search Google Real Estate.
Thanks B2Day for pointing this out - and for telling me the one drawback:
It appears that all the listings come from Google Base, rather than from other Websites.
Hopefully they’ll pull results from other real estate databases down the road - that would be super handy!
There is a new image search engine - and it has the cutest name - Pixsy is a visual search engine that searches images & videos, it offers up your results in 2 tabs (one for video & one for images) and let’s you limit your results by category. It it also very important to note that they have the cutest little logo/character for their search hehe
There is a lively discussion going on over at Walt at Random - and I have to share my favorite response with you all. John Blyberg posted this “Let's just settle this the old fashion way once and for all. :)” How funny is that? You know I’ve heard the term Google fight before - and I thought I had seen the Google Fight site - but apparently I hadn’t.
My first session Friday was the Search Engine update from Gary Price. You can tell that Gary loves his job just by watching him present. He was out of time and he just kept going and going hehe
Gary put up his presentation so that everyone can benefit from it - so I’ll just summarize the things he said that may not be on there.
He mentioned the coolest plugin available for Firefox, it’s called Search Engine Ordering. It makes it so that you can add almost any search engine to your Firefox search window without an individual script. The plugin says it will work for any search with a GET method, but Gary says he’s gotten it to work with POST methods as well. How can we use this? Well we can add our catalogs & site searches to Firefox on our public PCs and make them the defaults - this way our patrons search us first instead of Google - we can post a tip on our websites or in our newsletters about this nifty tool so that our patrons are also using it at home or at work.
NewspaperARCHIVE.com is a pay service, but Gary pointed out that they also offer a ton of great free resources (links on his presentation).
Since Google bought Writely, people can’t sign up for accounts anymore - so why not use ZohoWriter another web-based word processor that is freely available. It keeps track of revisions, let’s people collaborate and can create output in PDF or Word format.
Exalead is a not so popular search engine that is hosted in Europe. Gary made a point to mention that he liked that they were trying to compete in the search engine market which is mostly American. Exalead is actually a powerful little search engine, it offers features like fuzzy searching, stemming, and proximity searching.
Apparently (and this isn’t on the presentation page) Trader Joe’s has a blog! It’s called Tracking Trader Joe’s. Why does this matter? Because they’re setting themselves apart (even more) from their competitors, they’re meeting their customers where they are - which is what we have to do.
Gary also said something that stuck with me (and this isn’t an exact quote) - “We might not use it, but we should know what’s out there” - so go through his presentation and learn what’s out there so that when a patron asks you a question you can say - “Oh, I’ve heard of that - let me see what I can find for you” instead of “Huh??”
Okay, yesterday I asked about tags. Today I want to ask about pings and the blog finder.
I have added What I Learned Today… to the Technorati site. I have set up WordPress to automatically ping Technorati when I post a new post - I also visit pingoat on occasion to send pings to a bunch of sites (including Technorati), but if you search for my blog on Technorati you don’t find it. And if you add my site to your favorites you see that the last time Technorati got information from my blog was over 60 days ago.
What am I doing wrong?
I just found this nifty search engine, Omgili is a search engine that searches forum threads. This will come in handy next time I’m looking for help writing a program.
