Next to Nothing
To Google or not to Google
Posted September 21st, 2007 at 08:47 PM by z1p
I have been a bit of a fan of Google for a while. I don't mean just the search engine, rather what the company puts out in general. Unlike so many companies out there they seem to think about how people use their products. Now I don't think all their stuff hits the mark and some definitely fall flat. But, even those that don't take off can be fun and of some interest.
There was a recent release from Google of a new feature related to their book search. A while ago I looked at the book search and it was interesting, but I didn't have a big use for it.
Now, Google is letting you create your own list of books. With it you can review, label and rate your books. Once that is done you or someone else can search the library. For someone like me that seems to keep increasing their pile of books, the 'My Library' feature might be useful. I just need to find a way to get all my books entered. I wonder if I can get my children to type the information in or would that violate child labor laws.
Well, I hope that Google keeps coming out with more toys for me to play with. Maybe next they will come out with a 'Google Beer' and we can use to track lufbra's stash.
There was a recent release from Google of a new feature related to their book search. A while ago I looked at the book search and it was interesting, but I didn't have a big use for it.
Now, Google is letting you create your own list of books. With it you can review, label and rate your books. Once that is done you or someone else can search the library. For someone like me that seems to keep increasing their pile of books, the 'My Library' feature might be useful. I just need to find a way to get all my books entered. I wonder if I can get my children to type the information in or would that violate child labor laws.
Well, I hope that Google keeps coming out with more toys for me to play with. Maybe next they will come out with a 'Google Beer' and we can use to track lufbra's stash.
Total Comments 10
Comments
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Fair warning - this is from an anti-Google person:
Pick a topic, any topic -
Try finding it on Google.
Search the same topic on Yahoo - basically the same results, just shuffled.
Try using Kartoo.com - more fun, if not more useful.
Try using Ask.com - easier to enter a search that will get results.
NOW try using a search engine where the sites have been personally reviewed, by librarians no less - my favorite is lii.org, but there are others. Still thousands of sites, but thousands of the best sites.
As for Google's bells and whistles, I'll give them that. They're at least better than most of their compadres.
Still, give lii.org a try for your average search. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the difference.
Spoken like a true librarian,
CBPosted October 5th, 2007 at 03:54 AM by mamabird5o 
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lii.org
CB,
I tried to give lii.org a try, but it never returned with any results. I'd have to say that is one of the biggest issue with small 'mom & pop' search engines, they don't have a reliable infrastructure. I don't mean to pick on lii, but any result is better than no results.
Sticking with the Google band wagon, at least for now, lii could offer the same type of search functionality using Google's custom search. You might even say "what would be better than Google's vast set of data, their infrastructure, and group of librarians editing the source of the results".
On a side note, your comment on ask.com caught my attention. To be honest I haven't looked at Ask since the "Ask Jeeve's" days. Back then I was far from impressed, but I have to admit that the results I got from ask.com were basically the same as I got from Google.
I don't see myself changing to it, as it did yield more or less the same information as Google and its 'bells and whistles" didn't hit home with me. The sponsored results on Ask were a bit to prominent for me and reminded of what Google used to do. I'm not big on the popup information that Ask provides. I can see how some can like it, but it doesn't work for me, maybe I'm just reacting from the bad taste left by all the popup ads that plague the internet.
-z1pPosted October 9th, 2007 at 04:59 PM by z1p
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I've never had a problem with lii.org; just a note that there's no www. It's not exactly "mom & pop" - it's put up by the California State Library. I would encourage you to give it another try, since in years of use, I have never experienced the problem that you did.
I agree that Ask is still very commercial, but it has improved tremendously since it was Ask Jeeves, probably due to the fact that it merged with Teoma, a more scholastically oriented search engine.
Try lii.org again, and see if you don't like the results.
CBPosted October 9th, 2007 at 05:28 PM by mamabird5o
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lii.org revisited
I went back to give lii another go and this time it did respond when I ran a search, but I still didn't have too much luck with getting results.
I tried "STL vector" and "Ursula K. LeGuin" and got 0 results, while "Shrodinger's cat" return 1 item. I know these are 'techie' queries, but that is the type I usually run. I played with a little more and did get a few results for "American Revolution" and "quantum physics", but getting 38 and 12 results for those type of queries seem awfully low and limiting.
I really do believe that a custom google search engine would yield better results, be cheaper to implement and maintain, and still provide the control and editing control present lii.org.
Staying on the google track. If you haven't already take a look at Google Scholar including its advanced options where it allows you to tell it to include links from up to 3 library websites in the results. (See here for more infomation.)Posted October 9th, 2007 at 11:56 PM by z1p
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Ask.com failed miserably. Same results from Google, just a little re-arranged.
lii.org failed even more miserably. I'm not disliking the results simply because there are no results to dislike.
kartoo is pretty interesting, just that it doesn't give me anything good.
Just some side comments..Posted November 10th, 2007 at 11:01 PM by wox
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OK, I need to explain the nature of lii.org - it is an Internet index, not a search engine. To search it, you first need to start with a broad topic, say Science, then from a long list of subtopics pick Quantum Physics, and this will take you to a list of applicable sites. The best one that I found was the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which returned hits for both STL Vectors and Schrodingers cat. I didn't try the other sites on the list; hopefully I would have met with at least partial success.
I searched for Ursula K. Leguin under Literature, then under "More Subtopics" under Science Fiction. The second site on the list was "Science Fiction and Fanatasy Bibliography." A search for authors brought up a long list, one of which was Ursula K. Leguin. That link took me directly to her website.
I know this is more time consuming that just searching Google, but the quality of the sites reached is often far superior to those listed on Google. Some of what you will find on these indexes are sources that are part of the "invisible Internet" that will never show up on Google.
CBPosted November 11th, 2007 at 06:07 PM by mamabird5o
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Isn't a google one of those internets you find in a computer?
If I want to know anything, I just ring the ex-wife. She reckons she knows everything.Posted November 20th, 2007 at 11:42 PM by Snurfen
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No comment.
cbPosted November 23rd, 2007 at 05:15 AM by mamabird5o
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To me Google is one of the best if not the best. Simply because they cater to mass interest. They know how to get following. Though their beta versions never seem to take the next step. Back at (Spam removed), where I work we have a saying that, "if google can't, no onecan"
Posted May 24th, 2009 at 01:20 PM by nzhind
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GOOGLE ROCKS!!!
Posted July 11th, 2009 at 02:59 PM by nzhind
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