Alternative Customized Search Engines Mary Ellen Bates Information

Alternative & Customized Search Engines Mary Ellen Bates Information Services mbates@Bates. Info. com

What we'll cover: • Beyond the Big 3. 5 • Specialized search tools • DIY search engines 2

Beyond the Big 3. 5 3

Exalead • Great advanced search tools • Excellent tool for complex searching • Customizable front page; add "shortcuts" to other finding tools • www. exalead. com 4

Quintura • Data viz with clustering • Useful for disambiguation, determining topics within a concept • Uses Yahoo search engine • www. quintura. com 5

Kosmix • Clusters by type and topic! • Includes "overview" page – great summary • Still very beta • www. kosmix. com 6

Clusty • Meta-search engine – "Details" tab shows what was searched • Builds clusters on the fly • Few advanced features • Can insert topic clouds on your site – cloud. clusty. com • clusty. com 7

Specialized Search Tools 8

Cross. Engine • • • Easy comparison of search results NOT a meta-search engine Well-organized finding tool Useful if you don't know where to start www. crossengine. com 9

SRCHR • Similar to Cross. Engine, but creates RSS feeds for search results • Mouseover for thumbnails • Can create your own page of search tools! • www. srchr. com 10

Scandoo • Searches Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask • Checks for malware, phishing, offensive content, in real time • Powered by corporate web security company • www. scandoo. com 11

DIY Search Engines 12

What's a custom search engine? • You filter the search, limit to certain domains or sites, or tweak the relevance ranking • Put the library's imprimatur on search results • Out-google Google – www. Bates. Info. com/test. html 13

Yahoo Search Builder • Can limit search by domain, append key terms or exclude sites or terms • Shows tag cloud of search terms • Very customizable – Include your library's logo • builder. search. yahoo. com 14

Google Co-op • Can limit by domain • Can specify domains to be higher ranked • Requires at least one keyword. Use a noise word (e. g. and) • www. google. com/coop/cse/ 15

Swicki • Collaborative approach to filtering • You supply initial key words • It learns from click-throughs on SRPs – Modifies relevance ranking • swicki. eurekster. com 16

Rollyo • Max of 25 web sites • Can see others' "searchrolls" – E. g. , KM-related topics at snurl. com/16 x 8 o • www. rollyo. com 17

Gigablast CTS • Fairly rudimentary • Specify domains to search • www. gigablast. com/cts. html ### 18

Mary Ellen offers two free email bulletins: “Search Tip of the Month” and "Info-Entrepreneur Tip of the Month" If you would like to subscribe to either, just ask (mbates@Bates. Info. com) Also, check out her blog at Librarian. Of. Fortune. com 19

Mary Ellen Bates Information Services www. Bates. Info. com mbates@Bates. Info. com 303. 772. 7095 20