Alas poor .....

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Alas poor .....
Karen Blakeman, RBA Information
Services karen.blakeman_at_rba.co.uk www.rba.co.uk
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Do you need to go online?

• What do you have locally?
• Electronic
• Books, directories, documents
• Local knowledge, expertise
• Phone a colleague, expert
• If you do need to go online why use Google?

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What is right with Google?

• 8 billion pages
• News coverage
• Usenet
• Advanced Search features
• Numeric range search
• for synonym search
• Google Answers
• Google Scholar

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What is wrong with Google?

• Can't find information
• Limited Boolean search
• 10 search terms only
• Only indexes the first 100K of a page
• Synonym search not reliable

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What is wrong with Google?

• Can't find information
• Limited Boolean search
• 10 search terms only
• Only indexes the first 100K of a page
• Synonym search not reliable
• No alternative sort options for web pages
• User has to assess and evaluate pages

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The charge
Margaret Thatcher invented Mr Whippy ice cream
guilty or not guilty?
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Irrelevant article on Spitting Image puppets
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Free biography from Gale
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What is wrong with Google?

• Can't find information
• Limited Boolean search
• 10 search terms only
• Only indexes the first 100K of a page
• Synonym search not reliable
• No alternative sort options for web pages
• User has to assess and evaluate pages
• Invisible web

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Invisible web

• Badly designed sites
• Databases
• Password protected areas
• Indexing level
• Free home pages
• Too many levels down
• Vanished pages

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN

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Yahoo vs. Google

• Google
• 8 billion pages
• Max. 10 search terms
• Boolean OR only
• Numeric range search
• Link command limited
• Indexes first 100K

• Yahoo
• ? pages
• No limit on search terms
• OR, AND, NOT
• No numeric range search
• Link and linkdomain commands
• Indexes first 500 K

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN
• Killerinfo, Vivisimo, Kartoo

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN
• Killerinfo, Vivisimo, Kartoo
• Subject specific search tools
• Scirus, Find.com, Biology Browser

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN
• Killerinfo, Vivisimo, Kartoo
• Subject specific search tools
• Scirus, Find.com, Biology Browser
• Search agents
• Copernic, deskbars (Blinkx etc.)

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN
• Killerinfo, Vivisimo, Kartoo
• Subject specific search tools
• Scirus, Find.com, Biology Browser
• Search agents
• Copernic, deskbars (Blinkx etc.)
• Evaluated listings

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Finding key starting points listings

• Often include invisible web resources
• Colleagues, browsing, workshops, news
• Link command
• Google
• linkwww.zefix.admin.ch (99 pages)
• Yahoo
• linkhttp//www.zefix.admin.ch/ (681)
• linkdomainwww.zefix.admin.ch/ (858)

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN
• Killerinfo, Vivisimo, Kartoo
• Subject specific search tools
• Scirus, Find.com, Biology Browser
• Search agents
• Copernic, deskbars (Blinkx etc.)
• Evaluated listings
• Databases

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Searching databases

• Need to understand type of content
• Need to understand coverage
• structure of documents
• Terminology, indexing classification
• Specialist areas
• haven't a clue what I'm doing!
• ask an expert

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Alternatives to Google

• Yahoo, Teoma, Hotbot, MSN
• Killerinfo, Vivisimo, Kartoo
• Subject specific search tools
• Scirus, Find.com, Biology Browser
• Search agents
• Copernic, deskbars (Blinkx etc.)
• Evaluated listings
• Databases
• People!

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People

• Usenet newsgroups
• Discussion lists
• BUSLIB-L, LIS-LINK etc.
• Web based discussions
• e.g. Freepint bar
• Google Answers

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People

• Usenet newsgroups
• Discussion lists
• BUSLIB-L, LIS-LINK etc.
• Web based discussions
• e.g. Freepint bar
• Google Answers
• You!!

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The end of Google?

• January 2004 Yahoo launched new search engine to
  compete with Google
• Summer 2004 Google looking rather tired but
  now
• Database of 8 billion pages
• Launched Google Books
• Launched Google Scholar
• Additional search features
• Google still looking healthy but strong
  competition from specialist tools (e.g.
  Find.com), Yahoo, MSN etc.

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Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services Tel 0118
947 2256 karen.blakeman_at_rba.co.uk www.rba.co.uk