ResearchBuzz:
Last Five Entries: |
« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 » May 31, 2005Ask Jeeves Goes Back to Natural Language Searching
When Ask Jeeves hit the scene lo these many years ago, they were known for natural language searching. Ask a question, get an answer, or at least a pointer to a framed page. (This was a long time ago.) Now...
Continue reading "Ask Jeeves Goes Back to Natural Language Searching" » May 29, 2005Utah Death Certificate Index Online
I've written about Utah's graves and cemeteries lookup, but I didn't know they had a death certificate lookup as well. It's available at http://historyresearch.utah.gov/indexes/20842.htm , and covers 1904-1954. This database is a name search only, last name first. Results include...
Some AJAX Information Pointers for You and Me
AJAX AJAX AJAX. Every time I turn around I hear AJAX. This is as bad as 2002 when every time turned around I heard RSS. Except in 2002 I had already been using RSS for two years. AJAX I don't...
Continue reading "Some AJAX Information Pointers for You and Me" » Abusing Amazon Images
A gentleman named Nat Gertler has gone to astounding lengths to figure out the variables in the Amazon image URLs. And since I love a little URL hacking, I wanted to point you toward his explanations and examples at http://aaugh.com/imageabuse.html...
Extremely Cool Collection of 78s At Internet Archive
I don't know why I haven't mentioned this cool collection of 78s at the Internet Archive before. They're available at http://www.archive.org/audio/audiolisting-browseartists.php?collection=78rpm . The page I'm pointing to leads to a list of musicians. You may recognize here Al Jolson, Bing...
Continue reading "Extremely Cool Collection of 78s At Internet Archive" » May 28, 2005Slider Searches, Yahoo Style
I can hear Gary Price cheering from here -- he loves sliders for searches and now Yahoo's given him a new one to play with. Their Mindset search allows you to use a slider to specify whether you're doing research...
Google Map Hacking Goodness
Interested in all those Google Map hacks out there? Want to see how it's done? Visit http://libgmail.sourceforge.net/googlemaps.html , which contains several steps on how you can customize and add information to Google Maps. There's also a pointer to http://mygmaps.com ,...
May 25, 2005JupiterResearch Gets Into Podcasting
JupiterResearch has announced that they're going to start releasing Podcasts. The first two are "Blogs and Brands" and "Paid Search and E-mail: Applying the Lessons of Online Direct Marketing" and they're available at http://podcasts.jupiterresearch.com/ . They're each about 30 minutes...
May 24, 2005Golf Guide Includes US, Europe, South Africa
It's a bit of a slow load at the moment, but there's enough content at Where2Golf, including literally hundreds of reviews of golf courses, that it's a fun rummage for the golfing enthusiast. You can reach it at http://www.where2golf.com ....
Continue reading "Golf Guide Includes US, Europe, South Africa" » Track Harry Potter Parties Online
Counting down the days until the next Harry Potter book is released? All ready to celebrate? Information about over 150 "Potter Parties" around the world -- parties to celebrate the release of the next Harry Potter book -- are cataloged...
Canada Offers Database of Adverse Drug Reactions
Canada has begun offering a database of reported adverse drug reactions, which you can access at http://hc-sc.gc.ca/hpfb-dgpsa/tpd-dpt/cadrmp-pcseim/index_e.html . The site describes the materia tracked in the site this way: "Canadian marketed health products of pharmaceuticals, biologics (including blood products and...
Continue reading "Canada Offers Database of Adverse Drug Reactions" » More Obits, This Time From Cleveland Public Library
The Cleveland Public Library reminded me not to forget their necrology file, for you genealogists doing research on family in Ohio. To access the file go to http://www.cpl.org/ and click on "The Necrology File" toward the bottom of the page...
Continue reading "More Obits, This Time From Cleveland Public Library" » New Search Engine: CliqueSearch
There's a new search engine on the block, and while I appreciate the attitude and some of the aspects of the layout, I'm somewhat distressed by the relevance. The site is called BigClique and it's available at http://www.bigclique.com . (I'd...
May 23, 2005Yahoo Offers Publisher's Guide to RSS
Yahoo has released a guide to RSS for content publishers, which is now available at http://publisher.yahoo.com/rssguide . This guide is less about rolling an RSS feed and more about what to do once you've got an RSS feed, specifically what...
Yahoo Having Y!Q Contest
Yahoo has announced on their blog a new contest for the best use of their Y!Q search product. First prize? Five grand. Woo! To enter you need to do something groovy with Y!Q on your site and you need to...
New South Africa Search Engine
There's a new search engine available for South Africa called Funnel. It's available at http://www.funnel.co.za/funnel.php , and it indexes/searches only South African sites (its tag line reads "Proudly searching ONLY South Africa!") That in itself is an index of over...
Facster Goes Away
Facster, last mentioned in ResearchBuzz in February, has apparently gone away. I got a brief note saying, "As of June 1, 2005, www.Facster.com will no longer be on the internet. Hopefully this will be a temporary situation, but we have...
Obituaries in the Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library has a very nice index to obituaries that have appeared in the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald for two date ranges: between 1971 and 1974, and 1983 through 2002. You can search at http://www.bpl.org/catalogs/obits.htm ....
Continue reading "Obituaries in the Boston Public Library" » May 22, 2005Blogcritics is Satire?
Why does Google News list all of Blogcritics ( http://www.blogcritics.org) as satire? If you do a Google News search for book blogcritics you'll see that the Blogcritics results (actually the results are exclusively blogcritics) are listed as "Blogcritics.org (satire)". And...
May 20, 2005Blogdigger Offering a Local Search
Blog search engine Blogdigger ( http://www.blogdigger.com ) continues to roll out the specialized search services with the launch of Blogdigger Local. You may access the new service at http://local.blogdigger.com . When I first tried this search (yesterday) it didn't work,...
Unclaimed Property in Indiana
The state of Indiana has announced what's being described as a new unclaimed property site, Indiana Unclaimed at http://www.indianaunclaimed.com/ , featuring a cute dog fashioned out of folded money. Search is by first and last name, or property number. A...
Google Gets Into Personalization
Google has released something new into the labs. This time it's the option to personalize one's homepage. Funny, very shortly before that TW sent me a note about the vast starkness of Google's homepage. Was that a wink wink nudge...
May 18, 2005Ongoing Collection of Flickr Tools
Ta to The Shifted Librarian for this pointer to a great (and constantly-growing!) list of Flickr tools. It's accessible at http://pchere.blogspot.com/2005/03/great-flickr-tools-collection.html and contains everything from the practical ( Flickr search plugin ) to the groovy ( Flickr Tag Related Browser...
Ask Jeeves/Bloglines Weather Thingie
I don't know what's more adorable, that the new product manager of Bloglines (now owned by Ask Jeeves) poses in first Ask Jeeves blog post with her dog, or that the first comment on her post is apparently from her...
Your Congressional Reps -- With RSS Feeds!
Hey! Plogress ( http://www.plogress.com ) was designed "to provide current information on what our representatives are doing in Congress!" (from the site -- that the US Congress.) It's updated every morning and comes with RSS feeds (it was built in...
Continue reading "Your Congressional Reps -- With RSS Feeds!" » More Map Mashing Goodness: Chicago Crime
I bet you could, at this point, write an entire book on mashing up resources. It could cover all these new funky cross-resource applications and perhaps even give some ideas for how to most effectively put together the Yahoo and...
Continue reading "More Map Mashing Goodness: Chicago Crime" » May 17, 2005Getcher Cheap Gas Prices on Google Maps
Remember when I was saying that I would love a Gasbuddy / Google Maps mashups that showed cheap gas prices along a trip route? Turns out somebody has already done it -- well, sorta. You can specify a state, city...
Continue reading "Getcher Cheap Gas Prices on Google Maps" » FyberSearch Tutorial Search Engine
FyberSearch has released a specialty search engine to find tutorials and lessons. It's available at http://tutorial.fybersearch.com . Unfortunately it's a bit thin at the moment; I did a search for Perl and got only one result. For JavaScript I got...
May 16, 2005MSN Deskbar Hits Final Release
MSN has announced the final release of what it's now calling the MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search. The announcement is available at http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/05/15/417691.aspx while the product itself is at http://toolbar.msn.com/ . Of course you will need Internet Explorer...
Technorati Tracking Ten Million Blogs
Wow! Congratulations to Technorati; they recently announced that they're tracking 10 million 'blogs. Wow! Ten million! The ten millionth 'blog is a blog from China that seems to be about glassblowing -- nifty --...
May 14, 2005Yahoo News Tag Style
Oh, this is adorable. Love tags? Can't get enough of that folksonomy goodness? Then you're gona love Yahoo Tag Soup, available at http://yahoo.theherrens.com/index.php . Basically it's an overview of Yahoo's news in Tag format -- that is, a big box...
Roundup of Yahoo RSS Feeds
Hat tip to Library Stuff for the pointer to Yahoo's roundup of RSS feeds, available at http://developer.yahoo.net/rss/ . Be sure to pay attention to the RSS Index links over on the right of the page; that's where all the good...
Online RSS Feed Reader from Microsoft?
Now Microsoft is getting RSSy. Whew. Once of their recent blog entries pointed me to Start.com, or more specifically http://www.start.com/1/. The disclaimer at the bottom of the first page states, "This site is not an officially supported site. It is...
May 11, 2005Google Factory Tour
Google is having a factory tour on May 19th, but alas alack I had to tell them I couldn't make it. The event is being described as "Google's first annual information day for press and industry analysts." I'm looking forward...
Guardian Wants You To Ask Aristotle
The UK Guardian has a feature available called Ask Aristotle, which they describe as "a guide to who holds power across Britain." You can get a description and a search form (search form in the blue box on the left)...
Gigablast Sporting a Web Directory?
Did I miss something? It looks like Gigablast is now offering a Web directory (based off DMOZ?) To see it go to Gigablast ( http://www.gigablast.com ) and choose the directory link at the top of the page. But at first...
New Edition of the CIA World Factbook
The CIA announced last month (press release here) that the 2005 CIA World Factbook is now available. The Factbook can be reached at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html . In addition to the usual updates to the actual information, the Factbook has added features....
Get Reference Help from Oregon Librarians
The state of Oregon has an online resource for asking questions of librarians. Actually it has two networks: one for adults and one for kids. L-Net is available at http://www.oregonlibraries.net/ . The resource is available for residents of Oregon only....
Continue reading "Get Reference Help from Oregon Librarians" » Ask Jeeves/Bloglines Weather Feed Thingie
I don't know what's more adorable, that the new product manager of Bloglines (now owned by Ask Jeeves) poses in first Ask Jeeves blog post with her dog, or that the first comment on her post is apparently from her...
Continue reading "Ask Jeeves/Bloglines Weather Feed Thingie" » May 09, 2005Security Issue in Firefox
Techworld is reporting ( http://dailynews.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/120756 ) that there are a couple of critical vulnerabilities in Firefox. Until a patch is made available they're suggesting that users turn off JavaScript. Here's how to turn off JavaScript in Firefox. Go to Tools...
Several Sites Expressing Concern About Google Web Accelerator
Recently I mentioned a new offering from Google called Google Web Accelerator. (Hereafter referred to as GWA.) The idea behind it is that it can speed up your surfing by "pre-fetching" pages before you click on 'em. And when you...
Continue reading "Several Sites Expressing Concern About Google Web Accelerator" » More Mashing Up -- RSS Mix
Mashing up is turning into a meme -- first it was music, then it was Web services.. now it's RSS feeds....
PubMed Going RSS
Yippie Skippie! PubMed is going to start offering RSS feeds, as they indicate at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj05/mj05_rss.html . They're not available yet, but here's the quick skinny -- you'll do a PubMed search as usual. Then on the results page you'll see...
Google News To RSS Scraper
TimYang.com has a Google News scraper available called ScrappyGoo. It scrapes Google News results and generates an RSS feed of the results, supplying 16 results at a time. Since this is a violation of Google's TOS I suspect this resource...
May 05, 2005A Yahoo Traffic / Google Maps Mashup
I love musical mashups and I'm starting to really love Web services mashups. The latest is a groovy item called Google-Yahoo Traffic Maps, available at http://supergreg.hopto.org/google-yahoo/. The site warns that this doesn't work in Safari, but it did fine in...
Podcasting from Disney
Yes, it's a little OT, but I thought it was interesting that podcasting is catching on enough that Disney actually bothered to put out a press release noting that they were making podcasts available on their site. You can get...
Google Offers Web Accelerator
Google has gotten into the Web accelerating business with the launch of Google Web Accelerator, available at http://webaccelerator.google.com/. Unfortunately when I try to look at it, I don't get information. Instead I get redirects because I'm on Mac Firefox and...
|
|
||
