More, updated New Stuff (assembled 8/08)

(1) Mind or concept mapping

LivePlasma -- mashing together recommendations (from Amazon) for bands, artists, movies. Try: Miles Davis. Capitalizes on people-driven selections and recommendations.

Idea is similar to that used in Kart00, which has been around a while.

(2) New search engine stuff

Mahalo A new people-powered search engine hoping to replace Google's popularity-base page ranking system. "Our search results only include great links." Mahalo is Hawaiian for Thank you. Stay tuned!!

  • AllTheWebLiveSearch -- watch retrieval progress as you type.
  • Alternative Search Engines -- there might be a few here that are new to you!
  • Ask.com -- results are sorted in interesting and useful ways.
  • Clusty.com -- concept clusters on the left
  • Collarity -- builds groups of interest based on user behavior.
  • Exalead -- results are presented in groups by type (similar to Ask.com). Advanced search allows adjacency and approximate spelling searches, and Boolean expressions.
  • Gigablast -- presents additional highly relevant expressions and words to narrow your search
  • GlobalSpec -- engineering search engine
  • Google, now, lets you create a customized search engine. Search only the good stuff!! ; -)
  • Jux2.com -- meta search engine; compare results from Google, Yahoo! and MSN in one search.
  • Kosmix -- example of a vertical search engine."We're passionate about building a world class search engine that lets people search less, and discover more." In beta. Categories developed so far: health, finance, U.S. politics, travel.
  • Live -- from MSN. Another big search engine. Features links to images, video, news, etc. at the top of the results list.
  • Rollyo -- offers vertical searching; you can "roll your own search engine." Cf. Google's customized search engine.
  • SearchMash from Google. Along with Web search results, provides access to images, blogs, video and wikipedia -- over on the right.
  • Yahoo!Mindset -- use this to balance commercial vs. research sites (are you shopping or researching?)
  • Yahoo!Subscriptions -- search some databases as a non-subscriber, including Factiva, LexisNexis, Consumer Reports. What a deal!

And Google keeps expanding. Now there's

(3) Social networking, including wikis

Just network!!

Major social networking services -- Facebook || MySpace || Hi5 || Friendster

Others -- Ning and Library 2.0 on Ning || Orkut.com || Tribe.net || Twitter.com || EduSpaces || BlackPlanet -- Barak's a member! || Eons || SecondPrime || Ryze and Spoke for business || NatureNetwork connects scientists || 2Collab makes it easy to collaborate || Pronetos for schollars

And then there's SecondLife -- wow! The CDC is investing in real estate at SecondLife. No, really.

The following build or use social networking to create a new experience.

  • Academici -- "where people who know meet people who know"
  • BiblioPage.com -- tagging for books
  • Classroom 2.0 -- social networking for those interested in Web 2.0 and emerging educational technologies
  • Connotea -- from Nature magazine. Hob nob with the science crowd.
  • delicious.com. see what other people are tagging (click on more, to the right of "tags to watch"). I usually explore tools. I have a delicious account. (To see my account, you add /topsyn to the delicious URL.) I use it constantly (it's quite messy at the moment). Better than bookmarks? I think so -- you can get to your delicious account anywhere you have access to the Web. By contrast, your bookmarks are on your computer, and your computer may be somewhere where you're not, at the moment.
  • Digg -- "user powered content." You can even watch in real time as people digg info! Recent article says it gets 1,000,000 daily uses.
  • Diigo -- is "social annotation." "Diigo is a research tool that rocks!"
  • Eurekster -- another social networking site. Groups are called zwickis. The zwickis learn what your interests are by what you and your swicki members think are most relevant. "Vertical community Web search systems for everyone." Prefound uses results from Eurekster; calls itself "community powered."
  • Flickr -- social sharing and tagging of photographs. Read about Ten Ways to use Flickr in your Libraries
  • Furl -- similar to delicious.
  • Last.fm -- "social music revolution." Use social networking to develop your playlist. Last.fm automatically creates your personal musical profile based on what you select, and suggests music you might like based on those selections and what others select.
  • LibraryThing -- catalog your books and see who reads similar books. Join group discussions. Blog about books!
  • LycosCinema -- "choose a movie, invite friends, watch and chat"
  • Netscape -- even Netscape has turned into a social networking tool; for news.
  • Picanswers "A picture is worth a thousand....answers" People post pictures of what they can't identify and others tell them what it is.
  • Popurls -- "popular URLs to the latest Web buzz." See what people are using most at various social networking sites, video and film included.
  • Shadows -- "Discover -- Collect -- Share"
  • Squidoo -- use "lenses" that others have created. Or, begin your own lens.
  • Zimbio -- "a community site to help you research and learn about any topic."

    Wikis --Using wiki software, wikis are collaboratively written compilations of information.

    • Conservapedia Finding Wikipedia to be "too liberal," this wiki is written from conservative viewpoints.
    • Musipedia -- "the open music encyclopedia." Type on a keyboard and play the tune back! Find music based on notes or rhythm!
    • Qwika -- if you think wikipedias are worth a look, this indexes over one thousand of them in different languages and translates those found to your language, if need be. Could the world get any smaller?
    • Wikia.com Wikis (communities) come together.
    • Wikipedia (English version; versions in other languages) defines itself as "a Web-based, free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers and sponsored by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation."

  • Knol   And now, a challenge to Wikipedia. Knol is a project planned by Google for user-generated articles. Knol stands for "a unit of knowledge." BBC says that Knol is seen as Google's attempt to compete with Wikipedia. Here's Google's announcement from Dec. 2007. Watch for Knols!

(4) Mashups A mashup is a website or web application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

  • ChicagoCrime -- Maps crime incidence data to where it's happening
  • CruzOnBy.com -- "Your # 1 choice for tourist information for the Santa Cruz mountains." On a map, at tourist spots in the county, click to get pictures or even videos!
  • Frapper --Your friends mapped! other people's friends mapped!
  • Fundrace 2008 -- Find out who donates $$ to which candidate!
  • Geourl.org -- A location-to-URL reverse directory. Where URLs are served to the Internet is mapped to a world map. Not entirely accurate since people can add their own sites. [Recently, this has not been available; I'm hoping it returns. It's fascinating stuff. tns 3/09]
  • Google Lit Trips
  • HousingMaps -- Maps with information about houses, rentals, sublets. Santa Cruz is in SF -- South Bay.
  • Iowa Bridges database where locations are mapped to Google Earth
  • LivePlasma (which is no. 1 on this page) is a mashup -- type music or movie names and see what you get!!
  • MAPLight.org -- Maps the connections between money and politics (MAP stands for money and politics)
  • Maps.smugmug.com -- People overlay photos onto maps
  • MetaCarta -- geosearch news
  • Musipedia -- The Open Music Encyclopedia -- identify music by what it sounds like! by rhythm! click on a keyboard then play the tune!
  • Panoramio.com -- People overlay photos onto maps
  • SantaCruzRealEstate
  • Tunisian Prison map -- Really!
  • Wild Sanctuary -- Excellent sound clips of nature from around the world mapped to Google maps, or mapped to Free Earth. Incredible!
  • Wildlife Diseases Information Node --Wildlife diseases on a map! Updated daily.
  • WorldFlicks.org Wow! People place pictures on this world map. Go anywhere!
  • Zillow -- combines maps with database information, in this case, estimated sale value of real estate.

Make your own maps with Google Maps

(5) Comparisons

  • Alexa.com -- for comparison rankings. Compare libwww.cabrillo.edu to dvc.edu/library -- or whatever.
  • Blogpulse Trend Search -- compare "John McCain" to "Hillary Clinton," or some other favorite twosome (or threesome!)
  • Compete.com -- in beta. To get a "site snapshot," enter a domain name. Try libwww.cabrillo.edu. Not quite sure what exactly is used to create the snapshot. But, interesting!
  • FareCompare -- compare flight costs
  • FlashEarth -- compare satellite and map views via one Web interface
  • GoogleTrends -- more information provided. You compare the use of two or more terms (up to 5) by separating with commas. For example, dell, gateway.
  • Google vs. Yahoo -- Delete synerge and put in your own term to compare the rankings
  • Keyword Selection -- for bidding on search terms. From Yahoo for search marketing.

    Hospital costs -- you can use Oregon.gov to compare hospital costs in that state. I suspect that more of this kind of thing will be coming.

(6) Predictions

  • Farecast -- when should you buy that ticket? And now there's SeatGuru -- specific seat information for many many airlines
  • Kayak -- "Life's a trip" Ditto, plus comparison shopping
  • Terrapass.com calculates your carbon footprint if you fly

(7) Answers

  • AnswerBag -- Remember the old "expert" sites that have now faded away? Here's a new stab at that; but, it seems, you don't even have to be an "expert!"
  • Answers.com -- The Internet's only encyclodictionalmanacapedia
  • Yahoo!Answers -- Have a Yahoo! account? Ask away!

(8) Audio and Video (no guarantees that you won't run across x-rated content)

We all know about YouTube and Google Video. Users can rate videos by assigning stars. But there are lots more audio and video resources out there!

The Image and Multimedia Databases including Videos and TV section of the Deep Web Databases page might also be of interest.

Seeing outselves: Google Earth is software -- it's on all the computers in the electronic classroom (Room 1051). But, now, Microsoft is answering back with Virtual Earth. This is photography! What a resource!

Gaming -- Spore is to be released soon. Robin Williams plays Spore.

(9) News footage -- with emphasis on outside U.S.

  • MediaScrape -- "breaking news videos"
  • LinkTV -- news from across the globe; includes link to MOSAIC, news reporting from the Middle East
  • Streamick.com -- includes access to BBC. Double click to watch full screen.

(10) Office suites and office helpers

  • E-Office Hours Make yourself available 24/7
  • Google Docs and Spreadsheets -- if you have a Google account (e.g., for gMail), this is simple and fast access to word processing capabilities on the Web. It's free, but you do need to have an account.
  • K7.net Unified Messaging. Receive faxes and voice messages without being at the office!
  • Thumbstacks.com Make presentations right in your Web browser
  • Writeboard -- designed for collaborating online.
  • Zoho.com -- offers online word processor, online spreadsheet, online presentation maker (like PowerPoint), etc. Have to register, but it's free.


(11) Web 2.0 & Web 3.0

Web2.0 Awards -- the list || GO2WEB@.0

Emblematic of Web 1.0 Emblematic of Web 2.0
publishing participation
subject directories tags
personal Web pages blogs
the read only Web (for non-Web site owners) the read-write Web (tagging, commenting)
proprietary open standards

There aren't a lot of people with definite ideas about what Web 3.0 will look like, but there is speculation that it will combine powerful datamining with tailored services using APIs (application program interfaces). People use these kinds of phrases to talk about it: automated reasoning; cognitive architecture; the semantic Web.

For example, a possible Web 3.0 application might be a "travel butler" (TB) to which you fed info about your travel plans. Just prior to your leaving on a trip, your TB would check the flight schedule, send you a message if something had changed, check road conditions to the airport prior to your leaving the house. You get the idea.

Talis, in the UK, is a developer of Web 2.0 solutions for libraries. Talis presented at the 2006 Internet Librarian conference in Monterey (I didn't attend) -- read about their presentation.

Deep Web

I continue to be interested in Deep Web resources. Let me know what you discover that could be added to the list.

The URL for this page is http://libwww.cabrillo.edu/about/AdvIntSearching/NewStuff.html

T.N. Smalley last rev. 4/09