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There are searches...and then there are SEARCHES! I just finished running an exciting (well, to me, at least - and I hope to everyone else!) workshop on specialized search engines. While Google and other general-purpose search tools are great for some searches, specialized tools can help focus your search, or display your results in new and useful ways. So, in this month's issue of ResearchNOTES, I want to share a few of these specialized search engines... KartOO VISU is a still-in-beta search engine that clusters your results into subtopics and displays them as a map. The subtopics help you narrow your search or understand what's involved with a new or complex topic. The map is a nice touch for those of us who are visual learners. Try it out at tinyurl.com/3bxdwx. Silobreaker searches 10,000 news, blog, research, and multimedia sources. In addition to text results, you'll find charts, maps, and other features that illustrate where and when your search topic has been a hot topic - as well as subtopics, and how they are connected. Try it out at www.silobreaker.com. To search more than one search engine at a time, try Zuula. You can select the search engines you want; tabs separate the results. Zuula allows you to change the order of the tabs, and - this is my favorite part - Zuula doesn't limit the number of results from each search engine. Try Zuula at www.zuula.com. When you get a chance to give these a test run, be sure to let me know what you think. - Marcy Check out my regular columns and articles from other contributing authors in the Find area of FUMSI, a new publication for people who find, use, manage, and share information, at http://www.fumsi.com/find/. Marcy Phelps Phelps Research +1 303.239.0657; +1 800.600.8041 |
ResearchNOTES