Celia's

Why Google Search Plus is a disaster for search...  Google explains it like this: "We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships." So the idea here is clear - Google is going to become a search engine that is about social, not about the web. This is an absolute change in the way that Google works; it is going to pay less attention to web pages and web sites, and more attention to the people that you know and follow. This is something that I've been talking about for some time now, so it's unsurprising to see Google doing it, but what is surprising, although it shouldn't be, is the inept way that they have done it... see Phil Bradley's weblog for full post

 

The new Search Plus Your World feature will cause Google a lot of pain

This week Google started rolling outGoogle Search Plus Your World, which — besides being the worst case of bad branding in a long time — will cause Google a lot of problems. Searchers will go elsewhere and governments will complain. Here is why.

Google has presented personalized search results for a long time, using data from your Google GMail account (if you have one) and your web history. Google has been using these data to build you a kind of personality or interest profile, making it easier for them to deliver search results that are of interest to you personally...

Google has also tried to enrich search results with real time data frome the social web. For at time it did, for instance, include twitter messages (tweets), which devlivered information about what is happening right now. This was definitely a good idea.

+World is an attempt to combine the two and add personalized social data to the search engine results. That should be a recipe for success. Instead we believe Google is facing a PR disaster. You see, the implementation of +World is bad, very bad... see Pandia Search and Social for full post

 

One amazingly useful feature over at Google has been the plus operator.

You could add a + in front of a search term in order to make sure that this word was present on all the pages listed in search results...

Now the birth of Google+ has made a mess of it all. Not only has Google been able to produce sensible results for the query Google+, now it seems the + sign used when referring to people over at Google+ has forced Google to abandon the + operator.

Not all is lost, though. To achieve the same effect, but the word in double quotation marks. That is right, “…” works in the same way as + used to:

“Google” “search engine marketing”

Exactly how you are going to include search engine marketing in the query, without making it an obligatory feature of the pages included in search results is unclear. Adding all the double quotation marks in stead of a single + is also cumbersome.

Google, please bring the + operator back! You are only causing confusion by doing this!

From Pandia

[Celia: Yes, indeed! I am very annoyed at losing the + operator.Thanks, Pandia, for a way around the change.]

 

Debbie Hemley at the Social Media Examiner discusses 20 Ways to Improve Your Google+ Knowledge. The new social network by the search engine giant is fast becoming a major player in the social networking community. This quick primer will get you up and running in no time! Here are just 5 of her helpful recommendations:

• #1: First things first: Get started with Google+
• #2: Engage and learn
• #3: Watch and learn
• #4: Use Google+ Help
• #5: Spark interest on Google+

From iLibrarian blog

If you want an invitation to join Google+

there are lots and lots and lots of people who have free invites. Just search Twitter for #plusinvites, and you’ll find lots of URLs to pick from. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/startplus/

Getting Started With Google Plus http://www.chrisbrogan.com/startgoogleplus/

You may type blindingly fast, but Google wants to make it even easier for your to search using other means—including your voice and images. Search by voice and images may sound like unnecessary features, but once you give them a try, you may be surprised at how well they work. Here's how to enable and start using Google's keyboard-free search features.

Google Voice Search

 Link to video

 

... Google's finally introduced it in Chrome, so you can search the web without every typing a keystroke. Voice Search doesn't require any setup; you just need to head to Google.com and click on the microphone in the search bar to start searching. And, of course, you'll need a microphone plugged into your computer. Note that this is rolling out gradually, so if you don't see the mic icon just yet, come back in a few days and see if it's there. It is also a Chrome-only feature for now.

While it isn't an official offering from Google, the previously mentioned Voice Search Chrome extension can extend this feature to other parts of your browsing, so you can search with your voice on Wikipedia, YouTube, DuckDuckGo, and more. Plus, if you don't have the official offering yet, you can install this to get voice capabilities right now.

 While it isn't an official offering from Google, the previously mentioned Voice Search Chrome extension can extend this feature to other parts of your browsing, so you can search with your voice on Wikipedia, YouTube, DuckDuckGo, and more. Plus, if you don't have the official offering yet, you can install this to get voice capabilities right now.

Google Image Search

Link to video

Google Image Search now lets you search not just for images, but with images. So, if you had a photo and you didn't know where it was taken, or a logo and you didn't know what it was, you could plug a picture into Google Image Search and it will give you back any information it can glean from that picture. It's almost like previously mentioned TinEye, but instead of returning more versions of the same picture, it actually returns information about that picture, which is really cool.

To try it out, just head to images.google.com. Once there, drag and drop an image directly onto the search bar. If you prefer not to drag and drop, you can alternately click on the camera icon and then paste in an image URL or upload an image of your own. Once again, this feature is rolling out gradually, so if you don't have it yet, check back soon. Image Search works in all browsers, but the drag-and-drop feature is Chrome and Firefox only.

If you want even faster image searching for images already on the web, you can install the Image Search extension for both Chrome and Firefox. With the extension installed, you can right-click on any image and pick "Search Google with this image" to plug it into Google. Note that these extensions don't start working until tonight at 6pm PST.

 

From Lifehacker blog

 

 

 

http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/02/06/the-massive-size-of-google-infographic.html

 

This infographic was designed by Computer School. We would love to know what you are thinking while viewing this infographic. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter. Click here for the larger view.

Can't do it, can we? Well, now we can. This is a function that's been around for... (this pause in important, just to drag home the enormity of what I'm about to say) five or six YEARS according to one blog. It's an undocumented feature apparently. We've had a work around (that we clearly haven't actually needed) by using the asterisk symbol such as three * mice for a single word between two others, or three ** mice for up to two words between two others and so on. However, we can use the proximity search operator AROUND(x) to work more effectively. You have to put around in capitals to ensure that Google knows you want to do a proximity search, then add in the brackets with a number in there. Why Google has decided to use 'around' as a proximity term is a bit odd - most sensible resources would use something like NEAR instead, but that's Google for you.

Click  on Link to see how it works: http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2011/01/proximity-search-in-google.html

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE  AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. is making the leap from digital librarian to merchant in a challenge to Amazon.com Inc. and its Kindle electronic reader.

The long-awaited Internet book store, which opened Monday in the U.S., draws upon a portion of the 15 million printed books that Google has scanned into its computers during the past six years.

About 4,000 publishers, including CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster Inc., Random House Inc. and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group, are also allowing Google to carry many of their recently released books in the new store.

Those publishing deals will ensure that most of the current best sellers are among the 3 million e-books initially available in Google's store, said Amanda Edmonds, who oversaw the company's partnerships. Millions more out-of-print titles will appear in Google's store, called eBooks, if the company can gain federal court approval of a proposed class-action settlement with U.S. publishers and authors... [More]

 

Google ebook store: http://books.google.com/ebooks

About Google ebooks store

Please note:

Fagan's Google Ultimate Interface | Fagan Finder

OK, quick pop quiz. How many different types of search  can you do at Google? Web, Images, News etc. How does 10 sound? 30? 50? 90? How about around 140 instead? Michael Fagan, who I rate very highly has produced the Google Ultimate Interface which is worth taking a look at. He's broken the options down into things like Web, Discussion, Personal, Books, Scholar, Place and so on.

He's also produced a 'Search by Date' resource page which allows you to do an easy 'From/To' search on the general web (Using Google, Ask and Exalead), News, blogs, realtime, published items, and miscellaneous.

He's on a roll, as he's also produced a Product Search Engines page. Price comparison search, marketplaces, handmade, product reviews, manuals, ethical shopping and so on.

I really like what Michael does, and I've referenced him a few times in the past, and mention him on my courses. If you've not checked out his stuff, do go and have a look. It's clear, easy to see and follow. Top notch stuff!

From Phil Bradley's weblog

Preprint Article: Google Scholar Users & User Behaviors: An Exploratory Study by Gail Herrera Assistant Dean, Technical Services & Automation, Associate Professor University of Mississippi Libraries

Anticipated Print Publication Date: March 2011

From the Abstract

The University of Mississippi Library created a profile to provide linking from Google Scholar to library resources in 2005. Although Google Scholar does not provide usage statistics for institutions, use of Google Scholar is clearly evident in looking at library link resolver logs. The purpose of this project is to examine users of Google Scholar using existing data from interlibrary loan transactions and library website click-through logs and analytics. Questions about user status and discipline as well as behaviors related to use of other library resources, are explored.

Access the Full Text (PDF; 29 pages)

Source: College and Research Libraries via Resourceshelf

Something new from the Google Scholar today. It’s a feature that has been requested by many users. You can now search within sets cited articles, legal opinions, and law journals. The Google Scholar Blog has more but let’s run through a search using this new option.

 

1. Run a Google Scholar Search using any of the features you normally use. Since this post is about citation indexing, let’s use what is one of the first, if not these first article on the topic of citation indexing. The paper, “Citation Indexes for Science: A New Dimension in Documentation through Association of Ideas,” by the father of citation indexing, Dr. Eugene Garfield. It was originally published in Science (122.3159) in 1955.

1A. Google Scholar has the full text article from several publications available for free. Interestingly, we had to go through one page of results to the 11th entry to find the actual reprint of the article appearing on Dr. Garfield’s web site. You might think this would be the first result not number eleven. While many sites provide free access to the article others do not. How does an end user know which one to select when they see multiple versions of the same article?

2. Let’s continue as a typical search might do by using the first result in the results list, a reprint of the article from a 2006 issue of International Journal of Epidemiology. It will take two clicks*** to get to the full text. Here it is. It’s absolutely worth reading.

3. Now, go back to the Google Scholar results page and in the lower left corner (below the snippet) look for a link that reads, “cited by” and then a number. In this case, “cited by 788.”

4. What’s new today is that once you click on the cited by link not only do you find links to the 788 articles in the Google Scholar database that cite Dr. Gafield’s 1955 article. In addition to the articles you’ll also see a checbox directly below the search box that if checked/ticked allows you to search within those 788 articles.

5. Check the box and search for the word “librarian” in those 788 articles. We found approx. 167 hits.

Example 2: If we limit the search to the phrase “scholarly communication” we found three hits.

Finally, we wanted to see how many and what type of articles cite Garfield and use the word tenure or the phrase academic tenure”. The answer, approx. 97. However, seeing duplicated titles at number five and six out of about 100 results each with a different number of versions is just confusing.

6. If you use the advanced search box, you should see word “references” (bottom of the first section) followed by the paper you selected earlier. Of course, you can change or remove it at anytime. If you prefer using Google search operators, they”ll also work as you know from any Google Scholar search box.

Now that wasn’t difficult and the added functionality provides a lot more research power to see how Dr. Garfield’s seminal paper has been used/discussed/cited during the past 55 years.

7. All of the “search within” features we’ve been discussing also work when searching opinions and legal journals.

Example: Brown v. Board of Education, or 347 US 483 – Supreme Court 1954.

You see that this historic case has been cited 23,708 by other materials in the Google Scholar database. Now, select “search within” (below the main search box) and run a search. We searched “Detroit Public Schools” and received approx. 147 hits that appear in other opinions, law journals, other types of journals and books.

Sources: Google Scholar Blog and ResourceShelf

*** When we ran the search it appears that there are no stopwords [of, by, for, in, and so on]. Even letters within words are highlights. Click the first result and you’ll be able to immediately se[e] what we [saw?]

 

From The Resourceshelf

http://ppcblog.com/how-google-works/

Google Debuts the Google Scholar Blog

June 16th, 2010

...the new Twitter archives and, to be more specific, the announcement that the Library of Congress would be getting a copy. A few hours before LC began to get the word out (via a tweet, appropriately), Google announced they were already online with a searchable version of the Twitter archive. As of today, the Google’s Twitter archive only goes back a few months to February 2010 but “eventually” the entire archive back to day one will be available and searchable.

What we would like to do in this post is go over the facts and, where we don’t have the exact info we need, take educated guess at the answers. Keep in mind that things do change and, in some cases, further details need to discussed and decisions need to be made.

We read all of the primary documents (links are available), used the Google service, and were fortunate enough to have a telephone chat with a spokesperson from LC. We also read some “way out” stuff (e.g., the Library of Congress bought Twitter) but most of the time, just a fact or two were either missing or a bit “off”.

So, with all of that out of the way, let’s get to the details.

The Library of Congress Twitter Archive

...Update:  The Library of Congress Twitter archive will not be accessible to and searchable by the general public on the Internet or at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. However, the archive will be accessible to researchers on-site at LC. Details about researcher access will be developed and made public in the next few months, but it’s likely a researcher will have to certify his or her identity by at least signing a form. Again, exact details are forthcoming... [There's a good deal more]

The Google Twitter Archive

Like most things Google, historical searching of tweets has a name. It’s called Google Replay.

+ As of today, you CAN search using Google Replay only back to February 2010, with a minimal delay for new tweets. There is NO embargo/delay of tweets using Google Replay. “Eventually” (that term is not defined), the entire Twitter archive will be accessible and searchable using Google Replay by anyone from any computer that can access Google. BTW, this is what the Twitter home page looked like on September 30, 2006.

+ Google Replay uses the familiar Google timeline interface (as used with Google News for some time) where you can manipulate the timeline to narrow the focus to down to the minute. (Note the bar that sits on the timeline; it moves)

+ If you want to go directly to Google Replay, this link should get you there...

 

Summary

Both services are needed. Will others come into play.

The LC Archive is essential. It’s going to receive cutting edge preservation; it will allow qualified researchers from LC and elsewhere to mine the data; it might even create a new exhibit at LC. However, it’s not a publicly accessible research tool. I do wonder if people will show up wanting to use the database and not be able to. I would imagine the same thing happens regularly with LC users wanting to exit the library with LC materials. Or also — people phoning LC, asking if they have a particular book and whether they can get it sent to them.

Google Replay IS for the public. It IS searchable and it IS easily manipulated to assist in focusing a search query. As we said a moment ago, it IS accessible from any computer connected to the web that can reach Google.

Update: “Tweets: What We Might Learn From Mundane Details” (via AOTUS Blog from Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero. (Hat Tip: ArchivesNext)

From The Resourceshelf

 

One of the things we spend a lot of time thinking about at Google is how we can make the world's information more accessible and useful to people all over the globe. This includes providing rich local geographic data because, after all, a huge number of search queries have a geographic component. Our efforts to start putting Africa on a map kicked off back in 2009 when we announced the launch of Google Maps for Kenya. Not long afterwords, we announced that users across 45 African countries could build and edit maps in Map Maker. Most recently, we launched Google Maps for South Africa.

Our big announcement today is that we are launching Maps domains for 30 countries across Africa. So what's on offer? As well as searching online Maps for towns, highways, or roads, Google Maps users can now find local businesses. This could be a burger place in Lagos, a garage in Kampala, a hairdresser in Accra or an airport shuttle in Dakar. Any business anywhere can add their own business listing for free via the Google Maps Local Business Centre. Businesses can also improve their websites and help customers locate them by installing the Maps API.

In addition, we know that a lot of people need to find map information whilst travelling or driving, which is why we offer Google Maps for Mobile on data enabled handsets.

You know your local area better than we do, which is why Map Maker is on offer. With Map Maker, any user can create or edit map data, ranging from schools to local businesses, national parks to taxi stops. If you know your local area, or you've seen something that's missing, take up the opportunity to get mapping! As we've pointed out before, maps are also invaluable for governments, NGOs, universities and entrepreneurs, who can visualise, plan and market the areas and projects that they work on.

Ever thought about creating your own map for a specific event (like a wedding or treasure hunt) so you can share it with friends? You can do this using the popular, easy to use My Maps feature, which allows users to add their favorite locations and destinations to Google Maps and include their photos, comments and reviews about each place. You can check out new My Maps content for Nigeria, including additions from musicians D'banj and Nneka.

We are thrilled to be improving our maps functionality for Africa, and helping to make Africa's information readily available. We encourage you to add your own content and showcase to the world the parts of Africa that you know best.

Posted by Joe Mucheru, Google Sub Saharan Africa, and Jarda Bengl, Product Manager

From: http://google-africa.blogspot.com/