Jinfo: Dialog vs. Google

Dialog vs. Google
Jinfo Blog

17th December 2007

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One of the things I liked most during my study in library science was searching the Dialog databases , now part of the Thomson family . Among the great things about Dialog, so are the other big database providers, is the efficiency of retrieving information from a very large number of premium data sources. The speed and precision that could be achieved were amazing enough for a curious student to become almost addicted. So much information, so quickly at fingertips! Coming along with that was the astonishing cost tick that changed every time I typed in a command. Every one of the 400+ databases in Dialog had, and still has, a bluesheet (http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/) as a search guide detailing the field labels and display formats as well as other search techniques for the special features of the database. Also listed in the end of each bluesheet is the cost for displaying the hits, ranging from title only to full text. Thanks god as a library school student I was privileged not having to worry about the costs, although understanding how search costs occur was a very important learning point. That was 17 years ago. Fast forward to the Google age. Googling is just part of life for many of us now. Dialog has evolved over the years, including its Web interface, but its tradition remains: The bluesheets look quite the same as those I was familiar with. It seems to be widely acknowledged that Dialog & Co. offer access to authoritative premium data that Google & Co. can't match up... yet. That premium data is guarded with not only unique search techniques, but also price tags. They are treasures mostly to those with profound knowledge of database searching and backed with deep pockets - therefore the need for intermediary search specialists. On the other hand, Google & Co. continue to improve search results by working out ever more intelligent algorithms that return hits as close to the user's search context as possible - the user's original informational context at the moment of search. The impact of lacking the kind of proficiency that search specialists possess may be "neutralized" by the advantage of the user's undistorted contextual awareness for why the information is needed and how it will be used, which intermediary searchers may lack. While Dialog & Co. add tremendous value to organize an universe of information for efficient retrieval and make money by guarding its access, Google & Co. aim to universal access to information with minimum barriers and make money by selling, privacy considered, the contexts of information seekers to advertisers. What a fundamental difference in information economics!

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