Newsletter No. 4
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Free Pint
Helping you find quality information on the Web
ISSN 1460-7239 18 December 1997 #4
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Welcome to the fourth issue of Free Pint!
Once again we have a packed issue with lots of practical advice and
guidance. The Tips & Techniques section tells you how to search a
number of search engines at the same time, and the Feature Article is
written by Dr Anne Barker who gives a very informative review of what
happened last week at Online Information 97 in London.
From the New Year we are going to be having subject specific issues.
Lined up so far we have issues on how to find Internet sources about
IT/Telecoms, Engineering, Current Awareness and Medical resources.
The articles will list the best sites and tell you how to find more.
As you know, Free Pint relies on your support to keep it first-rate
and free. All we ask is that you forward it to as many other people
as you can. To make this even easier, why not click on the Forward
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To:
From:
Subject: Free Pint Newsletter
I subscribe to the attached newsletter called "Free Pint" and thought
you may like to have a look. It contains tips and articles on how
to find good quality and reliable information on the Internet. You
can reserve your free fortnightly copy at http://www.freepint.co.uk/
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May I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and an Excellent New Year!
William Hann
Editor
w.hann@freepint.co.uk
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You may find it easier to read and use if you print it out first.
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IN THIS ISSUE
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Is Meta a Bit or Much Better?"
by William Hann
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Review of Online Information 97"
by Dr Anne Barker
LETTERS
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Is Meta a Bit or Much Better?"
by William Hann
Following earlier articles in Free Pint about the numerous
differences between all the search engines, I received the following
letter:
I am frustrated with the time and effort involved in re-formatting
search strategies that are needed for various search engines.
I use Dogpile to search them all, or most of them. Try it
out - despite the terrible name for a search engine, it is a
good 'retriever'!
Mary Cordeiro
Ex-Brit. now working in Toronto
Dogpile is one of a number of so called "Meta Search Engines" which
simultaneously search a number of search engines at the same time.
The results are then pulled together and displayed in one list.
Therefore I thought for this issue of Free Pint I would try to answer
the question "Is Meta a Bit or Much Better?".
Mary is quite right that it is frustrating to have to remember the
different search languages for all the engines. I generally find
myself sticking to one or two that I know well. Therefore it would
initially appear a great bonus that one can go to a single site and
search a number of them contemporaneously (isn't that a great
word?!). However, as always I'm afraid, there are things to remember.
Therefore, I will look at four different meta search engines and
point out their good and sometimes not so good points.
Metacrawler
-----------
The most well known meta search engine site is Metacrawler located at
http://www.metacrawler.com/. Here you can enter your keywords or
search terms like you would in other search engines, but search
syntax is limited to saying whether all or any of the words should be
present, or if they are a phrase. Metacrawler searches Lycos,
Infoseek, WebCrawler, Excite, AltaVista, and Yahoo. The results are
collected and ranked according to "Service Vote Rankings" - basically
taking the rankings from the six search engines and combining them to
give a score for each site from 1 to 1000.
The "Power Search" screen allows you to further restrict the search
to: Continents, US Educational, Governmental and Commercial sites.
However beware, this actually works by looking at the last part of
the domain name, and so an address ending in ".com" will not be
listed in a search in Europe - even if the site is based here.
Another problem is that phrases don't always work properly because
"Some of the search engines MetaCrawler utilizes do not rigorously
obey the _as a phrase_ condition.". Be warned.
Savvysearch
-----------
Savvysearch is a meta search engine, based at the memorable address:
http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/. This engine searches a much
wider list of 25 resources. These include search engines, newsgroups,
a movie database, shareware archives and so on. Searching is very
similar to Metacrawler and search results can be listed by search
engine or integrated together.
---------------
Metacrawler and Savvysearch are the best known meta search sites.
Personally however my favourites are two quite similar ones called
"Dogpile" (mentioned by Mary in her letter earlier) and "MetaFind".
Dogpile
-------
Dogpile at http://www.dogpile.com/ searches 15 major search engines,
5 newsgroup archives, 3 newswires and 2 FTP sites. You enter your
search terms, tell it how many seconds to search, and send it away to
"Fetch". The results are displayed for three search engines at a
time. There is a lot to searching in Dogpile and so I recommend a
look at the Help page. There is a "Custom Search" link where you can
tell it the order in which to search the engines.
Mary was right in her letter at the beginning when she said that it
is a terrible ... uh hum ... memorable name for a search engine, and
that it is a good 'retriever'!
MetaFind
--------
MetaFind at http://www.metafind.com/ searches six major search
engines and you can also accept Boolean and phrase searching
(quotation marks). It translates what you type in into the correct
syntax for each engine; for instance, a search for "free pint" will
be sent to InfoSeek as "+free +pint" and to Excite as "free AND
pint". Again, you can tell it how many seconds to search and whether
to sort the results alphabetically, by domain or keywords.
Summary
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Well, Meta search engines are very useful, a great idea, and they are
a fast way of searching a number of search engines at the same time.
It is true that you don't have to remember individual search engine
syntax, but then you don't get all of the search options you would if
you went directly to the individual search engines. Metacrawler and
Savvysearch are really being left behind in this sense by the new
wave of sophisticated meta search engines like Dogpile and MetaFind
which are making more of each individual engine's functionality.
However, it is still worth being aware of how they are working so
that you understand what you may be missing by using such a service.
My advice, as always, is to have a glance at the Help section or FAQs
(Frequently Asked Questions).
Therefore, "Is Meta a Bit or Much Better?" ... well, I think its
another great resource to add to your searching toolkit.
William Hann
Meta Search Site Links
----------------------
MetaCrawler - http://www.metacrawler.com/
Savvysearch - http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/
Dogpile - http://www.dogpile.com/
MetaFind - http://www.metafind.com/
For a list see the following Yahoo! category:
Computers and Internet:Internet:World Wide Web:Searching the
Web:All-in-One Search Pages
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William Hann is the founder of the UK based consultancy "Willco".
The company provides Internet training, consultancy and Web site
services. More details can be found at http://www.willco.co.uk/
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Free Pint: what do you like and dislike?
Please let us know: letters@freepint.co.uk
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RBA Information Services
For publications and training on how to use the Internet more
effectively, contact us at RBA. Topics that we regularly cover in
our workshops and seminars include Internet search tools, using the
Internet for business information, beginners guide to the Net,
choosing the right software, how to avoid and get rid of junk mail.
Tel: 0118 947 2256, E-mail: enquiries@rba.co.uk
http://www.rba.co.uk/
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Thinking about advertising in Free Pint?
See the notes and special offers at http://www.freepint.co.uk/
Subject specific issues start in the New Year - spread the news
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FEATURE ARTICLE
"Review of Online Information 97"
by Dr Anne Barker
The 21st annual Online Information international conference and
exhibition, the prime display area of the electronic information
industry, took place at Olympia in London last week (9-11 December).
On the first day, Reuters released its latest report on the world of
information at work (remember "Dying for information?" last year,
about executives" "information overload" and the associated stress?).
"Glued to the screen" investigates the latest phenomenon of
"information addiction". Some people spend so much time looking for
information that they never find time to use it, according to this
survey of 1,000 business managers worldwide. Many have problems in
prioritising information from different sources and 60% believe that
the cost of gathering information outweighs its value. One in three
believe others are obsessed with finding information, 84% would like
training in information management and 86% think it should be taught
in schools. Perhaps attending the Online Information exhibition would
help to identify ways of solving these problems?
The range of satellite events tagged on to Online Information this
year included an "executive briefing" on corporate information
resource strategies (by Ashridge Management College), "Using the
Internet as a source for competitive intelligence", a seminar on
"Internets and intranets" (from Coopers & Lybrand), another on "the
new search engines and the web search services", "Official
information resources on the Internet" (the Institute of Information
Scientists) "Electronic publishing" and "the effects of the Internet
and intranets on users and workflows". Knowledge Management is the
latest exciting expression for a range of information management and
retrieval techniques and functions brought together to enable
organisations to exploit available resources effectively, in a timely
manner, and for the benefit or advantage of the organisation.
Currently this is often equated with corporate intranets. Conference
speakers here and elsewhere in recent months, describing their own
organisations' experience to date with intranets, have emphasised the
key role of business process change, change management and getting
people on board by offering quick returns. Potential problems include
getting caught up in the technology but accrued benefits should
include greater management control and improved internal
communications.
It is salutary to recall that the first mentions of the Internet in
the press were late in 1993; Dun & Bradstreet put up one of the first
3,000 sites on the World Wide Web in July 1995, offering credit card
sales of their information on companies. Current predictions from
Dataquest indicate that there will be over 160 million people using
the Internet by the end of the millennium. Forrester Research
estimates that 40% of US companies already have or plan to have their
own intranet, and another 24 % are considering one. Forrester also
predict that by 2001 the percentage of corporate employees directly
accessing online business information from their own desks will rise
from 2% to 40%. There is no doubt that there is a huge market
developing and most of the big players in online information are
lining up to grab the opportunities.
The 1990s has seen many database producers beginning to offer their
online information via their own search systems rather than via a
third party host, and of course, web interfaces are becoming the
expected norm. Many of these companies are now aiming to get their
web interface built into corporate intranets as the first choice
external source of information. Some come with links to other web
sites of interest. Push technology was in evidence from the number of
business and news information suppliers offering delivery to
intranets and work stations. Desktop Data Inc. (which has recently
merged with Individual Inc.) demonstrated NewsEDGE, a product which
can take news items from a variety of sources and sort them
according to user profiles before delivering the relevant material to
the user's PC.
The new Dialog Corporation http://www.dialog.com was unveiled at
Olympia, with two large stands offering group demonstrations and
individual attention, also previewing "intranet solutions". The
Dialog Corporation was formed in November by the merger of M.A.I.D.
and Knight-Ridder Information, Inc. The latter owned both DIALOG, one
of the very first online hosts originating from Lockheed Missiles and
Space Co. in California in the 1970s, and DataStar, which was set up
in Switzerland in the 1980s by a Radio Suisse consortium. Both were
initially aimed at information professionals. M.A.I.D., founded by
Dan Wagner in 1985, has always aimed directly at the information
user, as a provider of global business news, market research,
financial, company, country and market information. Its core product
is Profound, featuring M.A.I.D.'s proprietary technology, InfoSort.
In early 1997, M.A.I.D. launched two new products: Profound for
Intranets and Profound LiveWire. The merger has caused a certain
amount of consternation and anxiety in the information world. In his
opening speech at Online Information 97 Dan Wagner announced the
Dialog Corporation as "the new global leader" in online information,
with a 25% market share. He emphasised the importance of adding value
to the information retrieval process, simplified pricing and
integrating internal and external information within corporate
knowledge management strategies.
"A visit to the Push Pavilion will give you the opportunity to
witness exhibitors displaying the latest in Push Technology", said
the blurb on the back of the Free Exhibition Ticket for Online
Information 97. If this had been your main inspiration for attending
then you would have been disappointed. No "Push Pavilion" in sight.
If your aim was to follow the "Information Trails" designed "to
improve the ease of navigation around the exhibition" according to
your interests in Information Management, Financial & Corporate
Information, News & Media, Legal & Government Information etc. then
you would soon have been lost. Those expecting coloured lines on the
floor (as used in hospitals and other large buildings) needed to look
up, not down! The "Information Trails" consisted of coloured rosettes
(normal size, not anything spectacular) attached somewhere on
exhibitors' stands to indicate which "Trails" they were part
of. Noticeably absent from the exhibition were BT. There appeared to
be well below the predicted 300 stands ( more like 250?). About half
the exhibitors were representing online hosts and database producers
(LEXIS/NEXIS, Dun & Bradstreet, FT Information , Reuters etc.) and
the remainder were a mixture of software houses, associations, data
conversion and electronic publishing specialists, consultants, and
others. Business information offerings dominated the exhibition,
almost to the point of overwhelming visitors interested in this area,
although the scientific, technical and medical information community
was also well catered for. The move into the National Hall at Olympia
allowed bigger and more extensive stands on the ground floor; the
Gallery was also fully occupied but the stands petered out half way
across Level One. There seems to have been some attempt to group
stands on the ground floor, but the advertised sections on Electronic
Publishing and Information Management were not easily distinguishable
from the rest.
Further information on the exhibitors and speakers at Online
Information 97 may be found on the organisers' web site
http://www.online-information.com
Free trials:
- LineOne (News International and BT) : Internet service provider,
one month free trial until 31 Dec. 1997. Tel: 0345 777 464, email
Enquiries@LineOne.net
- Engineering Information Village: free one month trial
http://www.ei.org
- Anbar Electronic Intelligence management library: free 30-day trial
http://www.anbar.com
Web sites worth visiting:
- BBC News: http:/news.bbc.co.uk/
- Euromonitor: http://www.euromonitor.com - consumer market
intelligence
- Financial Times Information http://www.info.ft.com
- Reuters http://www.reuters.com
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Dr Anne Barker lectures and researches in information retrieval (with
a focus on online and Internet searching) in the Department of
Information and Library Studies at the University of Wales
Aberystwyth. Before joining DILS in March 1994, Anne spent 15 months
as a member of a "change management" team within Corporate Estates at
AEA Technology (the UK Atomic Energy Authority), helping to prepare
the facilities management division for privatisation. Prior to this
Anne managed the Technical and Business Information Centre at the
AEA's Risley site near Warrington, where she was responsible, amongst
others things, for implementing quality assurance systems to BS 5750
(ISO 9000). Before joining AEA Technology, Anne was Principal
Technical Librarian, Rolls-Royce plc, Civil Engine Group at Derby.
Anne may be contacted at Anne.Barker@aber.ac.uk
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Link To Us And Win Free Advertising!
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LETTERS
We have once again had some great feedback from readers. We started
publishing Free Pint with the intention that it would be useful and
practical, and the letters we are receiving indicate that we are
succeeding. We have already mentioned a letter about meta search
engines in the first article, and have printed a couple more in this
section.
We would love to hear from you also. Please send any questions or
letters to letters@freepint.co.uk
Please note that we will not publish your letter if you do not want
us to. Any that we do publish may be edited for content or length
and we cannot guarantee a reply.
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William,
I just ran across Free Pint (through SearchEngineWatch).
Your short article on capitalization was great. As I know very well
from the seminars I do on Web searching, the need for understanding
more about the intricacies of search engines is just beginning to be
realized. Information professionals can benefit greatly from the
kinds of details you presented so clearly. I will be mentioning Free
Pint in seminars I give.
Best wishes for Free Pint. I shall look forward to future issues.
Ran Hock
Online Strategies
www.onstrat.com
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... I presume that you have to place adverts throughout the text
rather than at the end? That would be my only criticism - I guess
you have to get paid for doing it ...
Norman Boyd
Viscount
William Hann replies:
At the development stage of Free Pint we did experiment with bunching
all the adverts together, but tests showed that readers just skipped
over all of them. Somebody likened it to the difference between
watching a video and watching the television: with the video you just
skip over the adverts at the beginning, but with commercial
television you accept the interruptions because they mean that the
programmes are free.
You are right that it is the advertising messages which financially
support the newsletter. In this way we can keep Free Pint true to
its name: free.
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Promotional gifts supplied by Riverside Promotions
Tel: 01784 454785 Fax: 01784 466157
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Thank you for reading Free Pint. We return on the 8th January with an
issue covering the best IT/Telecoms sites on the Web.
Take care and have a great holiday break.
William Hann, Editor
w.hann@freepint.co.uk
(c) Willco 1997
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
ISSN: 1460-7239
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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free email newsletter for anyone who
uses the Internet to get information for their work in any business
or organisation. The newsletter is written by professionals who share
how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet.
More details about subscribing, contributing or advertising can be
found on the Web at http://www.freepint.co.uk/
Please note: The newsletter is published by the information
consultancy Willco (http://www.willco.co.uk/), and the publishers
will NEVER make the subscriber list available to any other company
or organisation.
The opinions, advice, products and services offered herein are the
sole responsibility of the contributors. Whilst all reasonable care
has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the publication, the
publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.
This publication may be freely copied and/or distributed in its
entirety. However, individual sections MAY NOT be copied and/or
distributed without the prior written agreement of the publishers.
All rights reserved.
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About this Newsletter
- Publication Date: 18th December 1997
- Plain text
- Link: https://www.jinfo.com/go/newsletter/4
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