Newsletter No. 72
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Free Pint
"Helping 32,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
ISSN 1460-7239 5th October 2000 No.72
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from David and Daria Cohen
FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Influence of the Internet on the Patent Process"
By Caryn Wesner-Early
BOOKSHELF
"MetaCapitalism: The e-Business Revolution and the
Design of 21st-Century Companies and Markets"
Reviewed by Drosten Fisher
FEATURE ARTICLE
"All change for search technology?"
By Pita Enriquez Harris
PORTAL, EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/051000.htm
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Download your FREE 30-Day Trial of BullsEye Pro, the Ultimate Research
Assistant for Professionals. In the June 8th issue of Free Pint, Chris
Sherman describes how "BullsEye, a desktop based meta search engine
can also access many of the sites included in InvisibleWeb.com." With
fine-grained filters and up to the minute trackers, you will control
information rather than having it control you. Go to
http://info.intelliseek.com/promotions/fp.htm and receive a 20%
discount off the price of $249 if you purchase a copy by 12/31/00.
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>>> ABOUT FREE PINT <<<
Free Pint is a community of business professionals who use the Web
for their work. Members receive this free newsletter every two weeks
packed with tips and articles by information professionals who share
how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet. Sign
up at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/> for free access to the substantial
archive of articles, book reviews, industry news and events, and have
your research questions answered at the "Free Pint Bar". This
newsletter is best read when printed out and viewed in a Courier font.
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EDITORIAL
The alcoholic associations for Free Pint have again been enhanced as
we launch another new service on the site. If you've been keeping up
with the latest at the Free Pint Bar then you'll have spotted Simon's
new "Pub Crawl". This is a weekly look at a range of Internet and
information industry publications for articles of interest to our
members. I for one find it tremendously useful and hope you do too.
Remember, if you'd like to receive the "Bar Digest" containing the
latest Bar postings by email three times a week (including the Pub
Crawl) then please send a blank email to or
login to your account online and activate the subscription that way.
10% of our members now receive the Bar Digest so it is widely read.
The chance to claim your real free pint draws nearer as the Free Pint
Roadshow takes to the road in just 31 days. If you're anywhere near
Loughborough, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester or Aberystwyth you're
invited to join us for the evening at a local pub to network with
other Free Pinters and the Roadshow sponsors Factiva. To find out more
and indicate that you'd like to come please email
or visit the page at:
http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/roadshow.htm
We're already making plans for a wider Roadshow early next year
and it's looking likely that it won't just be limited to the UK!
Watch this space ...
My comments and questions about the unification of the Institute of
Information Scientists and the Library Association in the last edition
seem to have had their desired effect, prompting many postings at the
Bar and in a number of other discussion lists. The stature of the
information industry is of great importance to Free Pint and again I
would urge you to make your voice heard regarding our professional
future.
We've packed as much as possible into Free Pint again today, including
excellent articles on finding patent information online and the
changing face of Internet searching as the deluge of new Web pages
makes current search utilities increasingly unreliable. There are lots
of tips as usual and Simon's super summary of the happenings at the
Bar and Student Bar.
I'm often asked if Free Pint will continue to remain free, and I can
confirm that it will. The only thing we ask in return is that you help
us spread the word. If you have colleagues or friends, students or
readers who would benefit from knowing about Free Pint then now is the
time to tell them about our community. Why not forward this copy to
them or use our simple recommendation page on the Web site at:
http://www.freepint.co.uk/reco.htm
I hope you enjoy today's issue and I look forward to receiving your
feedback directly by email or at the Bar.
Kind regards,
William
William Hann BSc MIInfSc
Founder and Managing Editor, Free Pint
e: william@freepint.co.uk
t: +44 (0)1784 455435
f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Free Pint is a trademark of Free Pint Limited
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
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ONLINE INFORMATION FOR THE CITY
*NEXT WEEK* Wednesday 11 & Thursday 12 October 2000
>>> Financial and business information to the desktop <<<
The Baltic Exchange, London EC3, UK
Check out http://www.online-information-city.co.uk
Meet the leading business and financial information providers
Attend FREE industry briefings from TFPL
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>>> YOUR MESSAGE TO 32,000+ BUSINESS INFORMATION USERS <<<
Find out more about the benefits of advertising with Free Pint.
http://www.freepint.co.uk/advert.htm
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from David and Daria Cohen
* Mrltc.com - The best source of info on various health and long-term
care related issues: <http://www.mrltc.com>
* Copernic - Superb software addition for quality searching
<http://www.copernic.com>
* Thebrain - the best way to organize related files and associated
favorites/bookmarks <http://www.thebrain.com>
* 2Bobs - a free comprehensive favorites/bookmarks
<http://www.2bobs.com>
* Dogpile - one of the best metasearchers <http://www.dogpile.com>
David Cohen (San Francisco Bay Area) and Daria Cohen (Amsterdam) of
The Cohen Group specialize in information brokerage and searches for
small and mid-size businesses in the U.S. and The Netherlands.
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To submit your top five favourite tipples see the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/author.htm> or email <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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TARGETED BUSINESS CONTENT ON YOUR INTRANET
Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters company, introduces Factiva Publisher,
a news feed and server application that enables you to display
strategic news alongside internally-generated content on your
intranet.
With Factiva Publisher, employees receive their own personal page,
which increases both intranet traffic and intranet value.
Find out more. Visit http://www.factiva.com/integration
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>>> FREE PINT SUBMIT TO SEARCH ENGINES <<<
Quick and easy submission of your page to the top search engines
http://www.freepint.co.uk/submit/
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FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/051000.htm#bar
Free Pint Bar - http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar
[Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in
the address <http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar/read.php?i=XXXX>]
The use of the term 'knowledge' in knowledge management (KM) has been
a bone of contention on the Bar (5016). And it's been chewed and
gnawed in other places too. While looking for articles for the new
Free Pint Pub Crawl (5098, 5161), a review of information industry
literature, I came across quite a number of items dealing with what KM
is, what competitive intelligence (CI) is and what various other terms
bandied about refer to. A devil's advocate might suggest that
practitioners do know what they mean by the terms, but that they
haven't managed to get the message across to non-practitioners yet.
Whatever about semantics, most of us recognise good resources when we
see them. We have been introduced to resources for aerospace and
aviation (5083), youth parliaments (5099), languages for travellers
(4989), apparel and fashion (5140) and UK events and exhibitions
(4987). We also looked at the Wall Street Journal (5010) and a site
for making weight and measurement conversions (5062).
The amount of advice on how to manage and share favourite links (5024)
and on database publishing (5141) has probably been beyond the wildest
dreams of people who asked for it. However, we could still do with
some advice on personalisation software (4998), storing Netscape
Messenger emails (5180) and news feeds on Web sites (5003).
On the jobs and training front there have been requests for database
developers in Hong Kong (5017) and work in GIS and related areas
(5153, 4997). Someone is looking for tips on working in the
Netherlands (5152) and the online recruitment industry in the UK and
Ireland (5158). And there have been queries about training in HTML
(5091) and Microsoft engineering courses (4988)
Search and retrieval is a truly multifaceted problem and two meta
search engines I reviewed recently show how some developers are
approaching it (5080, 5115). Another approach is to think vertical,
demonstrated by a university course search engine (5042), a device
driver search engine (5000), a search facility for journals (5166) and
one for software (5038). A search tool for shareware available in the
UK is still sought, if anyone knows of one (5055). Just how vertical
must one get?
Sources of information on Internet trends are always in demand and
there are plenty around (5117). Merger and acquisition information is
also available should you ever need such a thing (5133). However, I
was unable to find a facility which would list connecting flights when
you input the departure and arrival airport (5039) or a list of UK
non-executive directors (5179). Other things not yet found include UK
Ministry of Supply drawings dating from 1951 (5084) and an eighteenth
century French painter called Lafargue (5020).
There have been some familiar technical queries about generating PDF
files from HTML files (5066), constructing and managing an intranet
(4985), web hosting (5048) and documentation design (5007). Somewhat
less familiar was a question about searching for a word that appears
in HTML coding, but not on the site. This can be a way of finding out
if someone has been tricking with your data and a solution to the
problem was suggested, but we still haven't heard if it works yet
(5011). However, we did find out why someone was getting 'trapped' on
the Independent.co.uk site when the developers shed some light on the
problem (5107).
There have been more general questions about providers of library
services (5037), ask-an-expert sites (5061), print versus electronic
journals (5097), the information industry in Scotland (5009),
healthcare .com companies (5006) and consumer finance (5162). You'd
think these things would be straightforward enough, but the last two
haven't been answered yet.
Going back to the eighteenth century again, one thing still concerns
me; are historians too teleological in their approach to Central
European history in the period 1740-1919 (5002)? Now what could have
brought that on, Dr Pangloss? Or is this another semantic problem?
Free Pint Student Bar - http://www.freepint.co.uk/student
[Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in
the address <http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/read.php?i=XXXX>]
With the new academic year starting, many things of interest to
students are being announced on the Student Bar at the moment.
There's a UK Web site dedicated to careers and careers advice for
16-24 year olds (1028), part-time work available in London for
information students (1030), a student feature on a BBC TV programme
(1031), lists of useful student sites (1033) and a new student-rate
subscription for Information World Review (1035).
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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Visit daily for "Today's Tipple" - a different Web site reviewed every
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To have the latest Free Pint Bar postings sent to you every other day,
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With details of over 14,000 categorised business software packages and
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authoritative weekly newsletter and make savings on online purchases.
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/051000.htm#tips
"Influence of the Internet on the Patent Process"
By Caryn Wesner-Early
As with many other fields, the area of patents has undergone a number
of changes because of the Internet. Some aspects of patents have
become easier, such as finding patent information, and some have
become more difficult, such as the whole issue of business method
patents.
Finding patent information is easier now than it has ever been. Most
countries with a patent office have at least a presence on the Web,
and many countries, including the US, have very complete and helpful
sites. At the US Patent Office's site <http://www.uspto.gov> it is
possible to find issued US patents, with drawings, back to 1976, and
efforts are underway to bring the rest of the records, back to 1790,
online as soon as possible. The British Library has put up an
excellent gateway site for international patents called "Links to
patent and other intellectual property information resources" at
<http://www.bl.uk/services/stb/etalmenu.html>.
Law firms and other companies also put up very complete and helpful
patent-related sites. The Delphion Intellectual Property Network
(formerly the IBM Patent Server) at <http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/>
provided access to images of issued US patents (back to 1971) before
the US Patent Office site did. They offer a very powerful search
engine, and patents may be printed out, or, if a better quality is
needed, purchased. Recently the site has added international patent
search capabilities, including European and Japanese. Law firms and
universities put up sites full of articles, essays and advice for
patent searchers and inventors.
Before submitting a patent application, an inventor must perform a
search for prior art (that is, previous related inventions).
Literature searching for prior art is easier than ever because of the
Internet. Many databases, such as MEDLINE (useful for drug and
medical device searches) are free of charge, while many others, such
as those put up by Elsevier, ProQuest, and IEEE are available by
subscription.
Other help for inventors comes from the aforementioned national patent
offices and company-sponsored sites, but inventors also use the
Internet to help each other. Inventor-sponsored sites, such as the
Patent Cafe at <http://www.patentcafe.com/>, offer advice from people
who've "been there, done that" on everything from choosing a patent
attorney to appealing a case.
One of the biggest changes in the patent scene is the subject of
business method patents. While this was becoming an issue before the
Internet really became a player, it has mushroomed in the past few
years. Software, which used to be copyrighted, began to be patented
in the mid-1980s, and, in the wake of software patents, automated
methods of doing business have also begun to be patented. Many
procedures which have been a part of business for decades, if not
centuries, are being automated and patented. This leads to difficulty
in defining prior art for computer-aided business methods - does the
same procedure count as prior art if it used to be done with a pencil
and paper? Finding prior art on computer-related patents is difficult
as well because of the blinding speed of the Internet and other
computer developments. Many methods have come into use without being
patented just because they made sense and it would be too expensive
and/or time-consuming to bother with a patent or because the
originator was part of the Open Source movement. If someone later
applies for a patent on such a business method it is often difficult
to track down whether the specific method has already been in use, and
if so, by whom and for how long.
Illustrative of this are some high-profile recent cases. For
instance, last fall Amazon.com took competitors by surprise by
getting a patent on their "one-click" order method. Despite claims
that this system had been in use for months, at least, by other sites,
Amazon was successful in forcing competitors to discontinue use of
similar systems. For exhaustive discussion of the Amazon patent and
related issues, see the Patents DevCenter at
<http://www.oreillynet.com/patents/>.
Changes in the patent system, both good and bad, are certain to
continue for the foreseeable future. For every free prior art
database there is an explosion of more and more information that
needs to be searched. For every information and advice site put up to
help inventors and patent attorneys make sense of regulations there
is a change in regulation or interpretation. "Internet time" has
become a factor in discussing terms of patents (for example, Jeff
Bezos, during the excitement over the Amazon patents, suggested that
software and business method patents should only be issued for a term
of five years, rather than the usual 17-20). There is no predicting
what changes may come in the future; all that is certain is that
inventors, attorneys and patent offices will be running along behind
trying to make sense of them.
Useful patent sites
-------------------
Intellectual Property dictionaries and glossaries
These two are complementary - each site has terms that the other one
doesn't have:
<http://www.derwent.co.uk/resource/glossary.html>
Derwent Glossary of Patent Terms
<http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9609.html>
A Patent Glossary put up by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
Intellectual Property
---------------------
<http://www.cpvo.fr/>
Community Plant Variety Rights
<http://www.uspatentinfo.com/>
Design, Patent, Trademark and Copyright Information by Da Vinci Design
Resource "This site is monitored by John Moetteli, an international
patent and trademark attorney." - from the site
<http://www.patents-tm.com/>
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Trade Secrets, put up by
Long & Long (law firm)
<http://www.uspto.gov/go/kids/>
US Patent And Trademark Kids' Pages
<http://www.wipo.org/>
World Intellectual Property Organization
<http://Yet2.com/>
Technology Market site for connecting buyers and sellers of
intellectual property Mentioned in Edupage
Sites for inventors
-------------------
<http://patentcafe.com/>
Patent Cafe by inventor Andy Gibb
<http://www.patentcribsheet.com/>
The Patent Crib Sheet for attorneys and inventors about how to "do"
patents, put up by the Law Offices of Ernest Schaal
<http://www.uiausa.com/>
United Inventors Association of the USA Inventor Resource Internet
Pages. Information about inventing, inventors, obtaining a patent,
evaluation, marketing and avoiding invention fraud
<http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/index.htm>
USPTO Independent Inventor Resources
Patents
-------
<http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/>
Delphion Intellectual Property Network (formerly IBM Patent Server)
<http://www.bl.uk/services/stb/etalmenu.html>
Links to patent and other intellectual property information resources
put up by the Patents Information service of STB, the science,
technology and business wing of the British Library
<http://www.wipo.org/eng/general/ipip/pct.htm>
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) - full text put up by WIPO
<http://pctgazette.wipo.int/eng/index2.html>
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) database (WIPO)
<http://www.patentlawlinks.com/>
PatentLawLinks.Com Links For Patent Professionals recommended by
Research Buzz
>
The Patent Information Users Group, Inc.
"PIUG is a not-for-profit organization for individuals having a
professional, scientific or technical interest in patent information"
- from the site. Recommended in Free Pint as a Favourite Tipple
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/patent.html>
U.S. Patent Law Put up by Cornell University
<http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html>
USPTO Patent Databases Patent Bibliographic and AIDS Databases
National Patent Offices
-----------------------
<http://Patents1.ic.gc.ca/intro-e.html>
Canadian Patent Database. Introduction search and view patents
<http://gb.espacenet.com/>
esp@cenet Home. UK Patent Office "Europe's network of patent
databases". Search and view European patents
<http://www.european-patent-office.org/>
European Patent Office Information about the EPO. Links to Esp@cenet
for patent searching
<http://www.ipdl.jpo-miti.go.jp/homepg_e.ipdl>
Industrial Property Digital Library - Japan. Search and display
Japanese patents in English
<http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/>
IP Australia. Search and display patents since 1979
<http://www.jpo-miti.go.jp/>
Japan Patent Office (English language version). Information about the
patent office, links to PAJ, which is where patents can be searched
<http://www.patent.gov.uk/>
The UK Patent Office Information about the Patent Office. Links to
Esp@cenet for searching
<http://www.uspto.gov/>
US Patent and Trademark Office Home Page
Link lists to national Patent Offices
-------------------------------------
<http://www.ignatz.net/patents.htm>
Ignatz: Patents & Intellectual Property links to many patent
information sites, especially foreign Patent Offices.
"This site was created for and is maintained for Ignatz by David P.
Krivoshik [Mathews, Collins, Shepherd & Gould]" - from the site
<http://www.piperpat.co.nz/resource/patoff.html>
National Patent Offices on the WWW VERY complete!
Put up by Pipers Patent & Trademark Attorneys, New Zealand
<http://members.tripod.com/patentNZ/s_Patent_Links.HTML>
Simon Saunders & Daniel Donovan's Resources: Patent Links
from New Zealand Link list, especially for foreign Patent Offices
Humorous patent/related sites
-----------------------------
<http://www.patents.ibm.com/gallery.html>
Gallery of Obscure Patents on the IBM Delphion site
<http://info.pitt.edu/~ctnst3/chindogu.html>
International Chindogu Society recommended by Sci-Tech Library News
<http://www.patentplace.com/>
Patent Place. The world's First User Generated Cartoon Soap Opera
<http://www.patent.freeserve.co.uk/>
Patently Absurd! Weird & wacky patents put up by the UK Patent Office
<http://www.patscan.ubc.ca/funny/bizarre_patents.html>
PATSCAN's Collection of Bizarre Patents put up by The Univ. of British
Columbia
<http://soundreach.simplenet.com/psp/>
Pretty Strange Patents. A tribute to strange, wacky and unusual
patents from around the world. Recommended by Netsurfer Digest
<http://totallyabsurd.com/>
"Totally Absurd Inventions explores the funnier side of our inventive
spirit by featuring actual USA patented products!" - from the site
<http://colitz.com/site/wackyf.htm>
Wacky Patent of the Month
<http://www.leeds.gov.uk/funstuff/patent/pat_main.html>
Wacky Patents put up by Leeds City Council (UK)
<http://www.lightlink.com/bbm/weird.html>
Weird and Wonderful Patents put up by Brown, Pinnisi & Michaels, PC
(law firm)
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Caryn Wesner-Early is a librarian, contracted to the US Patent and
Trademark Office Scientific and Technical Information Center. Her
hobbies are reading and cats, and she maintains a personal Web page at
<http://321website.com/members/home/data/caryn/main_html.htm>
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Related Free Pint links:
* "Intellectual Property" links and articles in the Free Pint Portal
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/industry/industry.php3?category_id=143>
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<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/051000.htm#tips>
* Post a message to the author now at the Free Pint Bar
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar>
* Access the entire archive of Free Pint content
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/>
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31 October Conference: Information Sources in Complementary Medicine.
Organised by the British Library and the Foundation for Integrated
Medicine. Aimed at information providers/health service
workers/academics, journalists/doctors/complementary therapy
practitioners and anyone else with an interest. It will focus on the
range of information sources available, including internet sources.
For further details go to http://www.bl.uk/services/stb/comp_med.html
or telephone Tony Catarinicchia on 020 7412 7915.
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
"MetaCapitalism: The e-Business Revolution and the
Design of 21st-Century Companies and Markets"
Reviewed by Drosten Fisher
This book, written by two Management Consultants from
PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a clear, intelligent attempt to understand
the effects new technologies will have on the business world. It is
not for the faint-hearted, however, and sometimes lapses into
'consultant-speak' or jargon. It generally makes good, sensible use
of diagrams to illustrate concepts, although at times the diagrams are
too convoluted and serve to obscure already complex concepts.
On the whole, however, complex ideas are expressed clearly and
illustrated with good concrete examples.
The central tenet of the book is that a fundamental shift in the way
in which the capitalist system operates is taking place. And quickly
- the prediction is that the effects will be felt in the next 18
months to two years.
The assertion is that there will be a dramatic shift away from the
traditional business model which says that a business invests most of
its assets in physical capital, then working capital, then human
capital and has a small amount invested in brand capital.
If you imagine the model of capital in a business as a triangle, with
the largest element, the base, being working capital, the authors
argue that the coming technological revolution will invert this
triangle.
Brand capital will therefore become the most important, followed by
human capital. In the new business model, virtually no assets will be
invested in physical capital - instead, production will be outsourced
to a number of partners.
Successful businesses serving consumers will be owners of brands, and
focus on increasing levels of customer satisfaction. All other parts
of their business will be outsourced to various suppliers. The
authors argue that this will lead to the creation of communities of
service providers, loosely grouped together by several major brands.
These communities of service providers will then further combine into
a 'Metamarket' or a group of branded service providers, competing to
provide service offerings across a range of industries.
Head spinning at this point? There are almost 200 pages of this
stuff, and it doesn't get any easier...
In summary, this is an interesting, intelligent, well-written book
which contains some fascinating insights into the future of business.
It is not for the lay reader, however, but potential or actual
management consultants will find it a challenging and
stimulating read.
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I work as a Research Associate for Impact Plus plc.
. Founded in 1990, Impact Plus is one of
the fastest growing management consultancies in the UK and Ireland. It
is our mission to make a positive impact on the business of our
clients. We have an enviable reputation for delivering independent,
practical, value-for-money advice.
Impact Plus has offices in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin
and has delivered in virtually every market sector. Impact Plus is
also a principal member of E-I Consulting Group, with access to
1,800 consultants in 75 offices worldwide.
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Related Free Pint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/metacapitalism.htm>
* Read about other Internet strategy books on the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/strategy.htm>
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471393355/freepint0c>
or Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471393355/freepint00>
* Details: ISBN 0471393355; published by John Wiley and Sons;
written by Grady Means, David Schneider
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf>
To propose a business-Web-related book for review, send details
to <bookshelf@freepint.co.uk>.
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For the "Student Bar Digest" email <studentdigest@freepint.co.uk>
and for the "Free Pint Bar Digest" email <digest@freepint.co.uk>
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FEATURE ARTICLE
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/051000.htm#feature
"All change for search technology?"
By Pita Enriquez Harris
If you thought you were just getting a grip on the whole web
searching/search engine registration issue, think again. Technology
is being developed which insiders believe may have the ability to turn
the whole searching model on its head.
For most people in the pharmaceutical industry, for instance, the ins
and outs of web searching will have two main applications; to help
them find information (which if they enjoy the benefits of a large
organisation, they may still find is best and most reliably done by
phoning their medical information department), and as one of the means
by which they can promote their Web-based marketing campaigns.
What if search engines became irrelevant?
If search engines didn't have such a phenomenally hard task we'd all
hate them. As it is, to be able to make any sense out of the one
billion randomly-filed, uncensored collection of pages that comprise
the World-Wide-Web is something for which the majority of Web
users are very grateful. That doesn't mean we wouldn't like a better
way to find information. And if you have anything to do with
promoting a Web site to search engines you may have shared the
frustration of many of your peers, that most search engines won't
index your new Web pages for days, maybe weeks, and even then the
content to which searchers are referred will be a couple of weeks out
of date.
You may have heard of Napster, the MP3 file searching application that
has turned the music industry on its head and is the subject of a
copyright infringement suit. What Napster and its ilk herald is a
whole new way to search for information, one that could theoretically
do away with the need for search engines like Google and Altavista -
provided that all Web publishers cooperate and actively share their
hard drives with the rest of the world. And there's the rub.
Napster, and the more recent Gnutella are file-searching programs
which work in a fundamentally different way to 'traditional' search
engines. Google et al. use programs ('spiders'), which crawl all over
the Web, deconstructing Web pages and recording their findings in
their search index. When you search for a page in Google, what you
locate is Google's reference to that page, and whatever Google found
last time its crawler visited that page. With Gnutella, your search
query is sent out to a network of computers that have been volunteered
to participate. It works its way around the network until it finds
some information to satisfy your query upon which the results are
returned to you.
Gene Kan, one of the original developers of Gnutella and a team at a
new start-up Gonesilent.com have gone on to develop new Internet
searching technology known as Infrasearch. Instead of relying on a
central server-based index of the Web as its first port of call, sites
that agree to be part of the network simply run a piece of software
inside their databases, and share the very latest search results, with
people searching for it via the Infrasearch site.
For example, you might search for the latest news on "health
economics" using InfraSearch about and if InPharm.com were running the
Infrasearch search agent in its Web content database, you could
immediately identify all of the stories about "health economics" that
had been written on InPharm.com up to that minute. Real-time
searching!
It is an old-fashioned idea in Internet terms - the idea that you
share out the workload of processing across a network of computers.
Known collectively as Peer-to-Peer software, companies developing P2P
software such as Gonesilent and Applesoup are being talked about as
the Next Big Thing. The exact business model is something no-one
seems worried about at the moment - but when Marc Andreesen, one of
the founders of Netscape invests his own cash and describes this as
something that will do "for search what the Internet did for
communications," you can understand why venture capitalists have
become interested.
What might it mean to us, the regular users of the Internet, searchers
of information and publishers of content?
This raises quite a few questions. In a world where centralised
search engines aren't so important, it is likely that we'd have to
learn new tricks to promote Web sites. Why invest in expensive search
technology for your own site when the Infrasearch engine inside your
database takes care of everything? On the other hand, how fast will
such an engine really be when it has to go at the pace of some of the
slower computers hooked into the network? More importantly, how
crucial a resource would something like Infrasearch ever become if
enough people don't play along?
Unlike 'traditional' search engines that will list even pages whose
authors don't announce the pages' presence to the search engines,
Infrasearch only works when enough people 'buy in' to the concept.
And here, 'buy-in' means the whole bit; share and be truthful about
your information - all the time. Did you ever hear about the practice
of "Napster bombing"? This is where people mislabel their MP3 files
to mislead people downloading files, so that you might receive porn
when you were searching for something by the Spice Girls.
It is the same principle as search engine spamming. You can't
completely stop this, but 'traditional' search engines, because they
have ultimate control over their precious search index, can do a lot
to mitigate the problem. It is hard to see how a decentralised search
like Infrasearch could do the same. Imagine the opportunity to
misrepresent something to increase sales or drive advertising. People
lie; it's in our nature.
Larry Page, CEO of the search world's latest star, Google, is
apparently not worried about the threat posed by this type of
technology. I have to say that I'm with him here. I love what the
Net can do and what it already has done for information sharing and
communication. Nothing in business works properly if it completely
requires everyone to play nicely with the other kids and eventually
things only work well when the people running the system make money.
Who, apart from the taxman, ever made a lot of money from getting
people to behave?
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Pita Enriquez Harris is one of the founders of The Oxford
Knowledge Company, which provides intelligent content solutions for
Web sites and intranets, information monitoring services as well as
training and software to assist companies with managing information
from the Internet. Other articles by Pita Harris and free BullsEye
Web searching software are available at
<http://www.oxford-knowledge.co.uk> Email: pita@oxford-knowledge.com
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Related Free Pint links:
* "Internet Searching" links and articles in the Free Pint Portal
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/industry/industry.php3?category_id=185>
* Respond to this article and chat to the author now at the Bar
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/051000.htm#feature>
* Access the entire archive of Free Pint content
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/>
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>>> ALL FREE PINT'S CONTENT IN ONE PLACE <<<
The Content section of the Free Pint Portal gives you quick access to:
* All Free Pint articles by year and industry
* All issues by year and have them emailed to you
* Archive of all the Today's Tipples at the Bar
Visit today: <http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/>
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FREE PINT PORTAL
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal
The Free Pint Submit service which I announced in the last edition has
proven extremely popular. If you visit the Web site homepage then in
the "Tools" box on the right-hand side you'll see "Submit to Engines".
Simply enter your Web site address here and you'll be asked which of
the major search engines you'd like to submit your site to. It can
also be used directly at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/submit>.
New link sites are being added to the Portal constantly at
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal> and the Science category (among
others) has just received a number of new entries. The resources we
add are generally gateway sites or portals which provide a starting
point for your research. In building the Portal we decided that it is
much better for us to point you to expert sites who can indicate the
best resources, rather than link to individual sites themselves.
Therefore if you know of a good gateway site or portal which relates
to one of our 88 categories then please let us know.
Our eCommerce system is progressing well and we've just made a major
shift in solution provider. We were previously with WorldPay but have
moved to DataCash for their flexibility and range of options. Our
secure server is in place and we're just waiting for the certificate
which should be here by the end of the week. All of this will enable
us to offer you a range of pay-per-view business information
databases. I hope you'll enjoy being able to access these without
having to pay a subscription charge or search fee.
We've also been working on a major new service for the site which I'll
be announcing shortly. We've been asked for it repeatedly by our
members and so it will be a timely addition to the site.
The Student Bar at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/student> is becoming
increasingly popular and a number of resources have been added. We do
ask for you input though on what you'd like to see here.
Finally, there are now over 300 international topic categories in the
live Free Pint News section at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/news>. If
you haven't tried out this major free resource then please make a note
to visit. News headlines are added constantly throughout the day and
the full text of a story is only a click away.
William Hann, Managing Editor <william@freepint.co.uk>
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The Free Pint Portal gives you access to the full range of Free Pint
content by industry and country as well as a large number of
selected external resources at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal>.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/events
There are lots of events coming up in the UK over the next few weeks.
There'll be the Online Information for the City exhibition in London
and the eBiz Summit in Warwickshire.
In the US, the Intranets EAST event will be taking place in Virginia
and the Facets of Digital Reference event takes place in Washington
this year.
Back in the UK, William Hann will be talking at the SLA's Global 2000
conference and exhibition in Brighton, and the Association of UK Media
Librarians Conference in Leicester. Overlapping with Global 2000 will
be AdTech Europe in Amsterdam, Holland and the eRetailing 2000
conference in London, UK. Finally, don't forget the Free Pint
Roadshow to which you are invited, which will be visiting Lougborough,
Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester and Aberystwyth in early November.
More details at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/roadshow.htm>.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
Full details of these and many other forthcoming conferences and
exhibitions in the online-information and Internet industries can be
found on the Free Pint Events page <http://www.freepint.co.uk/events>.
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FREE PINT GOLD
The sort of financial information that was only available to
professionals and large companies is now available to anyone with
access to the Web, according to the author of our Tips article this
time last year. The feature article expounds on the value of links to
a site when it comes to evaluating the quality of that site.
* Free Pint No.47, 7th October 1999 "Sources of UK Financial
Information on the Internet" and "Getting Good References"
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/071099.htm>.
This time two years ago we had an article on the subject of viruses,
how to recognise them and deal with them. We also had an article
about coffee as a product and where to find information on it on the
Web.
* Free Pint No.23, 1st October 1998 "The Good Times are not about to
end, unfortunately" and "There's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil:
Coffee information on the Web"
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/011098.htm>.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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If you have a suggestion for an article topic or would like to write
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Rex Cooke, Editor <rex@freepint.co.uk>
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you to help us spread the word.
If you have any ideas of new services you'd like us to develop then
don't hesitate to get in touch. We are keen to continually enhance
Free Pint for the benefit of all members.
See you in two weeks!
William Hann, Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk
(c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2000
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CONTACT INFORMATION
William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Founder and Managing Editor
e: william@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Rex Cooke FIInfSc FRSA, Editor
e: rex@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1342 316027 f: +44 (0)1342 316027
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e: simon@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1865 434143 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Address
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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free newsletter written by information
professionals who share how they find quality and reliable information
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About this Newsletter
- Publication Date: 4th October 2000
- Plain text
- Link: https://www.jinfo.com/go/newsletter/72
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