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Tales from the Terminal RoomMay 2005, Issue No. 62 |
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Please Note: This is an archive copy of the newsletter. The information and links that it contains are not updated.
Tales from the Terminal Room ISSN 1467-338X
May 2005, Issue No. 62
Editor: Karen Blakeman
Published by: RBA Information Services
Tales from the Terminal Room (TFTTR) is a monthly newsletter, with the exception of July and August which are published as a single issue. TFTTR includes reviews and comparisons of information sources; updates to the RBA Web site Business Sources and other useful resources; dealing with technical and access problems on the Net; and news of RBA's training courses and publications.
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If you missed Inforum 2005, held in Prague on May 24th - 26th, the conference papers are now available at http://www.inforum.cz/inforum2005/english/sbornik.php. Notes and Powerpoint slides from my workshop "Top Tips for expert Searching" are at the bottom of the page.
Photos are also available at http://www.inforum.cz/inforum2005/English/galerie.php and at the IKAROS online journal: http://www.ikaros.cz/images/2005Inforum/kuloary2/index.htm http://www.ikaros.cz/images/2005Inforum/info_galerie/index.htm
This was my first visit to Inforum and as well as learning a lot from both the presenters and the delegates, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Inforum 2006 takes place on May 23rd to the 25th. Although some of the papers are presented in Czech, it does not matter if you do not speak the language; simultaneous translations are available.
http://www.twingine.com/
YaGoohoo!gle, mentioned in the April edition of TFTTR, has become Twingine. It has the same features (compares Google and Yahoo side by side) but the title and URL are much easier to remember!
If you are into comparing search tools side by side try Graball (http://www.graball.com/), which offers a wider range of options.
http://www.ask.com/
Zoom (subtitled Concept Navigation) "offers suggestions to narrow and refine your search ("zooming in"), or expand your search ("zooming out") to explore new ideas." The Zoom suggestions should appear on the right hand side of your results page. I found that if you carry out a fairly precise search such as my 'gin vodka sales UK' test search, nothing appears in the Zoom section. A search on 'climate change', though, suggests that I might like to narrow my search to global warming, global warming causes, global warming impact etc. Alternatively, it suggests I could expand my search using strategies such as Kyoto Protocol, Ice Age theory.
The new Web Answers claims to extend "Ask Jeeves' direct-answering abilities by mining unstructured data in real time." This part of Ask Jeeves is apparently triggered by questions, phrases or keywords for example "how....". "what.....". I tried what I thought was a straightforward question - how fast can a hippopotamus swim? It did not help that the top five results were sponsored web results for swimwear and swimsuits at Marks and Spencers. Ten minutes later and when I had stopped laughing I found that none of the "real" links gave me an answer and the Zoom option to narrow my search suggested two queries: how many bones does a hippopotamus have and how fast can a hippopotamus run. Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) comes up with a possible and credible answer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus) straight away.
"Why is the grass green", a test search suggested to me by Neil Infield, did not do much better until I had worked through two levels of the Zoom searches. The first results were offering me lawn care services, grass seed and astro turf.
In conclusion, I found Zoom to be a useful additional tool. If it does not appear next to your results list then that suggests you are already running quite a precise search. As for Web Answers - pass me that hippo sized swimsuit, I've obviously had too many gin and vodka cocktails:-)
http://mindset.research.yahoo.com/
"View Yahoo! Search results sorted according to whether they are more commercial or more informational (i.e., from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources)."
I really like this one. Type in your search and Yahoo! Mindset gives you the first 10 results with a slider bar at the top of the page. At one end of the bar is "shopping" and at the other "researching". You start off in the middle and can slide the bar in either direction to change the emphasis.
A test search on 'gin vodka sales UK' actually came up with a good result at number 1 with the slider in the middle - the Gin and Vodka Association (yes, there really is one and their site has some good statistics!). Moving the slider towards 'researching' started to move the Gin & Vodka Association down the list but brought in equally interesting data I might otherwise have missed. As expected, moving the slider towards 'shopping' brought up sites selling gin and/or vodka, books on Amazon telling me how to make gin and vodka cocktails and a site with the wonderful name of Dinky Drinks!
More research orientated strategies such as 'climate change' and 'hubbert peak oil' were not as varied and the shopping side was more about books on the subject. What this did highlight, though, was that shifting the bar in either direction significantly altered the results that appeared in the top 10 and presented pages that one might not have normally seen.
Highly recommended.
http://print.google.com/
At last Google Print has its own search screen and you can search the whole database. Previously, you had to use the standard search screen and use the strategy 'books about...' whatever you were interested in and even then it only displayed three titles. Google have warned that there is a large backlog of books to be added, so do not be too upset if you have submitted a publication and it is not yet included.
http://missingpieces.dogpile.com/missingpiecestool.aspx
A neat little tool from meta search tool Dogpile that compares the top 10 results from Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. The graphic shows how many results are in only 1, 2 or in all 3 search engines for a particular search and includes sponsored links from the top of the pages. Dogpile have also produced a white paper (PDF format) on the subject entitled Missing Pieces: A Study of First Page Web Search Engine Results Overlap.
The findings are no great surprise to many of us but it is always useful to have our experiences confirmed. I find that the degree of overlap varies with the search: sometimes it can be as low as 2-3% in the first 100 results whilst on other occasions it can be as high as 90%.
If you want to compare a wider range of search tools and their top 100 results try Thumbshots Ranking (http://ranking.thumbshots.com/)
http://bb.1asphost.com/subjectfinder/
I found this site via the Internet Resources Newsletter: Issue 129 (http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn129/irn129.html)
"Subject Finder is developed by Teum Teklehaimanot to help students, teachers and lecturers find educational websites easily without being overwhelmed with a huge number of search results. It is designed to search only educational websites which contain tutorials, learning and teaching materials such as Accounting, Arts and Design, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Computing, Construction, Counselling, Economics, Electronics, Engineering, Geography, Health, History, Law, Languages, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Reference, Science, Social Science, Sociology, Travel, etc."
You can browse by subject or carry out a keyword search. Although the site says that it searches only educational web sites, that does not mean it is restricted to academic pages. I found some good quality resources on a number of topics from organisations such as trade and professional associations. I am definitely adding this service to my collection of "specialty" search tools.
http://www.blinkx.tv/
Having extolled the virtues of the radio broadcast transcripts in the April TFTTR, I recently discovered that BBC radio is no longer available via Blinkx :-( There are still plenty of television broadcasts, though, to keep a news junkie like me happy.
At the end of each of our business information workshops we ask the delegates to come up with a list of Top 10 sites. At the June event held at Manchester Business School, the delegates could not agree when it came to narrowing down their collective list to 10, so we allowed them a round dozen. Interestingly, a number of these were search strategies rather than individual sites.
http://www.bvdep.com/
Bureau van Dijk's M&A database, Zephyr, has been increased to more than 300,000 deals. Zephyr contains information on M&A, IPO and private equity deals and includes company financials. In addition to current deal information, historical deal information has been added for Asia and other regions. There is now five years of global coverage. Deals involving US or European companies go back to the beginning of 1997. More information on Zephyr can be found on the BvD web site or by calling +44 20 7549 5000.
http://www.mindbranch.com/catalog/rssfeeds.jsp
MindBranch, a market research aggregator, is now offering RSS feeds that alert users to new reports in specific industry sectors. There is a separate feed setup for each branch and industry in the MindBranch catalog. Each feed contains the title, description, publication date, and a link to detailed information on the 10 most recent reports published.
http://www.eevlxtra.ac.uk/
A new service from EEVL that helps you find articles, key websites, books, the latest industry news, job announcements, ejournals, eprints, technical reports, and the latest research in engineering, mathematics, and computing. EEVL Xtra searches databases and resources that most search engines miss.
http://www.askoxford.com/
This free online dictionary resource from OUP offers a Word of the Day, Quote of the Week, games and a Frequently asked Questions section. The last includes a link to Collective Terms for Animals (http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/collective/?view=uk) - useful for settling arguments and checking your pub quiz Q&A. We were having a heated discussion regarding the correct collective noun for a group of hippopotamuses. Yes, sad, isn't it? We had a laptop and mobile coms but a Google search came up with all sorts of terms, some of them hotly disputed. Where do we Brits go to in situations such as this? Answer - the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Unfortunately, we could not access my own multi volume hard copy but AskOxford came up with the answer, or rather answers. For the record, a group of hippos can be a pod, a bloat, a herd or a school. Now you know!
Question:
Are there any free web sites that identify the country in which a company is registered?
Answer:
Try the free directory at http://www.bvdep.com/. Click on the "Free directory" link and enter the company name. The results list gives you the name, sector, town, country and official company registration number. It is by no means comprehensive, though, and for some countries does not cover the smaller companies.
Another directory to try is Kompass at http://www.kompass.com/ . Click on the Company Name tab, leave the region as world-wide and type in the company. Again it is far from comprehensive but often picks up the smaller companies. The free information includes company name, address, telephone and fax numbers. More detailed data can be bought on a pay as you go basis. A completely free directory worth looking at is Europages (http://www.europages.com/) but as it's name suggests it is restricted to Europe.
All of these will of course pick up all companies with the same name or partial name as your target company, so you'll need to make sure you are looking at the right company. Once you have identified the country, you can then go to the official company register for further information. A country by country list can be found at the Commercial Register Office of the Canton St. Gallen (http://www.hrasg.ch/eng/welt-e.htm) and on the Companies House site at http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/links/introduction.shtml#reg . Some registers make the information freely available whilst others charge on a pay as you go basis or up front subscription.
http://www.turbo10.com/
I wasn't sure whether this should go in the Search Tools section or be listed as a "Gizmo". I decided on the latter because this meta search tools lets you build your own meta search collection. Turbo10 has a list of over 800 sites and search tools in its database from which you can build your meta search collection. For example, I have set up a group of blog search tools such as Blogarama, Feedster, Technorati etc. If your favourite search tool is not in the list, click on the Add a Search Engine link and a wizard takes you through the steps need to add the site. You may find, though, that the search tool you want to add is structured in such a way that Turbo10 cannot create an interface to it.
The main drawback of Turbo 10 is that your "collections" are stored in a cookie on your machine. If you clear out your cookies periodically or use another machine you have to "reload" your collections. You are asked to enter your email address - you have to provide this when you create a new collection - and a link is then sent to you. Load this link into your browser and you have your collections back.
Workshop:
Untangling your web: effective web site management
Organiser: Manchester Business
School
Presenter: Karen Blakeman
Venue: MBS, Manchester
Date: Wednesday, 14th September
2005
Course fee: £215 + VAT -
BIS/BINN members. Others £250 + VAT.
URL: http://www.mbs.ac.uk/bis-training
Workshop:
Business Information on the Internet: Free vs. Fee
Organiser: TFPL
Presenter: Karen Blakeman
Venue: TFPL, London
Date: Thursday, 6th October 2005
Course fee: £295.00 + VAT.
URL: http://www.tfpl.com/
Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services
UK Tel: 0118 947 2256, Int. Tel: +44 118 947 2256
UK Fax: 0870 056 8547, Int. Fax: +44 870 056 8547
Address: 88 Star Road, Caversham, Berks RG4 5BE, UK
TFTTR archives: http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/archives/index.shtml
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Copyright (c) 2005 Karen Blakeman. All rights reserved
| This page was last updated on 24th June 2005 | Copyright © 2005 Karen
Blakeman. All rights reserved |