Archive | CIL2009

Steve Cohen

That’s what Steve Abram said when he introduced Steve Cohen’s session, What’s Hot in RSS.  The reason for the title is because Steve Cohen did some cattle ranching at one time.  He did another A to Z roundup of RSS tools (really Z to A this time).  Here’s the list (the URLs are available on Steve’s blog).

Z:  Zoho 
Y: YouTube RSS Search
X:
W:  Wwwhatsnew.com  (it’s in Spanish!)
V: Votes Database (it was created by an intern at the Washington Post for free).  See how legislators voted.
U: JD Supra (there’s a U in it!).  Documents that lawyers put up on the Web
T: Tic Tocs.  Journal Table of Contents service
S: Scribd.  A “YouTube” for PDF documents
R: Ravelry.  Social networking tool for knitters
Q: QuestionPoint.
P: Page 2 RSS.  Creates a feed from a page that doesn’t have one.
O: Open  Congress.  Feed for bills, issues, committees, etc.
N:
M:  Mashable.  Social networking guide
L: LibraryThing
K: KillerStartups
J: Justia Dockets.  Federal District Court filings and dockets
I: I Want To.  I want to do something. What will help me do it?
H: Hunch.  (Not launched yet.) Helps you make decisions.
G: Google Reader
F: Facebook
E: E-Hub.  Web applications, services, sites on Web2.0 and social software
D: Deepest Sender.  Automatic posting to your blog
C: Compfight.  Image search–can use original content, creative commons, etc.
B: Backup URL.  Create a cached copy of a URL in case it goes down
A: Awesome Highlighter.  Lets you highlight text on a web page

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today  and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

Dead Tech speaker Darlene Fichter‘s slides are the feature presentation on SlideShare’s tech page.

Inspired by CIL???

Did our Twitter trending (meaning we were the top Twitterers at one time) tweak the imagination of this cartoonist? Did Bizarro watch our live stream of NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber’s keynote [see earlier story for archive of this feed] or listen into our Dead Tech evening discussion?

Jane Dysart, Conference Program Planning

Mobile Search

Megan Fox continued her coverage of mobile devices in the Searching track.  Mobile searchers have specific information they are looking for,  such as facts or answers. They don’t want to look at lists of hits.  So searches tend to be just one word–very quick and direct.  The major search engines generally present sites like weather, maps, and events first.  Lots of searches are geographically oriented: local sites near you.

Many times, mobile search means turning to the traditional search engines (Google, MSN Live, and Yahoo)  but using them for finding, not searching.  There are 3 types of search tools:  on deck (search button on “desktop”), off deck (open browser, go to search engine), and applications (the device comes preloaded with separate searching software).  Google found that people using a downloaded application, they get results 40% quicker and do 20% more searches. 

Yahoo! has developed some advanced mobile search features, such as OnePlace (a shortcut to common search topics) and OneSearch (a special interface designed for the BlackBerry).  Yahoo! is trying to have phone  manufactures pre-download their application into new phones.  Google is counting on its market  leadership and familiarity to searchers and trusting that searchers will access their service, even if Yahoo! was pre-loaded on their phone.

Photo Mobile Search

Mobile Photo Search

Sometimes searches can be done with an image, so you don’t  have to enter the  information with your fingers.  You can even photograph bar codes and receive the product information.  For example, in Japan, MacDonald’s placemats have codes on them, and when you take a picture, you get nutritional information!  If you take a picture of a well known scene, photo recognition can provide you with hyperlinks to information about it.  We already have voice-activated speed dialing, but some search software can be used to input searches.  (See my report on Megan’s talk this morning for more on these technologies.)

Mobile Social Search

Mobile Social Search

Given the emphasis on social networking,  it should be no surprise that social sites especially for mobile phones have been developed.

Searching will never be the same!

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL  2009 Blog Coordinator