KnoxSearch

Invisible Web 2009 September 28, 2009

The invisible or deep web is still with us, but search engines are evolving with more sophisticated advanced search features.  Those new features allow searchers to drill down below the surface web an discover previously “hidden” information.  We also have greater access to web sites that specialize in guiding us below the web surface.  The following sites are a few of my favorites:

Librarian’s Internet Index,     Infomine,     The Internet Archive,

The Complete Planet,     Incywincy,     The WWW Virtual Library,

Direct Search-Gary Price,     Pandia Search Central,     GPO Access

Google Docs May 11, 2009

A great new Web 2.0 tool exists in the form of Google Docs.  Sign up for your own account and use the whole suite of Google Docs and create, collaborate, and share documents where ever you have an internet connection.

Our Future July 26, 2008

Since our future will be controlled by how we deal with the first energy crisis of the 21st Century, there are a number of web resources that will keep us informed. While oil may not be our future, it is a central element of our current energy needs. Keep up to date on the price of crude oil.  Check out T. Boone Picken’s web site or “Drill Here Drill Now” for recent proposals to address our energy needs.

Wikis April 29, 2008

From the voice of Wikipedia, perhaps the best known wiki of today, “a wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.” Wikis are particularly useful in educational environments and can be used to present online classes in much the same way that proprietary software such as Blackboard does. A number of sites, like PBwiki offer free wiki hosting. Please feel free to visit my wiki in progress.

The Invisible Web March 10, 2008

The “invisible web” or “deep web” is that region of the World Wide Web that is not generally found by search engines.  Advances in search engine technology, however, have reduced the size of the invisible web and there are a number of web sites that contain links to “invisible web” sites.  One advance in search engine technology is found in Google’s advanced search feature.  The format setting allows the searcher to limit their search to particular file formats.  PDF, PowerPoint, MS Word, and MS Excel documents posted on the Internet were once part of the invisible web, but with this feature many of those documents can now be harvested.  There are a number of web sites devoted to tracking, explaining, and exploring the invisible web.  “Those Dark Hiding Places:  The Invisible Web Revealed” is one of those sites.  Another highly recommended Deep Web directory is “CompletePlanet”.  Two deep web resources that I have found beneficial are the “Internet Scout Project” and “Librarians Index to the Internet”.

All the News March 4, 2008

Given the immediacy of the Internet, what better place to go for “breaking news”. Most major newspapers have a presence on the world wide web which is not news. A few sites related to the news media that are of particular note follow. Newseum has several important features but one of the most fascinating is Today’s Frontpage. Today’s Frontpage provides a glimpse at the front page of newspapers across the globe. Newslink is an aggregator and a must stop when searching for news. Google News allows the user to search countless news sources for articles by topic or keyword. It also allows the user to set up an email alert based on search terms. Google will send the user an email whenever the search terms are matched by a news story.

What’s Happening? March 4, 2008

There are a number of websites that provide a window on the public mood.  One of those sites is a favorite of political junkies this year.  Real Clear Politics provides links to current news stories and columns, but more importantly, it provides polling data and charts that are continually updated.  A slightly different type of data is provided by Pew Research or the US Census Bureau.  Speaking of the US Census Bureau, USA.GOV is a treasure trove of information and resources.  Spend some time on any of these sites and you will walk away with more information than you can handle.

Information in Video Format March 3, 2008

We not only live in an information age, we live in a video age as well.  YouTube reflects the Internet at large and therefore requires a discriminating search strategy.  However, there is an increasing number of instructional videos and tutorials available on their site.  A similar site that is more readily available in public schools is a video resource for teachers called TeacherTube.  Big Think is a relatively new site dedicated to providing “unfiltered interviews with today’s leading thinkers, movers and shakers.”   iTunesU, which is available for Windows as well as Apple platforms, now provides video podcasts of hundreds of college classes from MIT and many other highly rated universities.  You will find iTunesU in the iTunes store, but most if not all of the lectures are free.  Also don’t overlook commercial services like Netflix.  Netflix subscribers have access to streaming video at no extra cost.  In addition to feature films Netflix also offers access to a number of educational videos and documentaries.

Wikipedia: Yes? No? March 2, 2008

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is still the subject of controversy. The controversy results from the process by which it is created. It’s platform is wiki software and it is therefore the product of collaboration. Almost anyone can be a contributor. I say almost, because you must be a registered user in order to edit articles. There are contributors with Ph.D’s, and I suspect there could be those without high school diplomas also contributing. The primary argument for this resource is that the contributors monitor the articles and any aberrant edits are quickly corrected. Those against argue that Wikipedia lacks the professional editing process of traditional print encyclopedias.

I would suggest that Wikipedia not be banned outright, but rather subjected to an evaluation process like any resource, and that it not be used as a source in and of itself in any academic paper.

For further consideration read the following articles:

Why You Can’t Cite Wikipedia in My Class*

Pew/Internet report on Wikipedia users

Why Wikipedia just gets better*

10 Things you didn’t know about Wikipedia*

*Should these links fail, simply login to Marvel (see link on the right) and paste the title into the search box.