Phil Bradley's weblog

Leap.it; a new visual search engine

Leap.it is quite fun. Whack in a search term and it will produce results in a magazine item format/style with images. You can also create an account and with that have a series of 'perspectives' which is their fancy way of bookmarking content that you can come back to later. Leap.it is happy with Boolean operators and it can also cope with site: searches, intitle: and so on - though it doesn't say so, I suspect that it's therefore getting a bunch of its content via Google. Searches can also be filtered to all, web, video, images, news and social.

Leap.it is a nice search engine - simple and easy to use, but attractive. I'd really like the chance to rank stuff in date order, since I'm not entirely convinced that their relevance algorithm works too well, but it's worth taking a look at.

finderoo - meta search engine

Despite the name and logo, www.finderoo.com isn't Australian - it's based in Germany. It is supposed to search across a number of other search engines for you, but there's no indication at all as to which ones they use, which isn't terribly helpful. It does have a number of search options - as well as searching the web, it will search images, video, news, blogs and 'knowledge'. There is also an option to filter results using the 'Topic' option, which is used to rather better effect by engines such as Carrot2 as this one takes a bunch of words that it finds and tries to work with those. Filtered topics for the search on 'CILIP' for example are 'The Leading', 'Institute of', and 'Body for', which really don't help at all. Searchers can limit by domain, such as .com or .org and there's a family filter. The latter is so bad it's laughable, so cross this one off the list if you don't ever want to see adult content.

I'm merely including this one because it was suggested to me, but it's not an engine that I'd really suggest spending much of your time on.

Squify 3D search engine

This search engine calls itself The Next Dimension in Web Applications but to be honest, that's a bit of hyperbole in my opinion. However, what it is, is a very nice visual search engine. Run your search (which is private and it isn't kept) and you'll get a nice carousel of webpages with large thumbnails, and you can flick through them quickly. You can then click on a down arrow to look at the next collection and so on.

It's attractive, and it also offers to give the majority of ad clicked profits to charity, which is never a bad thing. It's an interesting version on visual search engines such as RedZ and Spacetime 3D, but I can't imagine that Google is getting worried.

 

About.me People Search

About.me is a personalised home page which makes it easier for people to find you, and see your activities on the internet - or at least those ones you choose to share. It's a reasonable tool - the kind of thing that would be good to add to a business card or in a .sig file for example. They have now added in a people search as well. Interest, place, organisation or name are the options given. You get a list of people who match your search returned to you, and you can then access their page to view the information that they've made available.

It's a nice tool - it listed 677 librarians, and it's easy to add in extra terms to filter down to the people that you want. It's not comprehensive, because it only lists the people that it knows about, and that's limited to what they decide to say about themselves, but within those parameters it's worth a look if you're trying to find someone.

Google introduces in-depth articles to the UK

If you prefer to use the UK version of Google rather than the .com version you may already have seen 'in depth' articles in your search results. For those people who use google.com this is something that we've seen for some time. Basically Google will provide you with 3 articles related to your keyword, and you'll find them towards the bottom of the page of results. The idea is that you'll continue to use Google as a self contained ready reference tool, but unfortunately as my screenshot shows, I'd have to question the value of the articles that they find.

Does Google seriously think that articles written in 2009, 2011 and 2012 are going to be the most helpful ones out there? A search for surveillance also gave me articles from 2012. How is this helpful? In comparison, Silobreaker gave me a huge wealth of material, both current and archival, with video, images, in focus pieces, networks, blogged material, quotes, press releases and a whole host more. Google can't lay a glove on a resource as comprehensive, authoritative and current as that. Too little, too late Google.

Internet Librarian International - final call for speakers

Internet Librarian International (ILI) is without a doubt my favourite library related conference. It's a really fun packed and interesting two day event taking place this year on 20-22nd October, taking place at Olympia. This year we're seeking international case studies, How-Tos and discussions in a variety of new formats - see below - that promote the exchange of knowledge and experience, and demonstrate how you are using transformative new ideas and services to make a positive impact on your organisation. Under the theme, Positive Change: Creating Real Impact we're looking for a range of presentation formats, including:

• 30-minute scene-setting themed papers
• 15-minute case study presentations
• Teachmeet/unconference contributors
• Workshop leaders
• Panellists

So, if you're thinking of getting involved, this is the time to do it! G'wan - you know you want to!

More image search engines

People are always in search of images that they can use, and so I have found a few more search engines that can be used for exactly that purpose.

PicJumbo says "totally free photos for your commercial & personal works". There's a search option, or you can approach via categories. Didn't find any for libraries or books I'm afraid, but the pictures there were large, very good quality and in a number of different styles.

Gratisography is another CC site with free high resolution images which can be used for personal or commercial projects. Only a small number, and no search option, but the pictures are really attractive.

Pixabay has a larger collection - there were over 200 'library' photographs and over 700 books. Filters are available to reduce the number, and quite a lot are clipart or icons.

Photopin offers free photographs for bloggers and creatives, and they all seem to be CC with attribution. Nice search function, which pulled up lots of library and books pictures, with opportunities to filter as well. 

Unsplash doesn't have a search function, and the images are mainly of places/geography but they really are stunning. 10 new pictures every 10 days.

New Old Stock is a fantastic site. Lots of old photographs in the public domain. Marvel at British Transport trams! Enjoy the 3-man bicycle! Look at firemen gorging on doughnuts! It'll keep you amused by the hour. No search function though.

Thanks to Dustin Stout for his list, which I cherry picked. You can see more options, plus stock sites by visiting the link.