Web Search–Google
Google Makes Searching Phrases Containing “Stop Words” Easier
Nate Taylor of Google informs the VAS&ND of a new feature that will make searching for exact phrases containing stop words (common words including a, be, by, to, etc.) easier. Google permits you to search on a stopword by placing a + in front of the term(s). Previously, searching a phrase with stop words required the searcher to place a + in front of each term. For example: “+to +be +or not +to +be”. This is NO LONGER necessary. Google now automatically recognizes phrases that contain stopwords and will the complete phrase searchable without having to add the + in front of each term. Examples: “to be or not to be”, “how are you”, “what you see is what you get”. Remember, place your phrases inside “quotation marks”.

Web Search–AltaVista UK
Report: AltaVista UK Increases Index Size, Content
From the annoucement, “AltaVista�s new search index, which in the UK has increased threefold in the last year combines all their regional and global indexes into one. This means that on the AltaVista UK site, users can continue to access all worldwide (.com) information or specifically request. UK site.” So, AV has combined all of their regional indexes and main index into a signal database. What this means for the database in terms of currency is yet to be determined. Reports and tests have shown the primary database to be many months old. Hopefully, this may signal a conplete AV database refresh coming soon. Stay tuned.
See Also: Direct to AltaVista UK Engine
See Also: Mirago (Another UK only engine. Several unique ways to sort results)

Online Information–Fee Based–ISI’S Web Of Knowledge
Official Product Launch: ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) Releases Web of Knowledge 1.0
The service has been online for some time but yesterday was apparently the “official launch”. From the announcement, “The ISI Web of Knowledge content is multidisciplinary, and supports research conducted at academic, corporate, government, and not-for-profit organizations worldwide. From a single point of entry, ISI Web of Knowledge integrates ISI Web of Science(R) and ISI Current Contents Connect(R) with patent data (Derwent Innovations Index(SM)), proceedings information (ISI Proceedings(SM)), life sciences literature (BIOSIS Previews(R)), structural chemistry (ISI Chemistry(SM)), analytical and evaluation tools (ISI Essential Science Indicators(SM) and ISI Journal Citation Reports(R)), bibliographic management tools (EndNote(R), ProCite(R), Reference Manager(R)), and evaluated Web content.” “CrossSearch is one of the unique features of ISI Web of Knowledge. CrossSearch empowers the researcher to uncover essential information regardless of where it resides. With CrossSearch, users can access a specific ISI Web of Knowledge product or search across multiple products in the platform. Users can choose to search by specific fields (such as topic and author), or they can conduct natural language searches by entering words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs. In ISI Web of Knowledge version 1.0, four products will be CrossSearch enabled: ISI Web of Science, ISI Proceedings, BIOSIS Previews, and Derwent Innovations Index. Future versions will CrossSearch enable a suite of ISI Web of Knowledge products. CrossSearch will also extend its capabilities to content sources — such as Agricola and PubMed — residing outside the ISI Web of Knowledge environment.
See Also: Barbara Quint’s June 6, 2001 ITI News Break About Web of Knowledge
See Also: Read A Company Sponsored Essay On Web of Knowledge (includes a brief history of citation indexing).
Learn More: Read Eugene Garfield’s 1955 Science Article, “Citation Indexes for Science: A New Dimension in Documentation through Association of Ideas”

Web Search–Excite
Source: Reuters
“InfoSpace Wins Approval to Buy Excite Assets”
From the article, “Bellevue, Washington-based InfoSpace also said the Excite assets, which include trademarks, domain names and user traffic, would be at the center of a new service agreement with iWon, a privately held portal that offers daily cash giveaways to draw traffic. Under the deal, InfoSpace said it would power the search and directory portions of the Excite Web site, while the portal’s other pieces would be sold or licensed to iWon.” Chris Sherman reports this morning that Excite’s crawler will no longer be used to build the database. Keyword search results will be provided by the Dogpile metasearch engine. A search using Excite or Dogpile will return the same results. Dogpile search results primarily come from pay-per-click and paid inclusion engines such as Overture, Looksmart, FindWhat, Sprinks, About.Com, ePilot.com, Ah-ha.com, Kanoodle, direct hit, and others. Another change will see the directory at Excite moving to results provided by Looksmart. Bottom line: Another “unique” crawler and database of web content bites the dust.

Media Libraries
Source: SIMILE (Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education)
“The Evolution of Media Librarianship: A Tangled History of Change and Constancy”
This article is available in full-text. Thanks to RLG ShelfLife for the link

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
AIDS
United Nations, World AIDS Day Resources
December 1st is World AIDS Day, a UN sponsored Webcast is scheduled for November 30th.
See Also: More World AIDS Day Resources (via The Guardian)
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Geographic Information–United States
GeoCommunicator
Portal containing several geographic information tools and services. “GeoCommunicator is provided by the Bureau of Land Management & the U.S. Forest Service.”
Of Special Note:
GeoCom Explorer (ability to limit search to “Free Data”)
Land Manager Viewer
See Also: Learn More About the GeoCommunicator Site
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Computer Security–Lists & Rankings
Top 10 Computer Viruses of 2001
Compiled by ranking calls to the Sophos (a well-known computer security firm) helpdesk.

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