Web Search
Source: News.Com
Patents raise stakes in search wars
From the article, “Web companies are quietly amassing arsenals of search patents, as they prepare for a high-stakes war over the profitable technology that could one day control how most people get information.” On ResourceShelfPLUS, you can access a monthly update of search-related patents. It’s not a comprehensive list but if you’re interested in the topic, you might find it useful.

Web Search–Yahoo
Source: Reuters
Yahoo’s Semel and Yang Speak
+ Semel on social networking software…“‘At this moment in time, it’s exciting, it’s interesting, it’s viral,’ said CEO Terry Semel, a former Warner Brothers studio co-chief, at a Commonwealth Club meeting in Santa Clara, California. ‘We haven’t seen any business models around it yet. It’s an area we watch very closely.’”
+ Yang on new search technology… “‘At the end of the day, you just don’t use one search engine,’” Jerry Yang, a Yahoo co-founder and director, told attendees at the Commonwealth Club meeting, pointing to what he saw as Yahoo’s growing relevance as a search provider.”
+ Semel on ending relationship with Google… “Semel said that, in the end, in addition to wanting to create its own answer to Google, Yahoo needed search technology that was customized for use by its more than 130 million registered users. ‘We had been licensing technology that was not custom made for Yahoo,’ Semel said, referring to using Google’s search results.”
See Also: An Ad-Free Yahoo?

and in other Yahoo News…
Yahoo UK Has Added A Business Finder Database
Also available as a search tab here. Content licensed from Thomson Local.

Government Databases–United States
Source: Government Printing Office
New, GPO Makes Two Online Tools Available That Generate Direct Links to GPO Access Content
From the site, “Documents that exist within databases on GPO Access cannot be bookmarked. In order to link to these types of documents, a unique URL string must be created.” Simply select the database name from pull down menu, enter the Document ID number (instructions on how to find it are provided) and select the file type you want to link to (txt or pdf). Then click the “generate” button and a direct url to the document is provided. A separate tool must be used to create direct links to content from the Code of Federal Regulations.

Online Databases–Copyright
Source: News.Com
Court doesn’t extend databases’ protection
From the article, “In the first case of its kind, a federal court in New York has ruled that one company’s snatching of a database from a rival’s Web site does not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald said in an opinion released this week that Berkshire Information Systems did not run afoul of the controversial 1998 copyright law by allegedly downloading up to 85 percent of a proprietary advertising-tracking database from competitor Inquiry Management Systems’ (IMS) Web site.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Wi-Fi Hotspots–Database
Portable Version of Wi-Fi Hotspot Database Now Available from JiWire
JiWire is a searchable database of over 28,000 wi-fi hotspots located in more than 50 countries. The database can be searched online (it’s been available for about six months and has more than doubled in size), using a WAP enabled device, on a PDA (via Avantgo) or via a new offline laptop version that you download directly to your computer. You’ll need to register (free) to activate the software. You can search JiWire using several criteria, including airport code, country, city, zip code/post code. It’s also possible to expand your search by finding locations within a certain radius of a location. A results page includes the wi-fi provider name and pricing info. The site also includes a wi-fi glossary. A bit more about the company here.
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Human Rights
Source: U.S. Department of State
Just Released, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2003
Older editions of the report are also available.
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Consumer Assistance–United States
Source: Federal Consumer Information Center
Just Updated, The 2004 Edition of the Consumer Action Handbook is Now Online
You can also order up to ten copies of the print version (free). The consumer advice section of the Handbook is also available online in Spanish.
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Automobiles–United States–Lists and Rankings
Source: NICB
New Rankings Online Today, Most Stolen Vehicles: 2002
Five lists are available.
+ 2002 Top 25 Make and Model Thefts
+ Top Vehicle Thefts by Year, Make, and Model
+ Most Popular Years Stolen in 2002
+ Most Popular Colors Stolen in 2002
+ What Are the Top 25 Stolen Vehicles in Your State?

Library of Congress Briefs
+ Project To Place Papers of Thomas Jefferson Online Is Completed
+ Opening of Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun Papers at Library of Congress on March 4

Citation Indexing
Specialized Search Tools
Source: Institute for Scientific Information
Institute for Scientific Information and NEC To Build Index of Web-based Scholarship
Very interesting! ISI is going to launch an open-web citation indexing tool.

Background
ResourceShelf has mentioned and linked to Citeseer/ResearchIndex many times. It’s a web-based (and free) database that allows you to search and access scholarly (open-web accessible material) in computer science, info technology, and related areas. The database is built in an automated manner (autonomous citation indexing) and, along with direct links to the article, document conversion, citation analysis, and other services are made available. It’s an amazing technology developed by Lee Giles (currently at Penn St.), Steve Lawrence (currently at Google), Gary Flake (currently at Yahoo Research), and others at NEC Research.

Today’s Announcement
From the news release: “Thomson ISI and NEC Laboratories America (NEC) announced their collaboration to create a comprehensive, multidisciplinary citation index for Web-based scholarly resources. The new Web Citation Index will combine a suite of technologies developed by NEC, including ‘autonomous citation indexing’ tools from NEC’s CiteSeer environment, with the capabilities underlying ISI Web of Knowledge. During 2004, Thomson ISI and NEC will operate a pilot of the new resource to receive feedback from the scientific and scholarly community. Full access to the index is projected for early 2005. When fully operational, the new resource will be a unique content collection within ISI Web of Knowledge.”
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See Also: Lee Giles at Penn St. Has Created Three Other “Niche” Search Tools (Free)
Both offer citation indexing to web-based materials in two areas.
+ ResearchIndex@PSU
This is another version of ResearchIndex that Dr. Giles makes available. It is OAI compliant and will soon offer API access. Some of the content in this version is not in the ResearchIndex.Com database.
+ SmealSearch (business info, online since October 2003)
+ eBizSearch (electronic commerce info)
See Also: On a related note, NEC was recently awarded a patent for “focused crawler” technology.

Web Search–Microsoft
Source: News.Com
That Was Fast: Paul Ryan Exits Microsoft After Four Months
From the article, “The Microsoft executive charged with building a paid-search technology to compete with Yahoo and Google has quietly left the company after less than four months on the job, CNET News.com has learned…Microsoft spokeswoman Crystal Duncan confirmed that Ryan left on Feb. 12. She would not comment on the specifics of his departure, but added that the company is actively seeking his replacement. Christopher Payne, vice president of MSN Search and Shopping and a member of the search-technology advancement team at Microsoft, has taken over Ryan’s duties in the interim.”
See Also: Reuters Article from 10/30/2003, Mentions Ryan’s Hiring by MS
See Also: Ryan’s Resume via His Underture.Com Site

Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items)
Online Behavior
The Keeping Things Found Project Requests Your Help
On December 18th, we ran an item and plenty of links about the “Keeping Things Found” research project from Information School at the University of Washington. The KTF research team has contacted ResourceShelf and has asked for your help. They’re currently conducting a survey about your personal information management habits.
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Public Libraries–United States
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Full Text Report, Toward Equality of Access: The Role of Public Libraries in Addressing the Digital Divide
From the announcement, “‘Today, if you can reach a public library, you can reach the Internet,’ said Bill Gates, Sr., co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a featured speaker at the Public Library Association conference. ‘The challenge now is to continue providing this access that millions of our neighbors depend upon. Cuts in library budgets won�t turn off the Internet for wealthy or middle-class families. It will turn off the Internet for people who have nowhere else to turn.’” A bit more, “…libraries face serious challenges as they continue to provide access to digital information. In keeping pace with ever-evolving technology, libraries often lack sufficient resources and technical support to upgrade computer hardware, software and Internet connections. Librarians and staff members also must seek continued technology training to assist patrons and troubleshoot equipment. Severe budget cuts nationwide have caused some libraries to cut operating hours, lay off staff members or close altogether.”
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text Report ||| IMLS Press Release
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Open Archives
Source: OCLC Research
Full Text article, Open Archival information System Reference Model: Introductory Guide
A new article by Brian F. Lavoie, a researcher at OCLC.

Business Research–Searchable Database
An Update: The Scannery
About three months ago, ResourceShelf ran an item about a new “focused” search tool for investor-related information from companies around the word called The Scannery. Joseph Pols, developer of the database, has provided ResourceShelf an update with the latest news.
+ The Scannery currently contains info about more than 12,000 companies from more than 50 countries.
+ The crawler is “digging deeper” at each website.
+ “A very significant development is the addition of a new ’sister’ website to The Scannery. We found that some users were getting confused when they searched for, for example, FORD but did not find the Ford Motor Company ranking near the top of the results. This is because not all companies allow their websites to be indexed at all. Ford is one of them, as is IBM and Proctor and Gamble, among others. Therefore, the only results would be those documents on other websites which contain the search phrase. To help users, we have created a new ’sister’ website at http://www.timbukone.com. This new site (pronounced Tim Buck One), which does require free registration, allows a user to first choose a country, then navigate to a specific public company within that country (for which we have a website address), and then perform a search restricted to that company’s website. The user can also directly click through to the company website. In addition, the user can choose to expand the search to all public companies in that country.”

Library Briefs
+ Press Attention for the Michigan Electronic Library (via Detroit Free Press)
+ Number of black librarians drops (via Lexington Herald-Leader)
+ Dubai Building Digital Library (via Khaleej Times)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items)
Environment–Europe–Database
Source: European Environment Agency
New Database, European Pollutant Emission Register
From the site, ” EPER is the European Pollutant Emission Register – the first European-wide register of industrial emissions into air and water. It gives you access to information on the annual emissions of 9256 industrial facilities in the 15 Member States of the EU as well as Norway—mostly from the year 2001. It lets you group information easily, by pollutant, activity (sector), air and water (direct or via a sewerage system) or by country. It is also possible to see detailed data on individual facilities.” Thanks to G.T. for the news tip.
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Aerospace
Source: Cranfield University Library
AERADE
“The AERADE portal provides integrated access to key aerospace and defence information sources….”
Aerospace and defence resources – quality-assessed Internet sites
DEVISE – a special collection of military and defence resources
ESDU Series – abstracts for engineering design data and methods
Internet Aviator – an interactive tutorial.
NewsBrief – aerospace and defence news from Moreover.Com
ConferenceBrief – a list of forthcoming aerospace and defence conferences and events.
Use Portal Search to search Aerospace and defence, DEVISE and ESDU series simultaneously. Dropdown menus provide Boolean options.
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Commuting–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, Longest Commute Times in the United States, 2002
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Unemployment–United States–Statistics
Source: BLS
New, Full Text, Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2002
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Boating–United States–Searchable Database
Source: U.S. Coast Guard
Manufacturers Identification Code (MIC) Database
“The Coast Guard maintains a searchable database of all recreational boat manufacturers in the United States and U.S. importers of recreational boats. It gives you fast access to information including the company name, address, phone number, and operating status.” Thanks to Shirl K. for the link.
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Government–Streaming Audio and Video
Source: National Council of State Legislatures
List: Legislatures Live!
Direct links to state legislatures that provide streaming audio/video on the web. “As of January 2004, live broadcasts were available from 45 states. Internet audio or video feeds are available from 72 of the 99 legislative chambers.” This page from C-SPAN offers info about legislatures around the world that offer audio/video on the web.

Web Search–Lycos
The New Lycos is Here
Part of a “new direction” at the company. On 2/11, when the changes were announced, we ran comments from Tom Wilde at Lycos. He said the company still has a strong commitment to search. Lycos also offers Hotbot.com. Look for a new search-related resource from Lycos coming in March.

Industry Briefs (2 Items)
DialogPRO NewsEdge Now Available
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The Economist Intelligence Unit and the Financial Times Announce New Product

Web Search
Source: News.Com
Relevancy Over Accuracy
The article focuses on a new survey that says that Google is the leading web search company. No big news. However, a paragraph near the end of the article will be of interest to all information professionals.
From the article, “When conducting a search, people seemed to value relevance over accuracy. In the survey, 52 percent of respondents said that the thing they valued most in a search engine was the ability to find relevant information, while 34 percent said they were looking to get credible results. An even one-third said they wanted to get results quickly. Lesser considerations were the interface’s ease of use and whether the search engine has a ‘cool’ design.”
These numbers could be used to illustrate many issues including:
1) The “principle of least effort” that Thomas Mann wrote about pre-web is alive and well. No surprise.
2) People don’t know where to turn for more credible info or how to use a web engine, analyze web content, or create a more precise search that might avoid certain types of sites.
3) Finally, as Jenny pointed out in a chat, survey participants assumed that if it’s relevant, it must also be credible. Regardless, it’s sad.
See Also: A bit more in this news release

Speciality Search–Scirus
Elsevier’s “Scirus” Science Search Engine Now Utilizing FAST’s New ESP Technology
From the announcement, “FAST ESP is the first enterprise search platform to intelligently and dynamically retrieve and analyze the complete collection of information existing across an organization’s enterprise and the Web, regardless of the format, structure, or location of the data…FAST’s unique automatic categorization tools enable Scirus to offer its users subject-specific searching. The advanced drill-down capabilities of FAST’s technology also enable users to perform field-specific searches, such as searching by author name. FAST ESP provides Scirus with the scalability necessary to search over 167 million science-specific documents from the World Wide Web and proprietary Sources with unprecedented speed and accuracy.” This is the type of technology I was discussing in yesterday’s post about federated searching.
See Also: Direct to Scirus

Professional Reading Shelf
Scholarly Publishing
Open Access
Source: International Federation of Library Associations
International Library Organization Declares Support for Open Access
From the announcement, “Welcoming the IFLA statement, President-elect Alex Byrne noted IFLA’s long commitment to open access to information, especially its concern for access to scholarly literature in the developing world. He said: ‘IFLA recognises that achieving affordable, global access to scholarly information and research documentation will require a great deal of commitment and a variety of strategies. IFLA strongly supports the Open Access movement and welcomes the launch of many OA compliant publications. IFLA also acknowledges the need to address the challenge on a number of fronts and in partnership with many stakeholders.’”
See Also: Full Text, IFLA Statement, “Open access to Scholarly Literature and Research documentation”

on a related note…

American Association of Publishers Publicly Releases Position Paper: “Copyright and Public Access to Federally Funded Scientific Research: The Erroneous Premise of Open-Access Advocates and H.R. 2613.
Thanks to P.S. for the link.

Enterprise Search Headlines (3 Items)
Verity
A Google Snub? Stanford’s Business School Selects Verity Search Technology
The business school at the institution where Google was founded selects Verity’s Ultraseek internal and external search. Stanford is also the assignee for the PageRank patent.
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Endeca
Endeca Releases New Version of its Commerce Search Tech
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Copernic
Copernic Opens First Office in U.S.
Thanks to C.A.

Web Search–Google/Booble
Booble Decides to Back Down
The “adult” search engine says that it will stop using the name and logo. Why? Google had some problems with it and they have many lawyers.

and while we’re on the Google beat…
1) Today’s Look at the Future of Google (via The Independent)
Thanks to Andy B. for the link.
2) A Lengthy Look at Google (nothing really new) from Wired
3) New from Google Labs: Wireless Version of Froogle
Note: Yahoo also offers a mobile shopping service.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items)
Satellite Images
Top 10 IKONOS Satellite Images of 2003
All of these images can be viewed online or downloaded (no charge). You can access more images here and here.
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Taiwan
Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Australia
New, Full Text Brief, Taiwan’s First Referendum: Democratic Milestone or Diplomatic Millstone?
PDF; 2 pages.
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Privacy–United States
Source: GAO
Online Today, Social Security Numbers: Private Sector Entities Routinely Obtain and Use SSNs, and Laws Limit the Disclosure of This Information
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Housing–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, Full Text, These Old Houses: 2001
“Housing units built before 1920 were valued at a little more than half the amount of those built since 1990 and the older houses generally have fewer amenities, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.”
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text
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Patents–Lists & Rankings
Source: WIPO
New List, Top 10 Countries, International Patent Filings 2003
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Aerospace–Statistics
Source: Aerospace Industries Association
Aerospace Statistics
Includes general industry statistics, employment, production, foreign trade, industry economic indicators, annual data book (current edition for purchase; last four years’ editions freely viewable online), annual year-end review and forecast.