Information Retrieval
On ResourceShelfPLUS: A New Compilation of Recently Awarded Search-Related Patents & Patent Apps
The March compilation of selected search-related patents and patent apps is now available on ResourceShelfPLUS. New patents to Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, and many others. You’ll also notice two patent applications from Google.

Did I Just Mention Google? Hello GMail (via News.com)
Google has announced that they’ll start testing a free email service called GMail. It will offer 1GB of storage space per user.

The service (going live today) will only be available for 1000 “invited” users. No date was mentioned as to when Google will make the service available to the general public. More from Markoff (NY Times) and Sullivan (SEW).

From the NY Times article, “At Google, one official said, the company has engaged in an intense debate over how extensively to exploit the content of e-mail.” One of the patent applications listed in the roundup deals with serving ads in email. Here’s the GMail privacy policy.

See Also: SearchBlog Comments on the Google Annoucement
Battelle with some interesting comments. The press release also might lead one to have these notions.
See Also: Google developing ad service for e-mail (via Reuters, 1/19/04)

Health Research
Vivisimo Officially Launches ClusterMed
We’ve mentioned ClusterMed on several occasions prior to its official launch today. Very cool! ClusterMed allows you to dynamically cluster results from PubMed using Vivisimo’s technology. What’s also useful is the ability to create different clusters based on different fields. You can create clusters based on terms in the:
+ Title, Subject Heading, Abstract
+ Title and Abstract Only
+ Subject Heading Only
+ Author
+ Author’s Affiliation
+ Publication Date
Unregistered users can cluster up to 100 results. You can also register for a demo (two weeks) and cluster up to 500 results.
See Also: DYK That Vivisimo Also Offers Tools to Cluster Results from FirstGov and eBay?
See Also: Official Announcement

Web Search–Dipsie
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
More About Dipsie
An article from the Chicago Sun-Times mentions that Dipsie will launch on May 10th as a public beta. The article also names Gary Slack, the managing director of a Chicago-based marketing firm, as a member of the Dipsie Board of Directors. I asked a company spokesperson for the names of other board members and was told that this info was still not being released. Like I said a few months ago when we ran an interview with Dipsie CEO Jason Wiener, we’ve seen Dipsie mentioned in many publications but until we can demo the software and see more than a few logos on their web site, we just have to keep wondering what the company is or is not up to. In a nutshell, actions speak louder than words. Let’s see what happens in May. Thanks to Bobbie B. for the news tip.
See Also: ResourceShelf Interview with Jason Wiener (2/18/04)

Social-Networking Software
Source: Technology Review
“Reality Mining” the Organization
From the article, “Data mining is a start, but it misses the critical pieces of information that are transmitted by word of mouth. Social networking systems can foster collaboration.”
See Also: Internetworking
Another article from Technology Review that discusses social-networking software.

Information Retrieval
Source: News.Com
Sketch and Search
From the article, “Researchers at Purdue University have developed a search engine that retrieves results based on an image or a sketch. Draw a picture of a wing nut, and the engine will search a database and retrieve all the images that match the drawing..Its earliest appearance outside the research lab is expected to be in industrial databases, rather than in commercial search tools. But in 10 to 15 years, image searches will likely be taking place on the Internet, according to Karthik Ramani, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, and director of the university’s Research and Education Center for Information Systems in Engineering.” Btw, LTU, a company mentioned in the article, offers an interesting demo. Details in this 11/12/02 ResourceShelf post. Even more about this technology in this 2003 Search Engine Meeting presentation.

Information Visualization
Newsmap: Mapping Google News
If you like visualization tools, you’re going to like this one. From the site, “A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap’s objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.” Searchblog reminds us that SmartMoney’s Map of the Market offers the same type of service with financial data. This tool has been available for several years. Thanks to BoingBoing, Bill D., and Searchblog for the tip.

Industry Briefs
+ Merriam-Webster CEO moving on (via The Republican)
A profile of Gordon T. Macomber who becomes the new CEO at Thomson Gale on Monday.
+ New Fee-Based Database for Federal Grant Info (via Washington Business Journal)
The new database is called GrantsWeb and is produced by Eagle Eye.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Military Law–United States
Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
New Resource Compilation: Military Legal Resources
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Election 2004
Factiva Posts Media Visibility Index (Week Ending 3/28/04)
“The Factiva Media Visibility Index will track the number of weekly media mentions garnered by each of the candidates competing in the 2004 Presidential election.”
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Travel–United States
Source: BTS
BTS Announces New Air Travel Price Index
Official Announcement/Tables ||| Home Page
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Online Music
Source: Harvard Business School
CD Sales Not Reduced by File Sharing, Say Researchers at Harvard Business School and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
“A new study by two researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, finds that sharing digital music files has no effect on CD sales. This is the first study that directly compares actual downloads of music files and store sales of CDs.” Some findings from the study:
+ “File Sharing Cannot Explain the Decline in Sales of Music during This Period”
+ “More Popular CDs Benefit from File Sharing”
+ “File Sharers Download a Small Selection of Songs”
+ “Songs from Top Current Albums Are Most Often Downloaded”
+ “Marketing Strongly Influences What People Download and What They Buy”
+ “U.S. Has Largest Number of File Sharers”
+ “Germany Is the Most Important Foreign Supplier of Music Files”
See Also: Direct Link to Full Text of Study (PDF; 360 KB)
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Special Collections
Source: Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University
Pastimes and Paradigms: Games We Play
“The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections investigates the evolution of games since 1800…. The exhibition includes a wide variety of antique and contemporary games, as well as rare books on rules, strategies, and recreation. Featured items include early nineteenth-century geographical board games; a Civil War game; suffrage games that garnered support in the battle for women’s votes; a vintage Monopoly game…; gambling punchboards; and a selection of games inspired by television programming.” Thanks to SDK for the link.

Legal Information–United States
Source: AP (via MSNBC)
Database Tools Help Lawyers Track Clients
“Lawyers in many states can now track down the names and addresses of prospective clients � within hours of their legal entanglements � with the help of electronic records and information vendors.”

News Search
Topix.net Increases Number of Sources Crawled, More than 6000 Available
Topix continues to impress! After officially launching three weeks ago, the company has announced they’re now crawling more than 6000 sources, up from 3300 sources. Almost a 100% increase. Topix.net CEO Rich Skrenta was nice enough to provide us with a breakdown of sources by category:
24% Daily newspapers
19% AM & FM news radio stations
15% Weekly newspapers
15% B2B and consumer magazines
12% TV stations
9% College newspapers
5% Government websites
1% Weblogs
It’s good to see that Topix is including business press/trade publications and college newspapers in their crawl! Their “pre-built” pages on thousands of business topics are very useful. I’ve been using Topix.net quite heavily in the past few weeks and regularly turn-up USEFUL articles I don’t find elsewhere.

Skrenta also let us know that the Topix crawler is now able to navigate javascript and pages utilizing frames. You should also notice that the name of the news source is now being provided. Until today just the domain name was visible. You can learn much more about Topix.net in this overview article from earlier this month and a new article from J.B.’s Searchblog.

Web Search–Google
Source: News.com
“Google hit with ‘geo-location’ lawsuit”
From the article, “A Georgia company is suing Google over technology that the search giant uses to target advertising at Web surfers based on their location. Digital Envoy filed the lawsuit Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, charging that Google violated a licensing agreement when it began offering ads on third-party Web sites, the lawyer representing Digital Envoy confirmed Tuesday.”

Editors Note: ResourceShelf welcomes a new contributor. Along with Shirl Kennedy and yours truly, Dan Giancaterino, a librarian based in Philadelphia, has agreed to share his thoughts (and some useful sites) with us from time to time.

Making a Case for the Open Web
by Dan Giancaterino
A frequent topic on ResourceShelf is the importance of educating people about the high-quality electronic information sources from content aggregators and producers that are often available via libraries. However, in the areas of business and law, the “open web” can sometimes offer information, features and pricing options not found on LexisNexis or Westlaw. Here are a few examples:

+ D&B – Both LexisNexis and Westlaw have additional charges for D&B searches. Zapdata, D&B’s database of 13 million U.S. companies, lets you do a simple company lookup for free (includes headquarters/branch designator, address, industry, and alternative names). More information is available for $5.

+ Delaware Corporate Records – Also available from both Lexis and Westlaw for an additional fee. With Lexis, however, you need to contact your rep to have the database activated for your account. (I’ve run into that problem in two different jobs.) The DE Department of State database is free and is more than adequate for a simple company lookup. Status information is an additional $10; filing history and tax information is $20. Both, however, are cheaper than LexisNexis or Westlaw.

+ Federal Register – The GPO’s site allows you to bookmark or have delivered via email the table of contents of the current day’s issue. To check daily for notices on a topic, click on the bookmark, then use Edit-Find on Page to search for the term. If there’s a relevant notice, right-click on the link to it and select Copy Shortcut. Then open an email and paste the URL into it. Elapsed time: about a minute. In many cases, this procedure is simpler than setting up, testing, and managing an ECLIPSE or WestClip alert.

+ Non-profit organizations – GuideStar’s database of 850,000 non-profits includes (if available) copies of the organization’s IRS Form 990, sometimes going back several years. Not available on either LexisNexis or Westlaw.

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Source: International Federation of Library Associations
Full Text, Ross Shimmon, Selected Writings 1999-2004
Shimmon is retiring as IFLA’s Secretary General. “This booklet contains ten selected papers Ross composed during his years at IFLA (1999 – 2004). They cover a broad variety of subjects, giving a special insight into the issues that inspired him during his tenure of this IFLA office.”
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Knowledge
Source: ManagingInformation.com
The Knowledge Proposition
From the site, “The Knowledge Proposition is a concise document that will help both senior executives understand the potential value of knowledge within their organisation and prove to be of interest to other knowledge and information professionals. It was developed by 20 of the world’s leading knowledge practitioners through discussion and debate at the sixth tfpl CKO Summit.”
See Also: Direct Link to the Document

Primary Sources
Source: Miller Center, University of Virginia
Learn About: The Presidential Recordings Program
From the site, “The Presidential Recordings Program is a unique and ambitious effort to transcribe, edit, annotate, and publish the secret White House recordings of Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. This primary source material allows the listener ‘into the Oval Office,’ affording an unprecedented opportunity to experience first hand how these presidents made key decisions and exercised leadership as they led the United States in peace and in war. From 1940 to 1973, these presidents recorded hundreds of their most significant meetings and telephone calls. The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson tapes together comprise well over 1,000 hours of recorded meetings and telephone calls. The Nixon tapes alone consist of 3,800 hours.” A few audio clips are available on the web site.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
U.S. Government
Source: GAO
Full Text, Continuity of Operations: Improved Planning Needed to Ensure Delivery of Essential Government Services
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Critical Infrastructure–United States
Source: GAO
Full Text, Critical Infrastructure Protection: Challenges and Efforts to Secure Systems

Web Search–Google
New From Google
Here’s a review.
1) Tweaks to the Google Home Page and Other New Services
Some users have been seeing this “new look” for several weeks. If you want to compare, here’s what the “old” home page looked like. You’ll notice that tabs to various Google databases are now links. Google’s shopping database, Froogle, is now linked on the home page but the link to the Google Directory has been removed from the home page. The directory remains available here.

This might be a good opportunity for some of you to become familiar with a few of the impressive non-commercial web directories available online. They include Infomine, Librarians Index to the Internet, AcademicInfo.net, and the Resource Discovery Network.

Results pages also look slightly different. For example, your search terms are now located on the right side of the page, where they are hyperlinked to Dictionary.com. It would have been useful if Google would have taken a few cues from Yahoo. First, by numbering each result on results page. Second, by allowing the user to customize which tabs are visible.

Btw, Froogle also sports a new look. Finally, thumbnail images (if available) are now placed next to Google News results. Want more? Google also introduced numrange searches. You can decide how well this works. Thanks to S.C. for his help with this post.

2) The other news comes from Google Labs
Two new beta services.
+ Google Web Alerts
Web Alerts will let you know when “there is new information on the web matching the search you specify.” Results can be deilvered daily or weekly via e-mail. The FAQ tells us that Google Web Alerts looks for new results in the “top 10 news results (news.google.com) as well as the top 20 web results.” This means if a new page comes on the web and is ranked at number 30, it will not be sent to you as an alert. What happens if the page never makes it into the Top 20 results? You’ll never be alerted to it. Even if it does, it might take a long time to make it into the Top 20. Be careful.

Btw, this is not a new idea. A service called Google Alert has been offering a similar tool for a couple of years.

+ Google “Personalized” Web Search
From the FAQ, “Google Personalized web search delivers custom search results that are based on a profile you create describing your interests. For example, people with an interest in the outdoors will see different relevant sites for a search on ‘bass’ than people who are interested in music.” After your results are delivered, you can resort them using a slider. Yahoo Shopping has offered a personalization service, Yahoo SmartSort, for several product categories. It’s been available since October and also uses sliders to tweak results.
See Also: In September, Google Acquired Kaltix
This company offered search personalization technology.
See Also: Complete Google News Release

Web Search–Google
Source: The Wall Street Journal
The Grownup at Google
A Q&A interview with Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt. Google folks are sure doing a lot of press these days. Is the IPO getting closer?

Engineering Resources
Source: Information Today NewsBreaks
GlobalSpec Introduces “The Engineering Web”
Last week we ran an item about the launch of GlobalSpec’s new specialized search tool. Today, ITI’s Paula Hane provides a closer look. From the article, “In announcing the enhancements, Jeffrey M. Killeen, GlobalSpec chairman and CEO said: ‘We have built the specialized search engine and content repository for engineers and technical buyers�everything of relevance, expertly classified and indexed in one place. In fact, we believe we have built the definitive search platform for the engineering community.’ John Schneiter, president and co-founder of GlobalSpec, said: ‘Extensive research of our online community, as well as our own engineering experiences, told us that engineers and technical professionals are frustrated with general search engines and having to wade through pages of irrelevant results. We have built what they asked us for�and what we frankly wished we had ourselves as practicing engineering professionals�The Engineering Search Engine.’”

Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items)
Internet
Beginning Today: Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Free access is made available via Emerald’s Journal of the Week program. Vol.4 No.1 (1994) – Vol.14 No. 1 (2004) will be accessible. Here is a list of a few articles from recent issues that might be of interest.
+ “Assisting the searcher: utilizing software agents for Web search systems” (Vol. 14 No.1)
+ “Information seeking on the Web by women in IT professions” (Vol. 13 No.4)
+ “A structural and content-based analysis for Web filtering” (Vol.13 No. 1)
+ “Methodologies for crawler based Web surveys” (Vol. 12 No. 2)
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Government Secrecy–United States
Source: The Washington Post
Nuclear Security Decisions Are Shrouded in Secrecy
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Library and Info Science Education
Source: American Library Education
Recently Released, Online Directory of ALA-Accredited Master’s Library and Information Studies Programs
From the announcement, “The directory exists on the ALA Web site in a database format, and allows users to easily search for programs that offer distance education, school library media programs, and degrees other than the ALA accredited degree. Program information may be searched by state or province, and programs are able to make changes to their listings, thus improving the currency of the directory between annual updates. Its online format also allows users to download a PDF version of the entire directory.”

Enterprise Search Briefs (2 Items)
+ Fed Gov Selects Verity Technology for Regional Information Exchange System (JRIES)
“JRIES utilizes the advanced search features of Verity K2E to locate, evaluate and analyze intelligence information stored within the system�s content repositories from all 50 states, five territories, the District of Columbia and 50 major urban areas.”
+ Spain’s Main Electric Operator Chooses FAST