Web Search–Yahoo
Yahoo Launches Revamped Video Search Site
Set to go at midnight on Thursday (however the new site is now live) Yahoo has launched a revamped video search site. Until now, Yahoo Video offered (and still does) video content from partners (iFilm for example) as well as video its crawler finds on the open web. Overall, lots of new stuff for Yahoo but not much that we haven’t seen elsewhere from other players.
What’s New/Different
+ Yahoo will now host and stream your video for free (ala Google Video and YouTube) via Yahoo Studio. Yahoo will host videos (wmv, flv, asf, qt, mov, mpg, or avi) up to 100MB in size. You can add a description/transcript, keywords (you choose) and place the video in up to six categories.
+ If the video is not hosted by Yahoo, Yahoo Video links you to the site. In other words, the content remains on a non-Yahoo server. If it’s video from another Yahoo site (like music or sports) you’re taken to that site to view.
+ Results pages include a static image from the video.
+ Featured videos are linked on the Yahoo Video Home Page. A daily archive is also available.
+ Sort “top picks” found on the home page by popularity, categories, or tags (right now the most popular tag is “fun.” Not sure how useful that tag will be.
+ Results pages offer a bit more metadata (duration, source, etc.). The rest of the metadata (directly next to the clip) was of little value when I ran several searches. That’s not an issue for Yahoo but for the content producer.
+ User reviews and tags
+ Bookmark and share videos with friends (similar to what you can do with Yahoo 360).
+ Advanced search interface has not changed either in look or services.
+ Without the Safe Search active, lots of adult material.
+ Search results pages also contain “channels” which are series of videos from the same source or users that you can subscribe to.
+ Surprises? No way (at least I couldn’t find it) to browse videos by content partners. However, a search for CBS turns up several CBS “channels.” I also noticed a couple of IFilm channels. Also, I did not spot any mention of MediaRSS on either the site or the Yahoo Video help pages.
+ The Yahoo Video team has a blog. You’ll find it here on Yahoo 360.
+ Some results pages also contain Yahoo Shortcuts. For example, here you’ll see a shortcut for David Letterman via Yahoo TV.
Update: While the web hosting, tagging, and sharing services will be of value to many users, when it comes to pure video search, we’re still sticking with SearchforVideo.com.
Update 2: Some good news. Yahoo’s arrangement with Bloomberg Business News (via TVEyes.com) is still available. You can still keyword search words spoken on BBN and then watch the video clip on Yahoo. To limit your search to Bloomberg content, use the search site:tveyes.com foo>.

Congressional Research Service
Source: CRS via OpenCRS, FAS, NCSE, FPC, US Embassy in Rome
A Selection of New/Updated CRS Reports
+ Broadband over Powerlines: Regulatory and Policy Issues
+ Digital Television: An Overview
+ Iraq: U.S. Military Operations
+ Civilian Patrols Along the Border: Legal and Policy Issues
+ Terminal Operators and Their Role in U.S. Port and Maritime Security
+ Border Security and Military Support: Legal Authorizations and Restrictions
+ Retirement Savings and Household Wealth: A Summary of Recent Data
+ Wilderness Laws:Permitted and Prohibited Uses
+ Caspian Oil and Gas: Production and Prospects
+ Avian Influenza: Multiple Strains Cause Different Effects Worldwide
+ Space Exploration: Issues Concerning the “Vision for Space Exploration”
+ Energy: Useful Facts and Numbers
+ Afghanistan: Elections, Constitution, and Government

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Earthquakes–Indonesia–Maps
Source: Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs–ReliefWeb
New: Indonesia: Earthquake - Situation map No. 4
See Also: Indonesia: Earthquake OCHA Situation Report No. 4
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Country Profiles
Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
New or Updated Reports
Updated: Afghanistan
22 pages: PDF.
&
New: Yemen
23 pages; PDF.
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Internet Access–United Kingdom
Source: NSO
Internet Access: 63% of adults access the Internet
“The most common place to access the Internet was at home (86 per cent), 46 per cent accessed at work, 28 per cent at another person’s home, 16 per cent at a place of education, and 10 per cent at a public library.” Includes chart.
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Bankruptcies–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Courts
Bankruptcy Filings Rose in March 2006 12-Month Period Quarterly Filings Lowest Since Mid-80s
“The number of bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts rose 12.8 percent in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2006, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Bankruptcy cases totaled 1,794,795 for that period, compared to 1,590,975 bankruptcy cases filed in the 12-month period ending March 2005.” Four spreadsheets with stats are available.
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Legal System–United States–Statistics
Source: Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
New, Federal Prosecution Counts
“Monthly information for January of 2006 about the federal prosecution counts for white collar crime and three other major crime categories — immigration, drugs, and weapons — are now available to all Americans by going to a special new feature on TRAC’s public site at http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/.

Briefly
Cambridge University Press Offers Free Trials of New Databases
1) Coming Soon: Online Version of the Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition
For a free trial, email: hsus@cambridge.org.
2) Literature and Classics Companions and Philosophy, Religion and Culture Companions Collections
For a free trial, email: mailto:ccol@cambridge.org.
3) Coming Soon New Database: The Orlando History of Women’s Writing in the British Isles, from the Beginnings to the Present.
“Material relating to women’s writing in the British Isles, including biographical and critical information on over 800 British women writers plus over 20,000 bibliographical listings. Data may be searched by author, place, and date, but also by genre, topic, or theme.”
For a free trial, email: tbraunstein@cambridge.org
If you register for a free trial, you’ll receive a complimentary copy of the Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English.
Btw, make sure to tell Cambridge that ResourceShelf sent you. –
+ Rand McNally Maps Coming to Motorola Cell Phones
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+ Who Makes What: Mobile Infrastructure
“Welcome to Unstrung’s Who Makes What report on wireless infrastructure. As with our Who Makes What: Mobile Devices report, released in March 2006, we present here a comprehensive list of vendors of wireless infrastructure equipment, from 802.11 access points to RFID systems to broadband wireless gear.”

Search Briefs
MSN Windows Live Mobile Site Adds Web Search; Live Mail Beta Now Accessible; Spaces for Mobile (Beta) Enhances Offerings
When MSN relaunched their mobile site last August the main search offering was local search. That has changed. The mobile site (we accessed on a Treo 650) and can be seen here on a non-mobile browser now serves up access to MSN Live Search web results to MSN Mobile users. So, what search options will you currently find?
+ Web Search (Note that each result can be optimized for mobile browsers via a proxy if the user selects the “mobile” link)
+ Local Search with driving directions
+ MSN Spaces Search
+ Improvements to MSN Spaces” Mobile Beta
Windows Live Mobile users can also customize the layout of their page, create personalized stock lists, enter home/work addresess to save time and clicks, add a growing number of alerts (we still find the traffic alert very useful) and more.
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Mobile Searching: Google, Yahoo and Many Others
Great to see ResourceShelf fave 4info.net featured in article. Btw, Promptu offers speech recognition search for some mobile devices. In other words, speak your search. Other mobile players include:
+ Yahoo Mobile
+ Smarter.com
+ Synfonic.com
+ UpSnap.com (live audio too including podcasts!)
+ MSN Mobile (several services and expanding)

As the summer rolls on, look for another ResourceShelf initiative, Gary’s mobile bookmark collections.
Postscript: Don’t forget that cameraphone searching is slowly but surely developing traction.

Multimedia Shelf
New lectures, presentations, conferences available via webcast or download.
Information Technology
Webcast: Information Technology, Enterprise Transformation, and the Future of US Higher Education
This webcast consists of a lecture by Professor John King, School of Information, University of Michigan, that was given at Oxford University on May 18, 2006.
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Words
Source: All Things Considered, National Public Radio
Audio: Crikey! Here Come the Chavs
“Robert Siegel talks with Verity Jennings, a recent graduate of Leeds Metropolitan University in Britain. Jennings’s thesis analyzed the popularity of the term “chavs” in hundreds of newspaper stories. While the origins of the word are murky, Jennings says “chavs” has come to refer to British young people characterized by gold jewelry and sportswear, often in a negative light. But she says references to “chavs” may also create a new sense of belonging.”
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Successes and Challenges in Terrorism Prosecutions: An In-Depth Look at Department of Justice Terrorism Cases after 9/11
Event took place at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, May 24, 2006. Direct to video.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
International Relations–Transcripts
United States–History
Source: National Security Archive
New, Massive Collection of Formerly Secret and Top Secret Transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s Meetings with World Leaders Published On-Line
“28,000 Pages of Documents Show Kissinger as Negotiator and Policymaker in Real-time, Verbatim Talks with World Leaders.”
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Performing Arts–Encyclopedias
Source: LOC
Just Released, Library of Congress Launches Performing Arts Encyclopedia Online
Look for a more detailed look in an upcoming RS post. From the announcement, “A new online Performing Arts Encyclopedia has been developed to serve as a centralized guide for users interested in exploring the performing arts. The encyclopedia focuses on music, motion picture, broadcasting, recorded sound, manuscript, rare book, and other nonbook collections. The resources, which are housed in various divisions of the Library, have been brought together to make them available for easier access and more widespread usage.”
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HIV/AIDS–Statistics
Source: UNAIDS
Just Released, UNAIDS 2006: Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic
“According to new data in the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic the AIDS epidemic appears to be slowing down globally, but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. The report also shows that important progress has been made in country AIDS responses, including increases in funding and access to treatment, and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years. However AIDS remains an exceptional threat.”
Summary (PDF) Direct to Full Text

Professional Reading Shelf
Proceedings–Databases
Meetings–Databases
Source: InterDok
Now Free! Directory of Published Proceedings (DoPP) Database
Subjects Include:
+ Science / Engineering / Technology
+ Medical / Life Sciences
+ Pollution Control / Ecology
+ Social Sciences / Humanities
With author & paper title information. As of today, DoPP contains over 50,000 records.
See Also: InterDok’s MInd: The Meetings Index
Free. “…offers free access to locate future conferences, congresses, meetings and symposia.” ResourceShelf first reviewed MInd: The Meetings Index in 2004.
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IM–Search
Kozoru Will Release IM Answers Software
The Kansas City-area company Kozoru, a company we’ve been tracking for a couple of years, will release a new service next week (we haven’t had a peek yet) that allows the user to ask a question and get a specific answer or set of links back via IM. It sounds very similar to what, for example, AOL has been offering for years and others also provide*. It also sounds a bit like what Ask.com is doing “on the web” with Smart Answers or MSN is doing with Direct Answers. From the article, “The premise behind Kozoru’s BYOM (build your own mobile search) technology is that consumers looking for something while in instant messenger want to act on the information: find out the latest weather forecast, settle a bar bet over when Teddy Roosevelt was first elected or read a news story someone on the train just mentioned.” We agree, the potential synergy between IM, mobile, and answers is quite strong.
Several questions:
+ Will this service be free?
+ Will individuals (with no coding experience) be able to create BYOMs?
+ How long will it take a typical user to create a BYOM?
+ Who will select sources?
For us, that’s the key to all of this, source selection. Incorrect choices will likely yield poor results (and incorrect facts) and frustrated users. Will a blog offer the quick answers that an online reference source can provide? Of course, this selection process might be a new role for the info pro and a new marketplace for reference publishers.
On a separate note, the author of the News.com article we linked to above mentions both Google’s and Yahoo’s answer services but makes no mention of the many virtual reference (VR) services libraries have offered long before GA and YA. In fact, the Johnson County Public Library located in Kozoru’s backyard offers numerous VR services including 24/7 chat reference. Why chat with a computer via IM when you could interact with a live librarian? Depends on your info need. I think mobile IM is another area VR services needs to consider. I wonder if the Kozoru folks have talked to JCPL about the librarians trying the service in beta mode. If ResourceShelf can help get the two sides together, just holler.

UPDATE 1: For more on chatbots AOL offers see this page
We’ve used the Moviefone and Shopping Buddy for many months. Not bad at all.

*UPDATE 2: We’ve learned that MSN Messenger already offers the ability to search and receive direct answers and links via Encarta using IM. Simply send an IM to encarta@conversagent.com and off you go. Not bad.

*UPDATE 3: The wonderful Searchforvideo.com offers IM search access to its amazing database. Works with AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. Details here.

Update 4: Let’s also not forget that SMS (text message) services also offer interactive question answering and services like 4info.net, Smarter.com, Google SMS, and Yahoo SMS.
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Sci-Tech Libraries
Source: ISTL
New Issue: The spring 2006 issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship is now online
Articles include:
+ Innovative Library Liaison Assessment Activities: Supporting the Scientist’s Need to Evaluate Publishing Strategies
+ Assessing Reference: Using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program in an Academic Science Library
+ The Role of Industry Standards: An Overview of the Top Engineering Schools’ Libraries
+ Webliography: Mapping the Brain: Resources for Researchers in Neurosciences
+ Review: IEEE/IEE Electronic Library
+ Review: SpringerLink
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Access to Information
Librarians
Source: AP
Conn. librarians bitterly decry gag order in Patriot Act case
“Four otherwise mild-mannered librarians from Connecticut spoke out bitterly for the first time Tuesday after being subjected to a months-long gag order when the FBI demanded records about library patrons under the Patriot Act. U.S. District Judge Janet Hall ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted, saying it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in a debate over how the Patriot Act should be rewritten. But it wasn’t until April that prosecutors dropped an appeal of that order. The librarians, at a press conference organized by the American Civil Liberties Union — which represented them — did little to hide their displeasure at being told by the government to keep quiet.”
See Also: Learn More and Hear from the Librarians Involved in this National Public Radio Report
Direct to audio.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Terrorism–Maps
Source: MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base
New TKB Terrorism Trends Map Now Available In PDF And Print At No Cost
“The TKB team is proud to announce the release of our official TKB Terrorism Trends 2005 map poster. Complete with in-depth information on terrorism throughout the world, this large, colorful map is a must-have for analysts, law enforcement, researchers, or others interested in terrorism. The poster lists the most active groups, most frequent targets and tactics, and the most lethal attacks for 2005. It also offers comparison graphs for several terrorism hotspots. Users can download a PDF copy from the TKB homepage. For a 24′ x 34′ hard-copy version, simply email your name and mailing address to TKBsupport@tkb.org and we will ship you a copy at no cost. Supplies are limited.”
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Real Estate–United States–Foreclosures–Lists & Rankings
Source: RealtyTrac
Indianapolis, Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis And Denver Top List Of Nations Ten Highest Metropolitan Foreclosure Rates
Includes two lists.
+ Top 10 Metro Foreclosure Rates
+ Metropolitan foreclosure statistics for the nation’s 100 largest MSAs ordered by foreclosure rate
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Commencement–Speeches
Source: Humanity.org (The Humanity Initiative)
Commencement Speeches
“Though these myriad departures and arrivals of everyday existence are seldom met with ceremony, words traditionally reserved for momentous occasions may ring true and inspirational at any hour. That’s why we created this unique archive of commencement addresses, selecting an eclectic menu of twenty nine extraordinary speeches from the thousands that we have reviewed since beginning work on this initiative in 1989.”
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Animal Noises–Multilingual
Source: University of Adelaide School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Derek Abbott’s Animal Noise Page
“In different languages what do we say to mimic animal sounds? Below is the world’s biggest multilingual list. A guiding principle behind this list is to visualise a comic book, in your language, and imagine what would be written in the text balloon coming from the mouth of an animal. For languages that use a different alphabet, I have tried to transliterate the word into the English alphabet for ease of comparison. A forward slash is used to separate alternative words.” Professor Abbott is Director of the Centre for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Adelaide School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
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Oceans–Audio
Source: NOAA
The Sound of the Sea
“…contains a selection of audio files that were recorded underwater, related video and animation products, and several spectograms and other images of ocean sound.”

DocuTicker
Best of DocuTicker
DocuTicker is ResourceShelf’s sister site and is updated daily with a wide variety of new full text reports on many topics from government agencies, think tanks, ngo’s and many other organizations. Here’s a small, very small, sample of what we’ve posted during the past week.
+ What Price Privacy? The unlawful trade in confidential personal information
+ Information Security Office of Oversight: 2005 Report to the President
+ Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People’s Republic of China

Search Briefs
+ Ask.com Offers Special Logo For Memorial Day
The Ask.com home page was adorned yesterday with a special icon (a ribbon) and link for Memorial Day that read, “Memorial Day: A Day of Rememberance.” In case you missed it, here’s a screen cap of the Ask page. The link went directly to this Smart Answer loaded with direct links with information about the holiday. At 5pm EDST on Monday, we didn’t spot any holiday special logos on Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Btw, Ask.com offers Smart Answers for many holidays. Here are a just a FEW examples:
+ Labor Day
+ Boxing Day
+ Good Friday
+ Purim

Briefly
Congratulations to Metasearch Company MuseGlobal
Those of you who have been reading ResourceShelf likely remember that our site was once sponsored by metasearch technology powerhouse, MuseGlobal. Although they’re no longer sponsors of ResourceShelf, the entire MuseGlobal team remains a good friend. That’s why we were thilled to learn that CSA’s MultiSearch product (the one that won the Codie Award) is powered with technology from Muse. Congrats, guys, well deserved!
See Also: Test Drive CSA’s MultiSearch
MultiSearch offers metasearch access to over 1200 databases and other online resources.

Professional Reading Shelf
Public Libraries–Business Services
Source: BusinessWeek
The Library: Next Best Thing to an MBA
“(A)n increasing number of would-be entrepreneurs are turning to their local public libraries for help in every aspect of launching their businesses. According to a 2006 study conducted by the American Library Assn. (ALA), a Chicago-based trade group, 61% of small-business owners living in the U.S. said libraries were important in helping them get started.”
See Also: More Positive Press About Business Research Ser vices at the Johnson County (KS) Public Library (via KC Business Journal)
See Also: The J.J. Hill Business Library in St. Paul, MN, offers many excellent services to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Most of them are accessible remotely. For example, HillSearch.org offers a robust set of databases at a very low cost plus (most importantly) access to the J.J. Hill librarians.
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Broadband–United States–Study
Source: Pew Internet & American Life
Home Broadband Adoption 2006
“Adoption of high-speed internet at home grew twice as fast in the year prior to March 2006 than in the same time frame from 2004 to 2005. Middle-income Americans accounted for much of the increase, along with African-Americans and new internet users coming online with broadband at home. At the end of March 2006, 42% of Americans had high-speed at home, up from 30% in March 2005, or a 40% increase. And 48 million Americans — mostly those with high-speed at home — have posted content to the internet.” Direct to Full Text (PDF)
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eBooks–Public Opinion
Source: International Digital Publishing Forum (via KnowThis.com)
eBook User Survey 2006 (PDF; 235 KB)
“eBook retailers seem to have built shopping experiences that satisfy their customers and that the general experience of reading an eBook is a good one. There seems to be some room for improvement for respondents in areas of pricing and selection of eBooks. In regards to DRM issues (ability to move content between devices and lending), there seems to be less satisfaction, but interestingly many respondents seemed to find it far more important to easily move content between devices than to lend content to friends and family. Last, while questions of multimedia, read aloud and assistive technology questions ranked low in terms of satisfaction, a very large majority marked these areas an unimportant to them. There does not seem to be a lot of consumer demand for multimedia eBooks and audio functions in eBooks. Also, not particularly surprising is the fact that assistive technology is not important to a consumer audience that does not require this technology to read.”
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Conference Presentations
Source: SOLINET
SOLINET Annual Membership Meeting: Will Libraries Matter in 2020?
Presentations available (PDFs) include the following:
+ Advocacy: Working with Public Officials
+ Library Marketing with Meaning: Keeping Up with the Future
+ User-Driven Libraries: Understanding the Perceptions of Current and Future Library Patrons
+ How Libraries Are Applying Blogging, Podcasting, and RSS Technologies
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Libraries–Copyright
Source: UCLA Law Review (Tushnet; via LibraryLaw Blog)
MyLibrary: Copyright and the Role of Institutions in a Peer-to-Peer World (PDF; 6.5 MB)
“Today’s technology turns every computer — every hard drive — into a type of library. But the institutions traditionally known as libraries have been given special consideration under copyright law, even as commercial endeavors and filesharing programs have begun to emulate some of their functions. This article explores how recent technological and legal trends are affecting public and school-affiliated libraries, which have special concerns that are not necessarily captured by an end-consumer-oriented analysis. Despite the promise that technology will empower individuals, we must recognize the crucial structural role of intermediaries that select and distribute copyrighted works. By exploring how traditional libraries are being affected by developments such as filesharing services, the iTunes Music Store, and Google’s massive digitization project, this article examines the implications of legal and technological changes that are mainly not directed at libraries, but are nonetheless vital to their continued existence.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Airports–North America–Lists & Rankings
Source: Airports Council International-North America
Recently Released, Busiest Airports in North America
Summary ||| By Total Passengers ||| By Total Cargo ||| By Total Movements
“More than 1.52 billion passengers* traveled through North American airports in 2005, an increase of 4.3 percent, Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) announced today. Both cargo and total operations, however, declined slightly by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.”
See Also: By Total Movements (Global)
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Technology–Products–Ranking
Source: PC World
The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time
“Picking our list wasn’t exactly rocket science; it was more like group therapy. PC World staffers and contributors nominated their candidates and then gave each one the sniff test. We sought the worst of the worst–operating systems that operated badly, hardware that never should have left the factory, applications that spied on us and fed our data to shifty marketers, and products that left a legacy of poor performance and bad behavior.”
Complete list

Briefly
Amazon.com & The Internet Movie Database, Plus Power Searching the IMDB
Btw, don’t forget to read about the IMDB’s advanced searching options. Impressive and yet another illustration of what good metadata can do.