ResourceShelf would like to congratulate our friends, Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Barry Schwartz, and the rest of Third Door Media team on the launch of Sphinn today.

Sphinn?

Think digg or one of many similar services (post articles, share views, vote on what you find interesting) but this community (you do need to register) is one aimed at the search community. I’ve been participating during the beta test and I hope to continue to post and share a few thoughts moving forward. I would bet that ResourceShelf friend, librarian colleague, and Search Engine Land blogger Phil Bradley, will also be spotted from time to time on Sphinn.

While it’s likely many of the posts will be about search marketing, there are sections of the site devoted to searching. But don’t let the search marketing posts turn you away. In fact, that should be an incentive to view and participate on Sphinn. Like John Battelle’s SearchMob, these sites can be of value to the information professional. How? First, info pros need to have a clear and up-to-date understanding of how the search engine business works. Second, often search techniques are discussed. We all can use them and info pros have plenty to share. So do it! It’s also a place where we can share our knowledge and thoughts about information retrieval, search and searcher behavior and info organization, to name just a few topics. In other words, like we try our best to do on ResourceShelf, news, new resources, and a few opinions with people both in and out of the profession. It’s important for us to know what’s going on out there, but all of us need to get the word out to others. We often hear that items posted on ResourceShelf and DocuTicker can help get the conversation started and keep the info pro in front of others by sharing material that might be useful to others in a group.

Of course, many SEOs are also librarians so they have even more reasons to go “Sphinning.”

I would be remiss if I also didn’t mention the FreePint Bar (part of Willco family, the company that ResourceShelf and DocuTicker are a part of) as a place to ask questions, get help, and share views. In this case, “the bar” has a user base of primarily info professionals from all over the world.One of my goals moving forward is to spend some time at the FP Bar. I’m often thirsty.

So, let’s welcome Sphinn to the search scene. Of course, feel free to “Sphinn” items you spot on ResourceShelf and DocuTicker.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 1:55 am and is filed under Info Management and Retrieval, Information Industry, Information Literacy, Search News, Technology and Internet, Web Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.