Business   

A few on-line aids to research netspeak

This edition of NetSpeak reviews the latest tools/services that facilitate web-based research.

Web searching is an important research task and while doing it we often make two three trials with alternate search terms to get the desired output.

Now, instead of trying the search for each of the terms separately, you can invoke the search on several terms in one shot by installing the Firefox multi-search extension available here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5370. Following installation, select your search engine from the search bar, enter the search terms separated by comma (,) and start the search. Now you will find search results for each of the terms loaded on separate tabs.

While reading a documents or composing an article, you may have to consult an encyclopedia or a search engine to obtain more details about a word or term. Nowadays, generally, the usual step is to start the browser and invoke a search on this word with an appropriate search service. However, instead of seeking the help of the browser to do this, if one can invoke the search directly from the document editor itself, life becomes easier.

The search tool Kallout ( http://www.kallout.com/) exactly serves this purpose. Once installed on your desktop, anytime you wish to do a search on a term, just select it and you will find the Kallout’s blue icon. Now, select your preferred search service and invoke the search. The software supports MS Office and Adobe PDF.

Search engines or search services that focus on specific resource types/topics (like Image, Torrent, Book and MP3) help us access certain type of resources with ease. Njouba ( http://www.njouba.com/), the search service that lets you invoke searches on content categories such as MP3, FTP and Torrent is a good product worth a try in this regard. The service’s ‘Book’ option that brings links to downloadable books in PDF format could be useful to researchers. For many researchers (especially the ones engaged in historical research), old newspaper articles are a valuable resource.

In this regard, Google’s latest project (http://googleblog. blogspot.com/2008/09/ bringing-history-online-one -newspaper.html) to digitise news pages of old newspapers assumes significance.

Another tool from Google worth a mention is the search application ( http://www.google.com/language_tools) that lets you find content in non-english languages. The advantage is that you can invoke the search in one of the languages supported by Google (for example, English) and obtain the pages in another language (say Hindi). When you invoke the search after selecting the language, Google displays the results in both the languages (here in English and Hindi) side by side.

Once the required materials are obtained, the next step in the research process is to store the collected resources in a conveniently accessible location. Naturally, the best place to keep one’s resources is on the Net as it enables her to access the resources anytime, anywhere. As regular readers of this column would know, several such on-line storage services are in place (like e-snips).

Dropbox ( http://www.getdropbox.com/home) is the latest storage service encountered by this author. This service that provides you up to 2 GB free storage has a few advantages.

On installation, the Dropbox client software creates a folder labelled ‘My Dropbox’ and all the materials placed on this folder get automatically transferred to your account in Dropbox server. If you install Dropbox in another computer (say the one at home), and log-in with the same account, all the files/folders stored on your Dropbox account will get transferred to your home machine’s ‘My Dropbox’ folder automatically. This means a copy of the ‘My Dropbox’ folder content in your office machine is now available at your home machine as well.

In addition, if you make changes in a file stored on the home machine’s ‘My Dropbox’ folder, those changes will automatically get reflected in the office machine, as soon as it comes on-line. This way, you can sync files across any number of machines. Besides helping you store/sync files across multiple machines, Dropbox allows you to share folders with other users too. Also, if one of your collaborators updates a shared file, you will get an alert message in the Dropbox client running on your machine.

Now, if you wish to share file with a non-Dropbox user, keep that file inside the folder labelled ‘Public’. When you place a file inside the ‘Public’ folder, Dropbox provides a link for others to access this file.

We have seen several free file compression/archival programs similar to Winzip (like 7-zip). Zipeg ( http://www.zipeg.com/) is yet another free alternative to Winzip. This software allows you to create compressed file archives in formats that include Zip, RAR, ARJ, TAR etc.

Interested in keeping up-to-date with the latest information in the realm of finance? Check out Streetread ( http://www.streetread.com/), a service that aggregates financial headlines from several financial journals (such as Business Week and CNN Money).

J. MURALI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

A stitch in time saves nine
BFSI meltdown calls for new steps
Coming to terms with new realities financial scene
Nature of risks taken
A trip down memory lane
A few on-line aids to research netspeak
Failure to honour declaration in Form 15G/15H
Tax deduction at source on NRI deposits
Banking matters
Ayurveda cluster project gets Central approval
Federal Bank raises interest rates

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu