Netspeak
Search tools revisited
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Most search engines provide commands to search on a specific site
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Rollyo allows one to create own customised search engine that searches only on the sites indicated.
THIS WEEK NetSpeak takes a look at some of the latest products/services appearing in the ever-changing search tools arena.
Researchers, professionals, businessmen and others who use the Net for accessing the latest information generally go through a set of specific Web resources. Rather than searching the whole web, they can get more relevant output by focussing on subject-specific sites alone.
Most search engines provide commands to search on a specific site. For instance, the command `site:hinduonnet.com netspeak' will fetch you links to several web pages with the word `netspeak' from The Hindu's site.
But this technique can be cumbersome if you have several web sites in your `favourite sites' pack. A mechanism for automatically searching on a specified set of sites will be useful.
The new service, Rollyo (http://www.rollyo.com/), addresses this requirement quite efficiently.
Separate search rolls
Rollyo allows you to create your own customised search engine that searches only on the sites indicated by you. After registering an account with Rollyo, you can create a search roll by entering the addresses of your favourite sites. You can create separate search rolls according to subjects.
After generating subject-specific search rolls, you can invoke a Yahoo search exclusively on the specified sites, by just selecting the relevant search roll. If you are a Firefox user, you can add `Rollyo' into its search box and start accessing your search roll directly from the browser.
The ability to roll out your own search engine is just one aspect of the service. In addition, it offers tools for making your search rolls public or share them with your clients/friends.
Ambiguity over the meaning of certain search strings is a major shortcoming of popular search engines.
Preview Seek
The word `lotus' can mean a flower or the Lotus software. In response to the query word `lotus,' a normal search engine may not be able to recognise this difference and may flood you with lots of junk materials.
The newly launched search service, `Preview Seek' (http://beta.previewseek.com/), attempts to get around this constraint by presenting a variety of meanings for the query word along with the search output.
To help you further refine your search, the service organises the search results under various subject clusters. This clustering helps you to easily identify the links related to your subject. The success of `Google Suggest' (http://labs.google.com/suggestfaq.html), developed for displaying various keyword alternatives as soon as a user starts entering a keyword, has prompted many to start services with similar interface.
The new search engine Inquisitor (http://www.inquisitorx.com/beta/) that provides search results/suggestions as you type and Yahoo's instant answer service (http://instant.search.yahoo.com/) are the latest examples of this trend.
Apart from the general services mentioned above, a few new special search services are also in place.
Programmers among you may like the source code search engine, Codase (http://www.codase.com/), developed for finding useful open-source code snippets. Another source code search service worth a mention is Koders (http://www.koders.com/), which helps you find source codes in various programming languages such as C, Java, PHP, JavaScript and so on.
The recently launched health information service, Healthline (http://www.healthline.com/), is yet another special search engine worth a visit. A highlight of this service is the `health map,' a graphical display of the various concepts/terms related to the query word. For instance, a health map for the query word `cancer' will contain several connected (clickable) boxes with labels such as cancer prevention, human cancer, cancer treatment options and the like.
On-line bookmark managers enable you to store bookmarks on its server for accessing them with a browser from any machine. Chipmark (https://www.chipmark.com/Main) is one such product tested by this author recently. The highlight of this free service is the browser add-on created to help you access the bookmarks without having to visit it.
Once this tool is installed on your browser, it automatically fetches the bookmark from chipmark and displays them on its toolbar under the label `view chipmarks.'
Also, the Chipmarks menu provides you the facility to add a bookmark to the service directly from the browser.
J. MURALI
He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com
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