Search - Desktop & Online

These programs are useful in research of all types - gathering, storing, sorting, selecting, organizing, generating data, hypotheses, concepts.

Name	Comments
Google Search Tips	What it Does: How to search effectively via Google Runs on: Web Free Best Feature: Can focus/narrow searches Worst Feature: Must memorize to be effective. Learning Time: Minutes --- My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: My most useful is "site:drexel.edu" - it finds stuff that Drexel search engine buries. Search note: To make Google more effective e.g using "site:edu" to restrict searches Review & Comments about Google Search Tips in Academic Tools Blog
Google Scholar	What it Does: Web search of scholarly material Runs on: Web Uniqueness: It's one of only a few tools to provide this combination of functions Best Feature: Focus on the scholarly material - reduced irrelevant "hits". Worst Feature: Doesn't index everything (nor does any other service). Learning Time: Minutes --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: If you're off-campus access it through the library to have access to full-text of many services. They'll appear automatically in the results. Review & Comments about Google Scholar in Academic Tools Blog
Google Alerts	What it Does: Sends EMails about news based on your search criteria Runs on: Web Free Uniqueness: It's one of only a few tools to provide this combination of functions Best Feature: Works as promised Worst Feature: The user can sometimes be deluged with emails. Learning Time: Minutes --- My use: Regular --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: It's wise to test your search first to be sure you're getting the kinds of things you want. Review & Comments about Google Alerts in Academic Tools Blog
Google Reader	What it Does: Follow online (RSS) blogs and newsfeeds Runs on: Web Best Feature: Very clean interface. Worst Feature: Must memorize a few keystrokes to be efficient with the (typical) vast number of items that arrive daily. Learning Time: Half Hour --- My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: This is another fast-changing field with multiple options. Search note: Follow Blogs
Find and Run Robot	What it Does: Finds things you use regularly on your machine Runs on: PC only Free Best Feature: Quick easy way of starting many programs and files. Worst Feature: A bit slow finding files not used regularly. Learning Time: Minutes --- My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: A near-ideal tool for a single purpose. Once you're comfortable with it you should explore the capability of customizing the "rules" it uses to sort what it finds. Review & Comments about Find and Run Robot in Academic Tools Blog
Firefox	What it Does: Web browser Runs on: PC, Mac, Linux Free, Open Source Best Feature: Add-ins that provide additional fucntions. Worst Feature: Many large institutions are not friendly to FF - e.g. Drexel. Learning Time: Half Hour --- My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: I use Adblock, NoScript, and All-In-One Sidebar extensions a lot. Review & Comments about Firefox in Academic Tools Blog
Flickr	What it Does: Web Image search and storage Runs on: Web Free Best Feature: Widely used and therefor good collection of images. Worst Feature: Interface is confusing Learning Time: Hours --- Export/Import: Medium My use: Regular --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: Share photos - I take advantage of "family and friends" to limit those that aren't interesting to a wider audience. You have to pay for extensive use, but not a lot. Search note: Images search - large pool
Linkman	What it Does: URL storage and retrieval Runs on: PC only - Uses Web Price: $30 Best Feature: Great control and search in a large collection of URL's Worst Feature: Not being further developed. Learning Time: Hours --- Export/Import: Good My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: There are many URL capture tools, most of them are free. This one is useful only for someone capturing a lot and wanting to run searches.
Onfolio	What it Does: Web clip, page and note taking Runs on: PC only Free Best Feature: Good interface Worst Feature: MS is limiting it to IE and removing features (academic) that were useful. Learning Time: Hours --- Export/Import: Medium My use: Infrequent --- Confidence in Evaluation: Medium Comment: If you use Internet Explorer it's a very good, free tool to collect and report web-based information. Search note: For capturing web search data
Yahoo Desktop Search (X1)	What it Does: Local (and web) computer search Runs on: PC only Free Best Feature: Fast, clean search Worst Feature: Cannot look in proprietary formats such as FileMaker Learning Time: Half Hour --- My use: Regular --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: Search your EMails, documents, contacts etc. Provides a tabular output that I find easier than Google Desktop. Google Desktop is much more familiar to most people.

 

 

Update: 2006-11-26