Research Journal Unit 8, Search Tools

For my Meta Search Tool I chose to explore Beaucoup @ www.beaucoup.com , which is described by Southern Oregon University www.hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/metatool.html as:

Beaucoup is a link to more than categorized 1400 sites. Find sites for Searching, Reference, Literature, Computers, Internet, Media, Education, and more. Also offers geographic specific sites to search for worldwide information.

Beaucoup display a list of fifteen search categories on its landing page, with the last category being “potpourri”. Each main category title is not a clickable link; however, each search category displays a short list of subcategories on the main page, which are clickable links. After choosing your appropriate link, you are taken to landing page full of links for that category as well as a good description of what type of information you will find and where it is pulled from (each link appears to have one specific database it references unlike the Super Search Tool mentioned below). In addition, conveniently placed on the left of the page is a list format of all the main categories from the main page; on the right is a list of “Top Resources”.

They also provide an easy to use Super Search box, however I could not find any information regarding Boolean operators or advanced search techniques (though through exploration they do accept at least some Boolean operators and do not use them by default). They describe the Super Search Tool as:

Super Search box [takes] your input [&] will query multiple engines at once including: Yahoo, About, Infoseek, Lycos, Webcrawler,  AllTheWeb. To get back to the Beaucoup web pages simply click on the graphic at the upper left hand corner or on any of the Beaucoup categories in the index running along the left side of the search returns pages.

They do include Paid or Sponsored Links first in their results when using the Super Search and they do not list the date that the search results were obtained or updated. After your initial search, you are provided links of suggestions of key words or topics, which would appropriately widen or narrow your original search term(s). They do give a total results display as well as the number of pages found, however they do not tell you which search engine(s) your results came from.

My overall opinion of this new Meta Search Tool and its potential uses is that it is a great option for various stages of the research process & I like it. Based on its user interface from the landing page, I would actually use Beaucoup primarily as a Subject Index; secondarily as Meta Search Tool (Super Search), even though this is the list it was on. I found that the subjects that were pre-defined would be great if looking for topic ideas or possibly finding a match to an existing subject and then being directed to some very specific sources. I found the Super Search results to be limited, for example I searched Mars Rover & Mars AND Rover and though different results were returned with each, they numbered ten or less results each.

For my General Search Tool I chose Lycos, which I have heard of but never used before. The link for their landing search page is www.lycos.com .The Southern Oregon University website describes Lycos as:

Lycos offers both a simple and an advanced search mode, which provide access to about 50 million web pages. The simple mode is designed to be a hub for information and includes a subject directory, a search engine, information sites such as headlines, news, weather, stocks, etc.

            In their company overview, Lycos says, “[we are] evolving from a single search engine into a focused network of community and social sites…”There are no advance search options that I could locate; the default results format is from the “web” and additional categories are available to specify , which include “images”, “video”, “news”, “shopping”, and “weather”.  Mars Rover returned over five million results, and Mars AND Rover returned only about one-hundred-fifty-thousand less. The results page is framed with sponsored links.  They do display a thumbnail from the suggested website to left of each result. Results are not dated, however what I found most inconvenient or missing was, the normal Bold Face given to your search terms within the results, which for me made it more difficult to see how or why they were referencing each site based on my search terms. This also made it more difficult to determine if there was a Boolean strategy in place or available.

            In summary, Lycos may be as good as any other general search engine; however, those whom use their email services or other social media services would likely be more inclined to be the ones who use Lycos as their default search engine. With my current knowledge and experience, I would prefer to use Google.com, specifically www.google.com/advanced_search, and specifically because of their available advanced search tools and the fact that I use their social media and email services.

            For my Subject Directory Search I chose to use EDUFRAME, which is described as “A very comprehensive list of sites organized by subject. If you do not find the subject you are searching for, use the Search feature. Slightly more difficult to use than other resources because of the frames…”, by The Southern Oregon University site. It turns out that I did not care for this tool personally; just as they said, difficult because it is presented in frames. However, it did appear to be a wealth of information. It was structured in the form of a traditional hierarchy system, with just lists of text titles. I abandon it at this point because there was now search box available. It might be good if looking for a topic to explore further and is probably easier to use once more familiar with it.

            I continued with my Subject Index Search by checking out Virtual Reference Shelf @ www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html, because based on its description it sounded very interesting and likely to be a great research tool. “The Virtual Reference Shelf is topical list of online resources for research from the Library of Congress” (The Southern Oregon University).            Their home page has many available subjects to choose from along with each having its own subcategories. Best of all, they have a search box, which eventually allows you options within results to easily narrow or widen your search with a plethora of available filters. The result page shows a thumbnail for some results, states format provided (webpage, video, legislation, etc…), you can also print, save, or send/share for findings and, even subscribe to them. Additionally, you can how your results are displayed (both visually & contextually).

            I did not find a link stating how to search, but with Mars Rover as the search, sixteen results were displayed. I then tried Mars AND Rover, the same sixteen results came back. Lastly, I tried Mars OR Rover, and got back 1418 results. This means that AND is an implied Boolean operator through this site, and others can used, such as OR. I found this site would be a great scholarly research tool for finding relevant subjects and links. I will use it in the future.

            Overall, depending on what type of research is being performed (academic or personal), each type of tool has its own benefits, as well as restrictions. For academic research, the Subject Indexes (created by people) would be a great place to look in addition to the search tools through our school library site. I honestly would probably not use Meta Search tools (created by algorithm) on a regular basis, maybe if I were struggling to get results with my General Search Tool (algorithm), Google or whichever, then I would try out a Meta. I will continue to use my General Search Tool (with advance search options or Boolean operators) for both academic research and personal research.

            The IRIS tutorial for Google searching was very helpful, particularly the link www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html , which gives additional Boolean style features for Google searching like the minus sign (-) and the (~) symbol relative to search terms.