Cool Search Tools
I missed Gary Price and Tara Calishain presentation of Cool Search Tools at Computers in Libraries this year because I needed a little me time at the end of the conference. However, I just found their presentation on the web and am very excited. Lots of new stuff that I had to go visit and try. Probably the coolest new tools for me are those that allow you to search for multimedia on the web. I get asked how to find this sort of stuff all the time. Since it looks like these tools are much more effective than using a regular search engine, I now have some place new to tell people to check.
I’m also a big fan of URLInfo which is off the Fagan Finder website. This is really helpful and I’ve been thinking about linking to it on my site. Gary and Tara also show Gigablast “Roll Your Own” which I’ve been playing with and really like. All these tool are definately worth spending a little time to check out even if you may not use them on a regular basis. The main point is not to know all these search tools cold but rather to find search tools that meet your needs and to be aware of the other tools out there in the searchlandscape that may be useful to your users.