ZiefBrief

Finding Quotations on Google News

Google News just announced a nifty new feature -- if you enter the name of a prominent figure in the news in the Google News search box, you can (sometimes) retrieve quotations made by this person.  You can also search within the retrieved quotations to find quotes about a specific topic.  Here's how to do it:

• Enter the name of a prominent person in the Google News search box.  I tried "antonin scalia."

• At the next screen, you'll see the usual news story search results, but you'll also see a quotation from that person at the top of the page, along with a link that says "by Antonin Scalia."  If you click on the "by Antonin Scalia" link, you'll be able to access all quotes within news stories by Justice Scalia.

• You can search within these quotes by entering some search terms in the "Search these quotes" box on the left-hand side of the quotations page.  You can also organize the quotes by date, by relevance, or view quotes from stories posted in the last hour, day, week, or month.

So far, this feature seems to be working sporadically for prominent political figures. I found quotations highlighted in my Google news search results for Senator Arlen Specter, but no quotes at all for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Thanks to beSpacific for the tip!

Google Scholar Indexing HeinOnline Journal Content

WisBlawg reports that you can now find law review article citations from HeinOnline mixed in with your Google Scholar search results.  HeinOnline is the "world's largest image-based legal research database" and it features a very large law journal library.  Because HeinOnline includes the older volumes of law reviews, it can be a more useful database for legal periodical research on certain topics than Lexis or Westlaw.  I ran a few test searches and found some HeinOnline articles in my Google Scholar search results.  Google Scholar will display the first page of the article only, but if you're logged on to the USF network and click the "Subscriber Access" link on the right-hand side of the page, you'll be logged on to HeinOnline automatically and will be able to access the article's full text in PDF format. 

Secret Searching

Ask.com has just announced that you can keep your searches secret on its search engine.  As of today, search engine users can use the AskEraser, located in the top right-hand corner of the Ask.com home page, to delete all search query records.  According to the SF Chronicle's story on the new feature, the AskEraser will eliminate all of your search queries and any related cookies, including IP address and user ID, from Ask.com's servers. Activation of the AskEraser only lasts for 12 months.  After a year, users have to reactivate the AskEraser.

Ask is looking for a way to boost its popularity among search engine users, but I wonder if the AskEraser is the way to do it.  I'm just not sure that the majority of search engine users, particularly those under 30, are super-concerned about search privacy.  According to a recent research study by OCLC, Sharing, Privacy, and Trust in Our Networked World, "the Internet is now an everyday activity like making a phone call or watching TV.  Internet activities are familiar and comfortable and, perhaps as a consequence, are not seen as particularly private."  The study concludes that "privacy matters, but sharing matters more."  The Web is a social experience these days.  For that reason, I think the news about the AskEraser is going to be met with a big shoulder shrug by most searchers.

Ask.com Relaunches

A few months ago, I blogged about a beta search engine, Askx.com, a creation of Ask.com, which furnished "all-in-one" search results on one screen.  Instead of running separate searches for web, video, blog, image, or news content, users could use Askx.com to run one search and get results on one screen for all of these categories. 

Askx.com was apparently a success for Ask.com, because the company announced recently that all Ask.com searches will now incorporate this "all-in-one" approach.  Yea!  For an example of how these new results look, check out this search for information about "Alberto Gonzales."  Note that you get some handy suggestions for narrowing or broadening your search in the left-hand panel, web results in the center panel, and image, video, Wikipedia, and news results in the right-hand panel.  If you click on "more" on the top left of the screen, you can find blog search results as well.  Very useful when you're researching breaking legal news!

Law.com's Search Engine, Quest

While I was browsing ZiefBrief's TypePad stats and referrers list, I came across a search from Law.com's new search engine, Quest.  Maybe I've just been in an end-of-the-semester fog, but this is the first time that I've heard of Quest.  Quest gives you two different search options.  You can search for material within the Law.com network of sites, which includes publications from ALM Media.  Alternatively, you can conduct a broader search on the "Legal Web," which includes "a selection of hand-picked law firm websites and legal blogs," plus content from ALM publications like the New York Law Journal, Legal Times, The Legal Intelligencer, Law Technology News and Corporate Counsel.  To choose your search parameters, just click on the "Law.com Network" or "Legal Web" tabs at the top of the search box.  You can read more about Quest on the Quest FAQ page.  Thanks, ALM Media editors, for selecting ZiefBrief to be part of the Legal Web!
 

Google's Universal Search

Google is rolling out some changes to its main search page, displaying results from its specialized local, news, video, and book search functions on Google's main results page. This new feature could be a big time-saver for researchers because it may eventually eliminate the need to run searches on the same topic on multiple Google search pages.  The SF Chronicle story  and this Google blog post both make it clear that these new enhanced search results will be rolled out over time.  And in fact, a quick test drive of Google today reveals that the "all-in-one" search results don't show up on every search.  I ran a Google search on "Amy Winehouse" and sure enough, I found some YouTube clips scattered within my traditional Web search results page.  But my search for "Frank * Easterbrook" didn't reveal any image results on my search results page, even though Judge Easterbrook's photo does pop up on a Google Image search. 

The lesson?  Google's universal search may take a bit of time to become a reality for all searches and over all Google specialized search functions.  Until then, if you're not finding what you need when you run a Google Web search, don't forget to turn to Google's separate search engines, which you can find on this handy-dandy Google page.

Advanced Google

I just completed a presentation for our faculty on advanced Googling techniques & some tips on the next generation of search engines and thought I'd post it here: Download googleinternetfaculty.ppt

I'm also providing a link to the Google "Cheat Sheet" that I discussed during the presentation. 

Google Works to Increase Access to Government Information

Ever wonder just how much information from government websites is accessible through search engines such as Google?  According to this article on Govexec.com, half of all government web pages cannot be accessed by using search engines.  This figure doesn't come as a surprise to most law librarians, but I suspect that a lot of legal researchers would find this statistic surprising, even alarming.  Fortunately, as the Govexec.com article reports, Google is working with federal agencies to reconfigure agency websites so that search engine Web crawlers can access them more easily.  In the meantime, if you're searching for government information, here are a few research tips:

• Use a search engine dedicated to searching just local, state, and federal government information, such as USA.gov;
• If you don't find what you're looking for when you run a search on Google, Yahoo, Ask, or any other search engine, don't assume that the information isn't out there.  Ask a librarian for help with your search.
• When you visit government agency websites, you need to be prepared to dig, dig, and then dig some more.  Most agency websites are incredibly complex (take a look at this Medicare agency site!), and it takes patience and perseverance to find the information that you need.  Try the website's search function if a search box is provided, and don't give up after a few clicks!

Law School Search Engine

John Doyle of Washington & Lee Law Library has created a very handy custom Google search that allows you to search just the content of law school websites.  The page includes a list of each law school site that's included in the search, and yes, USF is included!  Searching law school websites is a quick and easy way to find legal research guides.  For example, let's say that you would like to find a research guide on art law.  Type the words, "art law guide," into the search box without quotations, and you'll find a few research guides right on point.  Looking for some handy guides to applying for judicial clerkships?  Just type "judicial clerkships" in the search box, and you can take advantage of all of the other law schools' online guides about this topic.  Thanks to beSpacific for the tip!

The X Factor

Librarians are always trying out new search engines, and this month, we've found a twist on an old favorite that is quite exciting.  It's a beta version of Ask.com called AskX.  AskX offers video searching, something that's not available at Ask.com.  But it also packages search results in a more convenient way.  After you type in a search, the left-hand side of the screen suggests additional search terms that you can use to broaden or narrow your search.  You can also click on "Images," "Video," "News," or "Blogs" if you want to view expanded search results from just those categories in the middle portion of the screen.  The middle portion of the screen supplies typical Ask.com search results, including the ability to mouse over the binocular icon to view a preview of a website without actually clicking on the website link.  The right-hand side of the screen supplies results from Wikipedia about your topic, thumbnail images retrieved from Ask.com's image search, news results, and blog search results.  I think it's pretty handy to have an "all-in-one" search result screen, complete with suggestions for improving your search!