Transcript Web 2.0 Searching Innovations Instructor Joe Barker [email protected] An Infopeople Workshop Spring - Summer 2007 This Workshop is Brought to You by the Infopeople Project Infopeople is a federally-funded.

Web 2.0
Searching
Innovations
Instructor
Joe Barker
[email protected]
An Infopeople Workshop
Spring - Summer 2007
This Workshop is Brought to You
by the Infopeople Project
Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project supported by
the California State Library. It provides a wide variety of
training to California libraries. Infopeople workshops are
offered around the state and are open registration on a
first-come, first-served basis.
For a complete list of workshops, and for other information
about the project, go to the Infopeople website at
infopeople.org.
Introductions
•Name
•Library
•Position
•How did you first learn about Web 2.0 ?
Workshop Overview
•The meaning of Web 2.0
•Search value of tags and del.icio.us
•Web search engine innovations
•Customized, vertical search engines
•Finding useful blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds
•Searching 2.0 participation sites
•Keeping up with 2.0 search innovations
•Course evaluation
Other Web 2.0 Infopeople Classes
•Hands-on intro to 2.0 for library staff
•Finding it for kids with 2.0
•Using social software with teens
•Developing a successful e-branch
•Connecting with the community using
social software
•What library managers need to know
about web 2.0
Dates & Instructors @ infopeople.org/training/web20
Bookmarks for This Class
1.
2.
3.
4.
Go to: bookmarks.infopeople.org
5.
Notice the name in the Name: box so that you
can use the Favorites list to get back to the
class bookmarks for the rest of the day.
Look for web2_srchng_bk.html
Click on it so it shows on the screen
With the class bookmark file showing in
Internet Explorer, click the Favorites menu,
choose Add to Favorites…
What Does "2.0" Mean?
• New energy and direction for the web
• "Web 1.0" was done for users
– created by webmasters, organizations,
businesses, and web-savvy individuals
• Web 2.0 done more by users
– sharing MY almost anything
– personal preferences and ratings of content
– transparency, openness, secrets bared
– users create new content and tools
Trust in the
"Wisdom of Crowds"
• Ordinary people – anyone – can build content
– tagging – unpredictable, unplanned access
– anyone welcome to comment
– wikis express group intelligence
• Sharing the unexpected creates interest
– photos, videos, podcasts, book collections
– the personal, the private, the "too much"
• Users create new combo web products
– mashups & remixes
• two disparate web activities married together
– customized search tools
Technology More Varied
•More formats than web pages
– blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, tags
– 3D viewing, animation, draggability
•More than HTML and a web browser
– RSS feed readers
– video viewers
– downloaded desktop tools
– sound equipment
– cameras
– wireless phone access to web services
Easier to Participate and Innovate
• APIs facilitate bridging programs together
– application program interface
• "mash" part of one web service with part of another
• ProgrammableWeb.com
– most popular mashups
– list of over 450 APIs available to create with
– instructions for using most APIs available
• It helps to know a little programming
– based on flexible programming languages
• XML, Ajax, WADL, REST, + other scripting languages
– create an account and play around
– discussion groups offer help
– copy & paste from View Source
Shift In Values
•Non-hierarchical
– all users equally entitled to participate
– content not vetted
– author often anonymous or cloaked
– what gets used = what's worthwhile
•Pragmatic
– speed and ease of use more than authority
– good enough is good enough
– common sense decides
Discussion
•What would you add
to this sketch of
what Web 2.0
means?
Exercise 1
Getting your del.icio.us
Account Working
Tags and Tagging
• One-word keywords
– describe what something "means" to you
• Open ended
– multiple tags for an item
• Searchable
– find within your tagged stuff
– in everyone else's
• Popularity ranking with human intelligence
Let’s take a look
Dos and Don'ts of Tagging
• Use tags other people use
– create unused tags sparingly
– promotes sharing and comparing
• Use single words or merged words – no space
software
opensource
open_source
• Use two tags for intersecting concepts
canada politics
NOT canadapolitics
• Avoid most punctuation
– spaces separate tags in del.icio.us - NOT commas
– use – and _ only if preferred by others
• Take time to write brief descriptions – searchable
• Take time to edit or change badly chosen tags
• If collaborating, coordinate tag taxonomy
Exercise 2
Using Your del.icio.us Account
Cheat Sheet #1: Getting the Most from del.icio.us
Other Uses for del.icio.us
•Collaboration
•Automatic notification on a tag's use
•Tracking popular trends
•Seeing what someone else sees as
valuable
What would you add to this list?
Web Search
Innovations
The Best Search Engines Live On
• Google
–
–
–
–
most popular web search engine
web search weighted towards content, information
SearchMash – more than web page, no ads
Promises even more varied experience searching
• Yahoo!
– most popular portal
– web search results very commercial
• pay for inclusion sites intrude
• Yahoo! community content mixed in
• Ask.com
– underutilized
– focus on quality information
Basic Search Still the Same
AND assumed between words
" "
force a phrase search
OR
must be capitalized
- excludes
•Most limiters standardized
intitle:
inurl:
site:
filetype:
finds words in page title field
finds word somewhere in URLs
restricts to pages from a site
restricts to a type of page
• Exceptions in Yahoo!
accepts ( ) around ORed terms – NO LONGER required
(coffee OR tea) cups
coffee OR tea cups
accepts NOT or –
hostname: to search only within a specific site
hostname:infopeople.org
Google Offers More Non-Websearch
• Interactive information tools
– News Archive Search
• headlines, timeline, date ranges of past news
– Google Finance
• real time stock quotes in feeds
• rivaling Yahoo Finance
– Google Earth + photos + wikipedia + tours
• has Local + Directions + Maps in 3D
– Google Co-op
• Customized Search Engines
• Commercial side of Google
– Google Docs & Spreadsheets – rivals MS Office
• fosters collaboration and sharing
– Google Base rivaling Craig's List & eBay
– Google Checkout rivaling PayPal
– owns: YouTube, Orkut (like Friendster)
From Yahoo: Information ??
• Community emphasis
– answers.yahoo.com
• Yahoo "members" – anyone – can provide answers
• archive of thousands of answers – searchable
– users make & share mashups: Pipes
– owns: del.icio.us, Flickr, Upcoming.org,
(music playlists)
Webjay
• Many portal features
– traffic, HotJobs, movies, music, horoscopes ….
– shop for autos, airfares, relationships, anything
• Expanded Yahoo Finance
– Real-time streaming stock quotes
– Personal finance section
• getting rich, taxes, banking, investments, financing college
• how-to guides
From Ask.com: Enriched Search
• ask.com has become askx.com, AKA ask3d.com
–
–
–
–
integrates media, encyclopedias
search suggestions
good ranking
suggest other sources of info
• images, news, blogs, video, weather, music
– not as current or large as Google
• city.ask.com
– local businesses, events, movies integrated with maps &
directions
• the plan:
double Ask's search market share
– currently only 2.5%
NEW: Social Web Search Engines
•Sproose (sproose.com)
• claims huge database (undisclosed billions)
– KnowledgeRank™
• user-driven ranking by VOTES by searchers
• gradually builds what YOU (and we ALL) want
– Registration required to influence others
• tags, groups, communities of sites voted for
– like collections of pages on a topic
– Cross between del.icio.us and search?
•Mahalo
(mahalo.com)
– Human editors rank sites matching searches
• users can help edit in "Greenhouse" = $$$
• goal to "hand-write the top 10,000 search terms
– Categories to browse or search
– Google results supplement editors' picks
Exercise 3
Web Search Innovations
Customized, Vertical
Search Engines
•"Drill down" in websites or pages you
choose
Google Custom Search Engines (CSEs)
• Need a gmail or other Google account
•
–
free, no spam
Easy to create
–
–
at www.google.com/coop
start with one or two URLs to search
•
•
–
5,000 URL limit !!
easy to add more as you find them
Promote your CSE
–
URL in Google Co-op by default
•
–
–
send to friends, blog it, use MySpace and all else
submit it to a CSE directory
paste its code in any web page
Cheat Sheet 2: "Creating Google CSEs"
Other Customized Searches Pale
• Rollyo.com
– 25 URL limit
– easy to use and customize
– granddaddy of free custom search
• Yahoo Search Builder
– builder.search.yahoo.com
– 25 URL limit
• MSN Live Search Macros
– search.live.com/macros
– 20 URL limit
Finding Google CSEs
• Over 50,000 exist already
• CSE Directories
– Guide to Custom Search Engines (CSEs)
• many examples, reviews, ratings
– The Directory of Google Custom Search Engines
• many examples, searchable, no reviews, no ratings
– CSE Links Directory – Custom Search Engines
• sparsely populated, searchable, ratings, comments
In bookmarks for this course
• Search Google for CSEs
inurl:cse inurl:coop site:google.com your keywords
Exercise 4
Finding Custom Search
Engines (CSEs)
New Types of Web Pages:
Blogs, Wikis, & RSS Feeds
Blogs, Wikis
•Two special formats to group-related content
– viewable in any web browser
– individual pages found in web searches
•Content from participants, the "WE" web
•Easy to create and to keep current
– little knowledge of coding
– log in and make updates
Blogs (the "Blogosphere")
• Short for "weblog"
– short "postings" - newest on top
– usually a searchable archive
– readers can comment, not edit
• Generally personal or by a small group
– opinions, news, facts, musings
– many powerful experts, authorities
– some junky and commercial ("splogs")
• You must evaluate
– assess the blogger's voice
Finding Blogs
• Web search engines
– include blog in your search:
ala 2007 seattle blog
• Special blog indexes
– more current than search engines
– beware of spam - ads and stolen content
• Google blog search – inblogtitle: to focus
• Technorati – search.technorati.com - "a lot of authority"
– IceRocket – attempt to compete with Technorati
• Ask.com – Blogs & Feeds search
• Use blog CSEs
– www.liszen.com - 600+ library science blogs
• Read blogs that your favorite bloggers read
Wikis
• "wiki" – Hawaiian for fast
– collection of interlinked web pages
– focus on content, often gray appearance
– collaboration, sharing, pooling knowledge
• Ownership flat compared to blogs
– many people can contribute and edit
• anonymous or with logins
• can be private or limited
– easy to start
– challenge: get others to contribute
• May be too open for some purposes
– need to trust contributors, allow editing
– can be vandalized or spammed
Some Successful Uses of Wikis
• Wikipedia ??? – jury's still wondering
• Professional wiki examples:
– Lib Success wiki
– Library Instruction wiki
– Qwiki: quantum physics wiki
• Conference/course wiki examples:
– ALA 2007 Seattle – information about conference
– Five Weeks to a Social Library wiki (also a blog)
• Reporting, sharing in wikis:
– Princeton PL's Book Lover's wiki
– Davis area guide
Finding Wikis (and Wiki Content)
• Search engines
–
include inurl:wiki in search
–
may want to eliminate Wikipedia
inurl:wiki cactus gardening –wikipedia
• Other tools emerging
–
list in the Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis
–
wikis of wikis
WikiIndex.org
–
Wikia.com
wiki Google CSE – searches text within its wikis
Wikinside.com
Exercise 5
Finding Blogs and Wikis
RSS Feeds:
Trapping What You Need to
Keep On Top Of
RSS Feeds
"Really Simple Syndication"
• Mini programs added to many websites & blogs
• Keep current with things you need to know
– time saver
• The most recent updates to the site or blog
made available in a "feed"
• If you SUBSCRIBE to a feed:
– automatically receive updates
– only receive what's new, not read before
– like an "information trap"
Where are RSS Feeds?
• In websites to report updates, new items
–
–
–
–
many government pages
most news and newspaper websites
most sharing websites
some libraries' websites
• additions to collections
• library news, events, jobs
• In many blogs
– a blog option
– allows readers to keep up with new postings
• In many news search engines
– track a news category
– track news matching specified search terms
Finding RSS Feeds
• Learn to identify RSS feed availability
– look for this text in the page:
•Syndicate or Subscribe or RSS Feed
– look for RSS feed buttons
• Search for feeds
– in web search engines and directories
Google: rss feeds recalls site:fda.gov
– in special feed directories and search engines
Bloglines: search for feeds: table of contents
The RSS expert:
Tara Calishain, Information Trapping (New Riders, 2007)
Using RSS Feeds
• You need a feed reader
– most feeds use XML – not HTML
– illegible in most web browsers
• Bloglines is the best feed reader
–
–
–
–
many features
good controls and tools
handles all formats of RSS feeds
works with any computer & browser
• When you locate and click on an RSS feed link –
action varies
–
–
–
–
get XML code – illegible without a reader
your browser may try to act as a reader
you may be offered choices of readers to use
may take you to Bloglines
Cheat Sheet #3: Tracking & Reading RSS Feeds Using Bloglines
Exercise 6
Finding RSS Feeds
Finding Information in
2.0 Participation Sites
Cheat Sheet #4: Searching Web 2.0 Spaces
Participation Sites – Primarily Personal
• Putting "ME-ness" out there to be seen
– People - Social Networking
• personal spaces networking other personal spaces
– Media
• sharing photos, videos
• music, film recommendations & affinity groups
– Personal growth and support
– Books, reading networks
• Most have tagging, blogs, forums
• Most have APIs
– invite customization & mashups
Personal Space Services
• Social networking
– starts with your profile – your unique personal space
– add photos, videos, links, events, details about you
– reach out through email, chat, blogs, browsing, searching
• MySpace – most used website after Google & Yahoo (U.S.)
– huge ( >160 million users, adding 300,000 per day)
– international, open to anyone
– many types of content, media, and networking
• Facebook – most used after MySpace,
MSN, & YouTube (U.S.)
– huge ( >17 million users)
– largely academic, higher ed
– open to everyone & organizations now – English only
• Ning – outpacing both MySpace & Facebook
– join groups with common interest, form networks with your focus
– add blogs, join discussions, invite members – more "grown up" ?
Useful Uses for Social Networking
•Libraries use for contact, exposure, some
reference/group interaction
– many libraries profiled in MySpace
– some in Facebook
– questions can come from anywhere in the world
•Window into human activity
– public opinion, political trends
• techPresident.com
– check up on people, job applicants
– track opinions/reactions on news, events
• search a college name – some candid opinions
• videos, photos, blogged, discussed, linked to
Photo Sharing
• Upload photos
– add tags, descriptions, comments
– share
– many ways to search and find
• tags, text in descriptions, comments
• users, place names
• Flickr
– organize into sets
• manage dates, traffic
• put into a Yahoo map
– share, get seen
• invite individuals or groups to view
• create your groups. join others
– management options
• can set permissions: flickr.com/creativecommons
• put pictures into web page: flickr.com/tools
• free API, many tools, well documented: flickr.com/services
Video Sharing
• Uploaded videos
– personal and commercial
– tagging, ratings
– comments as other videos
• builds groups, movements, tribes
– viral marketing for good videos otherwise unseen
• YouTube
–
–
–
–
opinions, events, personal life, "reality TV"
search tags, descriptions, titles
browse communities, categories, channels
developer kit - API to put access to video web page/blog
• Videos also in MySpace & FaceBook
Podcast Sharing
• Yahoo Podcasts – podcasts.yahoo.com
• Upload, search, browse
– series and episodes search
• content from distributors, publishers, networks
– also personal podcasts
– listen without/with special software
– download to iTunes or Yahoo's media players
• Subscribe to feeds of podcasts
– requires music player software or mp3 player
• Instructions for creating podcasts
– podcasts.yahoo.com/publish
Movie Recommendations
• Based on your selections, finds things you
should like
• Movie.lens
– enter 15 or more movies you like / dislike
– matched with other peoples' lists
– suggests movies
• suggestions based on what "neighbors" like
• neighborhoods have similar tastes
– make "buddies"
• your buddy is notified when you select something
• like not watching movies alone?
– links to IMDB and other info
Music Recommendation Sites
• Licensed as radio stations
– listen to what is played on a "station"
– 30 second snippet of albums and other "on demand" music
– some free music made available by artists
• No copyright violations
• Pandora.com
– fairly small, easy to use, no snippets
– search an artist, listen to selections and songs from similar
artists
• selections based on affinities made by users
– find users' "stations"
– rate them thumbs up and down to fine tune
Last.fm: Music Sharing & Sales
• Download software & subscribe
– "scrobbling" logs your listening (public), finds similar listeners
– your "recommendation station" plays what "neighbors" like
• Search & browse for "stations"
to listen to
– search by artist, similar artists, tags, users, or other lists
– join groups
– read charts, journals (blog), descriptions
• many charts based on who listens – NOT sales
• global tops, top artists, tracks, albums, songs, user groups
– "quilt" is your own space
• "social music revolution"
• Easy to buy music
– seeks to hold inventory of major music producers
– links to Amazon music
– snippets when copyright and for sale
Global Group Therapy ?
• 43 things – goals
"What do you want to do with your life"
– Share because:
• writing goals down helps you achieve them
• get inspired by other people's efforts
• share your progress
• get cheers and support
– Feel less lonely, alone?
• Browse by cities, images, tags, "wanderlust"
• Window into popular will ?
– 43 Things Zeitgeist
LibraryThing – Cataloging for Fun
• About 160,000 members – 1.8 million unique titles
– over 1,800 avowed librarians/libraries
– share, connect, organize, communicate, review, rate
•Easy to use
– author or title search finds book record
• cover images, library cataloging, Dewey or LC
• tags instead of subject headings
• Explore other people's collections
– find by tag or searches
• Uses in libraries
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–
–
–
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reader's advisory, book groups - Book Suggester
collection development suggestions
new additions - Bookshelf
APIs for link in web pages
make posters and photomosaics
Exercise 7
Searching in
Participation Sites
The Future and 2.0
•Keeping up
– find and track good blogs
– search Google: "library 2.0"
– expect change
•Is 2.0 a trend or transformation ?
– commercial pressure for innovation
– new ways to market traditional products
– new energy and ideas
•participation open, global, non-hierarchical
– social movement to share and care
Last links in Course Bookmarks
Exercise 8
Your Cheat Sheet
Workshop Evaluation
infopeople.org/workshop/eval