Ask X

Ask X is a "double-secret sandbox for testing Ask experiences of the future". It is quite a nice looking search engine, with a nice, clean, google-esque search page.

The results page is split into three panels:

• The central panel is the usual results, which is defaulted to web search. You get the usual sponsored links, Smart Answers and search results, plus the Ask binoculars for previewing results. When you hover the mouse over a result, you get a little page icon with a green cross, which is an 'Add to My Stuff' link. Click on it, and the icon changes to a little page with a red tick, this then links you to your 'My Stuff' page.
• On the left is a static search panel, which contains options for selecting web, image, video etc searches, a search box, and options to Narrow, or Expand your search, Related Search items, and Search suggestions as you type.
• The right hand side panel gives a preview of other types of search results,for example, thumbnails of the first three image results, blogs, videos, encyclopedia (Wikipedia), shopping, etc.

I searched for mango smoothie (as I was drinking one at the time!), and the results were interesting. On the left I had Narrow options: A recipe for Mango Smoothie, Banana and Mango Smoothie, How to Make a Mango Smoothie and Strawberry Smoothie. On the right, I had Shopping results for smoothie makers. And in the middle, I had two sponsored results, and then lots of web results for smoothie recipes.

Then I did a search on The Number 23. The results were the expected mix of items about the new film, about the "number 23 enigma", the wikipedia and imdb entries. The Narrowing options looked relatively useful - to do with numerology, and other numbers. The Expand options looked less related - Psalm 23, Jordan 23 and 'Human Body has 23 what'. On the right I got three images of the number 23, a couple of news stores, some blog posts, and the Wikipedia entry for 23 (not "the number 23").

I like the way the results page is split into sections. It all looks very nice, and the layout is clear and easy to read.

I also like the way that it gives you the options on the left for narrowing etc. and the right hand panel, gives examples of other types of resource results, which might point you to things you wouldn't otherwise have bothered looking for/at. It is very easy to use.

The only real complaint I have is the lack of options on the main search page. You can't select to search anything other than the default (web). You can swap the focus once you have the search results using the options in the left or right hand columns, but that means you have to mess around running the default web search first. Also if you want anything other than Video or Images, then you have to click on the More link in the left hand column. And you are limited by the results displayed in the right hand column (just because it doesn't display a source type, doesn't mean there were no results). It is nice to have the options to begin with.

Things I want

I'm not feeling very well today, so to cheer myself up I've been doing some virtual window shopping...

This T shirt from Errorwear has a broken image icon on it. It made me smile.

This one I found on the What I Learned Today blog. It's from Geek Label.

There are lots of fun products on Kimbooktu's blog! I especially like the Book Perfume, Cabinets, and Wallpaper

Of course, there is always Cafe Press for fun designs, like a Librarian Tshirt or Mug

Homeroom Direct has these librarian socks:


and slightly more scarily a Beaded Eyeglass/Id Holder and a “So Many Books” Lounge Wear Set!

Novelkeys sells keychains and paperweights etc with a book-theme

And then of course there are the less work-related items I want:

Harry Potter (I can at least get this, though I guess I have to wait)

USB Missile Launcher

A jukebox from the Jukebox showroom.

And the silliest thing I've seen:

Sudoku loo roll!

lexisONE

lexisONE is a free service from Lexis Nexis Butterworths in the US. It is designed for small law firms, and provides lots of useful free resources:

It holds US case reports from the US Supreme court, going back to 1790, and the previous five years of reports from the Combined Federal Cases, 1st-11th Circuit Courts of Appeals, the District of Columbia Circuit Court, Bankruptcy Appellate Panel and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

You can search by name, by subject, or by court, and it will provide the citation and a plain text version of the case.

You can then choose to pay to 'Sheperdize' the results, Shepard's® Citations Service, which costs $6. This is the way to check whether the case you have found is still good law (ie check the judicial history).


lexisONE also provides access to over 6,000 US Court Forms, for free, covering a range of jurisdictions and topics; a Legal Web Site Directory, with links to state and federal resources, codes, law firms etc; and also articles and an alert service.

What I've been reading

I've not had a huge amount of time for posting recently - but I have been doing lots and lots (and lots) of reading. I've added a few things to del.icio.us as well.

Mapping your Website Redesign Strategy by Maish Nichani- an excellent, and nicely short article which looks at the 'Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create' framework.

The End User Manifesto - seen on Gaping Void - a list of 14 points that should be considered when creating software.

26 Tips to keep your computer up and functioning - Lifehack - a nice list of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly tasks

Eye-gaze patterns while searching vs browsing a website - by Sav Shrestha & Kelsi Lenz (found via Column Two) - an article on how people look at webpages when searching and browsing. Very interesting.

Inviting Participation, Part 5: Specific Tools - MySpace - David Lee King - number 5 of the series, this one is on MySpace - not something I use or know anything about, nor that is particularly useful to me - I very much doubt any of the lawyers use it! But interesting nonetheless.

Growing your own Search Engine By Stephen Abram in December's Information Outlook - a list of places where you can build your own search engine, and an overview of how to do it.

RSS, Blogs and Wikis - Karen Blakeman's latest presentation.

Thoughts on being a manager - by the Librarian in Black. Made me smile by quoting Jack O'Neill - surely an expert on many many things!

And in a lighter vein:
Ambigram.net - fun and pretty! Information about ambigrams, and a 3d amibgram generator.

Cerado's Web 2.0 or Star Wars Quiz - just funny!

Librarians are still important and needed. Hurrah!

"Who Needs 'Em?" - David Warlick
This article was a request to answer the query "do we really need librarians or libraries any more?" in one minute. Most of the comments are great - ("a good librarian is the best bargain in town"), though a few comments are a little disappointing/worrying.

For more definitely positive affirmations of our continuing importance read
33 Reasons Librarians are Still Extremely Important - DegreeTutor.com .
This article explaines why "librarians – are irreplaceable", including such points as "The internet complements libraries, but it doesn’t replace them", "Libraries aren’t just books" (which so many (non-library) people just don't seem to understand!), and "The internet is a mess"!

Google and the Librarians

Google Librarian Central was launched on 17th January (Announcing the Librarian Central Blog), and has caused a small amount of controversy already. Following on from the Google Librarian Newsletter, which first started in December 2005, the new blog version is a welcome improvement to this (particularly since my firm’s firewall blocked me from the sign-up page for the old Newsletter!).

The blog came about after their request for suggestions on how to improve the Google Librarian Newsletter resulted in two common requests: "make it a blog" and "give us more current information". The blog page contains the blog, access to the archive of the newsletters, some teaching tools (search tips etc), a 'Your Stories' page and videos - all very exciting. There are also links to a (very select) few librarian blogs and lots of Google blogs.

One of the first complaints was that the Google Librarian Central blog did not allow people to leave comments. On 23rd January they showed they were listening (apparently not only to emails but to “comments around the blogosphere”) by enabling comments ( Thanks for the Feedback). Google did explain that “Historically we’ve not featured them on any of the Google blogs simply because we want to be responsive to comments and questions, and typically all of our blog efforts are managed by very small teams with other responsibilities.” So all praise to Google for paying attention to what people actually wanted. Hopefully they will continue to do so on other points.

Another complaint made is that the GLC is very American-centric. Claiming that “we'll do our best to provide information and materials relevant to as many of you as we can” is all very well, but it seems they mean as many of you who are in the US. The conferences they mention attending are all American (ALA Midwinter, AASL). Phil Bradley says “perhaps it's because I'm from Britain, but I'm a little bit touchy about this” - I entirely agree with him - Google is very focussed on America (fair enough, I suppose, since they are based there), but if they are to appeal to the whole community of Librarians - including those in other countries, then they should make more of an effort to include resources, information, etc that is relevant to those outside the US (and not just the UK, though I admit that is what I am mostly interested in). As Phil points out - the “Librarian quiz starts by asking 'What does Google US Government Search let you do?'” - if you’re not in the US you’re probably not going to know (or indeed care). Google has created search pages for different countries - I use google.co.uk, not google.com - and while it would be ridiculous to expect them to create different Google Librarian Central blogs/pages for each country, it would be nice for them to make more of an acknowledgement that there may be librarians in these other countries.

Finally, as Vancouver Law Librarian, Phil Bradley, Steven Cohen, and others have pointed out, Google are completely useless at marketing themselves to Librarians. Their first mistake was to use the image of an old book on the GLC page. This was then changed (following complaints) to a picture of a library building. Which is fine, insofar as it goes, except that it displays a generally traditional view of libraries - that they are about books and buildings, and are physical things. This is an odd view for an entity like Google, with its enthusiasm for putting books online, to hold -(especially since they themselves have described librarians as a "hyper-communicative, quick-to-share-information community") - libraries are much more than just the physical, and many librarians do not view themselves or their workplaces in this way - many librarians are not called ‘librarians’, many do not work in ‘libraries’ (and I’m really, really not getting into all of that here). Of course, it could be argued that Google's view of us is in fact our own fault. The survey they carried out apparently told Google "where you work: mainly in university and school libraries, followed closely by public and special libraries" - I assume they sent the survey out to those subscribed to the newsletter - as I managed to entirely miss it.
It remains to be seen how successful the Google Librarian Central will be - how useful - but it is worth noting that it already has 453 subscribers on Bloglines (yes, including myself - I am hopeful about the blog, and will be keeping up to date with it). The GLC is no more US-centric than the Google Librarian Newsletter was - it just seems that more people are complaining about it - which probably means that more people are aware of it - and care about it. Surely a good thing.

What Google need to do is realise that there are librarians who aren’t in the US, that not all librarians work in public or academic libraries, and that there is much more to library and information work than the traditional view.

*Update: Following the latest blog from GLC, Phil Bradley has responded to their continuing US-centric approach with a wonderfully scathing comment, which he reprints in his blog: "Google Librarian Central: Search Tip: Specialized Searches". Go Phil!