Search Utilities

1
Search Utilities

• Eugene Barsky
• Jing Jiang
• Vincent Schillaci-Ventura
• Jeffrey Voon

LIBR 557 Advanced Information Retrieval Winter
2004-2005, Term 1 School of Library, Archival and
Information Studies The University of British
Columbia Instructor Mary Sue Stephenson Presentat
ion Date Monday, November 29, 2004
2
Search Utilities Definition

• Search Utilities are
• Software products that assist you in searching
• Enhancements which make accessing search
  engines much easier
• A way to search the web without going to a
  search engine
• Tools that help you find information more
  efficiently

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Search Utilities Presentation Outline

• Search Toolbars Google Toolbar
• Desktop Search Utilities Hotbot Toolbar/Desktop
• Meta Search Utilities Copernicus Agent
• Search Companions Grokker 2.1

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Search Toolbars

• Software that when installed in the web browser
  (mainly Internet Explorer) provides an immediate
  access to one or more search engines and/or
  additional web resources

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Google Toolbar General Info

• The first publicly available version of the
  Google Toolbar was released December 11, 2000.
• Available for free download from -
  http//toolbar.google.com/
• Currently not available for Mozilla/ Netscape/
  Linux/ Firefox/ AOL or MSN browsers
• Additionally, the Google Toolbar is not currently
  available for the Mac computers

6
Google Toolbar System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0(Pop-up blocker
  requires Internet Explorer 5.5)

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Google Toolbar Strengths

• Able to run searches through IE browser without
  going to the Google web page first
• Able to search Regular web Google images
  Google groups Web Directory Google News
  Froogle and Dictionary (dictionary.com) only by
  two clicks
• Able to maintain personal browser search history
• Highlights search terms inside a received page
• Blocks pop up ads
• Able to automatically fill in web-based forms
  (for ECML-- Electronic Commerce Modeling
  Language) standard
• Provides cached version of the requested page
• Translates search results into English
• In general provides the power of Google command
  language without knowing how to use it

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Google Toolbar Weaknesses

• Available only for IE installed in MS Windows
  systems
• Privacy issues- PageRank function (sends
  information about the page you're viewing to the
  Google servers) it is possible to disable this
  function

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Google Toolbar Selected Features

• Google Pull Down Menu (provides access to some
  useful services described below)
• Google Links to
• Images search
• Groups search
• Web Directory
• Google News
• Froogle
• Google Answers
• Blogger site
• Toolbar Options
• Help screen

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Google Toolbar Selected Features

• Google Search Box
• Is able to query
• All web
• Canadian content only (.ca)
• Current site
• Images database
• Google groups (Usenet)
• News database
• Froogle
• Dictionary (dictionary.com)

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Google Toolbar Selected Features

• Page Info Menu
• Provides menu access to some extremely powerful
  Google search operators such as
• Cached Version of Page (cache)
• Similar Pages (related)
• Backward Links (link)
• Translate into English

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Google Toolbar Selected Features

• Convenience Buttons
• Highlight toggle button - Highlights searched
  words on the current page. Each searched term
  appears with a different background color (up to
  6)
• Up button- Navigate up one level in the current
  site
• Options Accesses the toolbar options window
• BlogThis! Creates a weblog post pointing to the
  current web page

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Google Toolbar Selected Features

• Double-Barreled Options
• Pop-up Blocker - Prevents popup ads from
  appearing in a browser
• white list issues

HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Software - Google -
NavClient - 1.1 - whitelist
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Google Toolbar Selected Features

• Double-Barreled Options (cont.)
• PageRank - Is the importance that Google assigns
  to a page based on an automatic algorithm -
  logarithmic scale.
• Toolbar sends information about the current page
  to the Google servers

Page and Brins Paper - http//www-db.stanford.edu
/backrub/google.html
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Google Toolbar Subjective Score
Our Ranking Five Librarians!
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Desktop Search Utilities

• Traditionally, refers to a software installed on
  a computer and provides search of files stored on
  local drives
• Newly developed definition expands searchable
  resources to multiple data sources including
• Internet, intranets, databases, local drives and
  removable storage
• (searchWindowsSecurity.com )

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Desktop Search Utilities

• Popular Desktop Search Utilities
• AltaVista Discovery
• Scopeware
• Copernic
• Lookout
• X1 Search
• New products providing both desktop search and
  Web search
• HotBot Desktop, released in March 2004 by Lycos
• Google Desktop, released in October 2004
• Yahoo and Microsoft are working on desktop search
  solutions

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HotBot Desktop Major Features

• Search the web
• Powered by Inktomi
• Search your local computer
• Index and search files, email, RSS (Really Simple
  Syndication) feeds, and search history
• Subscribe to RSS news feeds
• Block obtrusive Pop-ups
• Highlight searched terms
• Search shortcuts to favorite web sites

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HotBot Desktop System Requirements

• OS Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP
• Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and
  above
• Scripting Enabled

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HotBot Desktop Search the Web
hotel vancouver cheap
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HotBot Desktop Search the Web
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HotBot Desktop Search the Web
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HotBot Desktop - Search Files

• Index files on your computer
• Define index file types
• Microsoft Office files, PDF, RTF
• Other text based files, can be added manually
• Define directories to index
• Set controls over the indexing process
• Run automatically at a specific time
• Run manually

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HotBot Desktop - Search Files
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HotBot Desktop - Search Files

• Keyword search
• Search
• Title
• Content
• Results can be sorted by
• Relevant
• Name
• Date
• View the file in IE browser

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HotBot Desktop Search E-mail

• Index Outlook or Outlook Express folders
• Can search Outlook or Outlook Express emails
  including attachments
• View emails in IE browser
• Configure settings through HotBot Toolbar
  Settings
• Run indexing program automatically or manually

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HotBot Desktop RSS Feeds

• Subscribe to pre-selected popular RSS (Really
  Simple Syndication) or adding additional feeds
• Browse subscribed RSS feeds
• Index RSS feeds
• Keyword search the titles

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HotBot Desktop Other Features

• Search history Search previous viewed Web pages
• Search current site
• Shortcuts to favorite Web sites
• Pop-up ads blocker
• Highlight toggle button - Highlights searched
  words. Each searched term appears with a
  different background colour (up to 5)

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HotBot Desktop Search Features

• Boolean searching is not available
• Uses best match searching Looks for pages
  match all search terms and ranks these pages
  higher than pages containing fewer terms
• Provides
• phrase matching with quotation marks, e.g.
  Martin Luther
• plus () to include a term, e.g. UBC
• minus (-) to exclude a term, e.g. -King

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HotBot Desktop Search Features (cont.)

• Local search provides "Wildcard Characters
• ? Operator matches one character
• - gramm?r will find documents with either grammar
  or grammer in them
• Operator matches any number of characters
• - market retrieves documents with market or
  marketing in them

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HotBot Desktop Strengths

• Integrates traditional desktop search with Web
  search within the browser
• Able to run Web searches through IE browser
  without going to a specific search engine web
  page first
• Able to search local computer, including search
  files, emails, search history
• Able to browse and search RSS feeds
• Able to create shortcuts to favorite Web sites
• Able to search current site
• Able to navigate search results and view selected
  page in one window
• Able to view files in IE browser
• Highlights search terms inside a retrieved page
• Blocks pop up ads
• Able to automatically run indexing process
• No cost Free download

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HotBot Desktop Weaknesses

• Available only for IE installed on MS Windows
  systems
• Using Best Match searching and Boolean
  searching is not available
• Cannot increase text size on results page
• Too many keyword ads A maximum of 8 sponsored
  links are visible, 4 above Web results and 4
  below
• Cannot index and search network hard drives
• Weak help section
• Unusual performance
• Some functions do not work on Windows ME (e.g.
  viewing emails)

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HotBot Desktop Subjective Score
Our Ranking Four Librarians!
34
Meta Search Utilities

• A meta search utility has the ability to search a
  multitude of search engines at the same time.
• Also called desktop search programs or
  client-side search software.
• Unlike web-based meta search engines, search
  utilities are software programs that you download
  to your computer.

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Popular Meta Search Utilities

• Copernic Agent
• http//www.copernic.com/
• Arrow Search
• http//www.rtsoftware.co.uk/arrow_search/
• SearchRocket
• http//www.searchrocket.com/
• WebFerret
• http//www.ferretsoft.com/index.html

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Copernic Agent Three Versions
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Copernic Agent is

• a meta search engine,
• an invisible web explorer
• online research assistant
• It dices, it slices, it makes julienne fries but
  wait theres more

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Copernic Agent Meta Search Engine

• Capable of searching up to 1200 different
  databases at the same time
• Search engines may be grouped into categories
• Able to search the invisible web
• Can only search using features that are common to
  all search engines

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Copernic Agent Toolbar

• Installs within the browser of your choice
• Also works with Microsoft Word, (basic version)
  Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint (pro version only)
• Highlight searching feature within IE 5.0 or
  later
• Searches up to 90 search engines within 10
  categories
• Displays results in an HTML page via the default
  browser
• Generates a search history

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Copernic Toolbar Selected Features

• customize maximum number of results by each
  engine
• Customize search and results layout
• Can enable and disable engines available by
  category

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Copernic Agent Basic Selected Features

• Saves web pages for offline browsing
• Removes duplicates
• Uses the Boolean operators (AND, OR, EXCEPT,
  NEAR) and parentheses (only when searching
  results)
• Detailed and unlimited search history
• Email search results in HTML or text format
• Sorts searches by title, excerpts, addresses,
  scores, dates found, dates visited, dates
  modified or search engines

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Copernic Agent Filtering and Grouping
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Copernic Agent - Analysis

• Can detect the language of the page
• Remove duplicates with non-identical addresses
• Extracts last page modification date
• Extracts key concepts from found pages creating a
  summary
• Removes irrelevant results following analysis of
  pages using keywords or Boolean query

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Copernic Agent Page Tracking

• Track pages for modifications
• Schedule searches with email notification of new
  results or pages
• Email tracking report to colleagues or clients

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(No Transcript)
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Copernic Agent Systems Requirements

• Minimum equipment requirements Pentium 120 MHz,
  32 MB of RAM, 15 MB of disk space.
• Operating system required Windows
  95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP.
• Browser required Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
  or later, Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x or
  6.x.
• Supports multi-user configurations for individual
  searches and settings.
• Windows compliant software uninstall procedure.
• Accessibility to the program from Windows
  Start/Find menu.

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Copernic Agent - Problems

• Will only do Boolean searches within results
• Basic version does not search Google
• May be slow when set to maximum search setting
• User is constantly reminded of features that are
  available in the Pro version.
• No safe filtering capabilities

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Copernic Agent Subjective Score

• Web tour at http//www.copernic.com/en/products/a
  gent/tour.html

Our Ranking Four Librarians!
49
Search Companions

• Search companions can help you find or discover
  new information while browsing on the Web
• Some examples include
• Grokker (http//www.groxis.com/service/grok/)
• UCmore (http//www.ucmore.com/)
• TouchGraph GoogleBrowser (http//www.touchgraph.co
  m/TGGoogleBrowser.html)
• GuruNet Reference Answer Engine
  (http//www.gurunet.com/)

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Grokker - Background

• Grokker is made by Groxis Inc., a San Francisco
  based company, founded in 2001, first previewed
  in October 2002
• Grokker 2.1 is available for both PC, and a
  recently released MAC OS X version (BETA)
• Grokker is available for download from
  http//www.groxis.com/service/grok/
• Free 30-day test period to try - 49 USD to
  purchase
• grok comes from Robert Heinlein's
  science-fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land
  (1961), the word is Martian and literally means
  "to drink," but metaphorically means "to take it
  all in," to understand fully, or to "be at one
  with."

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Grokker Minimum System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP
• Pentium III at 800MHZ
• 128MB RAM (256MB recommended)
• 100MB of free disk space (20MB if Java 2 is
  already installed)
• Mac OS X 10.2.2 (Jaguar) but Mac OS X 10.3.3
  (Panther) preferred
• PowerPC G3
• 256 MB of RAM (512 MB preferred)
• 20 MB of free disk space
• Java 1.4.1
• Safari 1.0

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Grokker Information

• Not a search engine, is a program to analyze and
  illustrate search engine results
• Build, edit, and save maps of up to 2000 items
• Includes four plugins The Web, Google (Beta),
  Amazon.com, and My Files (search your hard drive
  or network drive)
• Quick Grok search for those times when you want
  answers fast
• Contains a fully functional Web browser based on
  Internet Explorer
• Post-filters apply up to four filters at a time
  to map items for quick and easy data-mining (eg.
  Page rank, domain, source, etc.)
• Apply color filters to map items
• Advanced search panel allows for further
  customization by language, date, adult content,
  number of results, website, etc.

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Grokker More Information

• Help features
• In-depth WebHelp available at http//www.groxis.co
  m/GrokkerHelp/Guide/2.0/
• Information on layout, interface, search tips,
  customizing, filtering similar to Microsoft
  interface
• Grokker truncation/shortcuts/Boolean
• No mention in help, due to fact Grokker is a
  meta-search utility, should work with Google
  plug-in however
• Grokker does not show adult content, but these
  sites can be included in maps by choosing option
  in preferences
• Suggested to use quotation marks for phrases,
  otherwise will search all keywords individually

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Grokker Strengths

• Can search six popular search engines at once
  (AltaVista, MSN, WiseNut, Fast, Yahoo, and Teoma)
  using Grokkers The Web plug-in - plus Google
  plug-in
• Creates a visually mapped representation of a
  search using colourful circles called nodes, as
  opposed to a list of search results within each
  circle, subcategories appear as smaller shapes,
  and larger the node the more information it
  contains
• Not only a search engine, can also categorize and
  map files on your hard drive by content
• Unlimited number of future plug-ins can be
  created already Amazon.com plans for eBay,
  Library of Congress Catalogue, AskJeeves, job
  site Monster, LexisNexis, news websites

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Grokker Weaknesses

• Avid memory eater and requires a considerable
  amount of computing power - nothing less than a
  Pentium III with a good amount of RAM
• Format makes it less friendly to advertising
• If one is good at stipulating terms for a text
  search engine like Google, Grokker may be
  unnecessary
• Unlike other some other search utilities, it
  costs money to purchase (49 USD after free
  30-day trial period)

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zooming space
browsing space
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Grokker Map Only View
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Grokker Selected Features

• Grokker Basic Interface The Web plug-in

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Grokker How Plug-ins Work
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Grokker Amazon.com plug-in
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Grokker Horizon Information Portal
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Grokker The Future

• Groxis is aiming to sell Grokker to schools,
  colleges and universities, for student use
• Also, Groxis selling Grokker to companies, which
  might like Groxis' ability to integrate an
  Intranet search with Web and database search -
  currently has more than 100 such customers,
  including Dell, Microsoft, U.S. Navy, CIA and
  Visa

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Grokker Subjective Score
Try it yourself with a free 30-day downloadable
demo version at http//www.groxis.com
Our Ranking Four-And-A-Half Librarians!
64
Search Utilities Conclusion

• Many different types and varieties of search
  utilities availablefrom toolbars to desktop
  utilities to meta searchers to search companions
• Choosing which ones to use is like going to an
  all-you-can-eat buffet
• try a little of everything until you find
  something you like,
• look for the items that best suits your needs or
  your stomach,
• and finally, dont eat too much at a time, youll
  regret it tomorrow!