Brain Candy #62 - Seek and Ye Shall Find

Whether you view it as tool box, toy box, bookshelf or something else, if you want to really explore the web, you need good search capabilities. I frequently tout Google at www.google.com. It is probably the best general, easy-to-use search tool in common use today. The best tool today, however, might not be the best tomorrow. Also note that I called it a general tool. If you have specialized needs, you may be able to leverage extra power from a more specialized tool. There are other engines that use unique approaches to exploring the web. The more you know about the choices you have, the more successful your searches will be.

I'll start with a resource to help you find good search engines. The site is called NoodleTools. You can find it at www.noodletools.com.

The home page description of NoodleTools is "a suite of interactive tools designed to aid students and professionals with their online research." The two main goals of NoodleTools are finding information, and properly citing it. Some of the tools require a subscription fee, but they also have free tools and resources for teachers. To me, the most interesting section was "Choose a Search Engine," which offers advice on what search engines to access for special needs. For example, there are two search engines which specialize in US government information. Three sites are noted for biographical information. Six sites offer perspectives from other countries and regions. There are seven sites that specialize in the "invisible web" - those pages not commonly indexed by general search engines. There are sites that specialize in searching for images, sounds and maps. If you're serious about your searching, NoodleTools is worth checking out.

One site that NoodleTools doesn't (yet) mention is an oddity, even by web standards. The site is called Kartoo, and it is a graphical representation of related websites that match your search criteria. You can find it at www.kartoo.com.

I've experimented with Kartoo on a number of occasions. I'm fairly convinced that I get unique hits with it, compared to more pedestrian search engines. After typing in your search phrase, you'll get a graphical map of about ten web sites that match it. On the left side of the page, you'll get a list of related terms that can be included or excluded (+ or -) to reinforce your original request. The map itself also has terms within it that will exhibit the +/- selectors if you move your mouse over them. One other feature: when you move the mouse over one of these words, the web sites associated with them will light up. I'll give an example of a search that I've just tried.

When I was in college, I was interested in behavioral genetics. This was the late 1970's, when a sharp controversy regarding males possessing an extra Y chromosome, the XYY "super male," was raging. Early research on these men was performed on prison populations, and found larger body size, elevated levels of violence and aggression and lowered intelligence were characteristic of XYY males. Later research, which controlled for the prison factor, or which was done using non-prisoners, showed that almost all of these effects disappeared. The latest (non-technical) information I've read is that boys with this affliction often have profound, but surmountable, developmental difficulties, and that knowledge of the syndrome is still poorly developed.

I typed "xyy" (note lower case, upper case returns a similar, but different result) into Kartoo's search box, and saw a brief picture of a genie on a flying carpet as the site processed my search. Then, page one of the map was displayed. I could have chosen to move to page two, if I didn't see any promising leads, but one of the words on both the left and in the map was "behavior", which highlighted three sites: www.specialchild.com, www.drgreene.com, and www.autismuk.com, when I moved the mouse over it. I clicked on the "+" sign to add "behavior" to "xyy" and got a new map. The new map had a new word, "controversy", which I then clicked on to get a better map. This map had the phrase "ethics", which I clicked on. I could continue refining and/or exploring these maps until I've satisfied my needs. Kartoo has other features that I haven't even tried yet. After a bit of practice, the slightly odd user interface became more comfortable, and as a search tool, it seems to offer great promise. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be one of the major search engines in the near future.