Getting More Out of the
Internet
M.J. D’Elia (mdelia@uoguelph.ca)
Librarian, Marketing & Consumer Studies
University of Guelph
November 2006

Overview
 Secondary Research
 Specialized search tools
 Community forums
 Web analysis
 Tools to Manage Information
 Shared bookmarks
 Syndicated content
 Useful resources
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Strategy #1
Search Engines
 Use more than one search tool
 Different coverage
 Different depth
 Different search technology
 Use multiple search strategies
 Combinations of words
 Watch for other tips on the peripherals
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.dogpile.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://clusty.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.alacrastor.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.knowthis.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.nlresearch.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Strategy #2
Web Reference Sources
 Understand the product category
 Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, etc.
 Newspapers, press-releases, etc.
 Intended audience is different
 General introductory information
 Less marketing “spin”
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.howstuffworks.com ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.howstuffworks.com ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://newspad.prweb.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://news.google.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Strategy #3
Open Directory Projects
 Sites categorized by human input
 Directory-style listings not search-style
listings
 Find leads to trade organizations,
associations, institutions, consumer
groups, etc.
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://dmoz.org M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://dir.yahoo.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Definition
The Invisible Web
 Portion of the web that cannot be
“seen” (retrieved) by search
engines
 The invisible web is huge
 Over 550 billion individual documents
 Largest growing category of
information on the Internet
 Proprietary database, intranets, etc.
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Strategy #4
Customer Forums & Blogs
 Discussion among customers
 View transcripts of product discussions
 Editorial and anecdotal information
 Customer opinions (uncensored)
 Reflections on both products and
service
 Qualitative data
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.complaints.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.planetfeedback.com ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.stvtalk.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.bloglines.comM.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.technorati.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.technorati.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Images: http://www.icerocket.com ; http://blogsearch.google.com
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://blogsearch.google.comD'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Image: http://www.podzinger.com D'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Definition
Descriptive Tags (Folksonomies)
 Information retrieval method based
on collaborative labels and
descriptions
 Labels are known as “tags”
 Meaning is defined by the
community
 Contrast with taxonomy
 Authoritative hierarchy of terms
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Strategy #5
Social Search Tools
 Results based on community
interests
 Collective intelligence
 Shared findings
 Find obscure pages
 Beyond regular search engines
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://del.icio.us M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.furl.net M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Strategy #6
Web Analysis
 Analyze web traffic
 Determine popularity of the site
 Generate reports
 Evaluate websites
 Compare to competitors
 Track historical changes
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.alexa.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php (Starchoice website Dec 19, 1996)
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Shared Bookmarks
 JAN Kelley = Community
 Share your bookmarks with each other
 Use your own descriptive “tags”
 Bookmarks are accessible from any
computer with a web browser
 Build resource collection collaboratively
 See Strategy #5
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Staying Current
 Content syndication
 Monitor blogs from key analysts
 Generate RSS feeds for repetitive
searches
 Customize news feeds
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://biz.yahoo.com/rss.htmlD'Elia ~ Nov 2006
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Definition: RSS
Really Simple Syndication; Rich Site Summary
 Web format for delivering bits of
content to other websites
 Receive relevant news
 Information is delivered to a single
location
 Receive instant updates
 Content delivery options
 Email, browser, reader/aggregator
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Useful Research Resources
 Information Today, Inc.
 http://www.infotoday.com
 Free Pint
 http://www.freepint.com
 Search Engine Watch
 http://searchenginewatch.com
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://www.freepint.com M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006

Image: http://searchenginewatch.com
M.J. D'Elia ~ Nov 2006