Beyond Google: Not Just for the Reference Librarian
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While Google remains one of the Internet's most useful tools, it does have its limitations and frustrations. Google Search doesn't (yet) find absolutely everything, so it's good to have multiple tools and strategies ready at your fingertips. This program will provide some alternatives to the Google gargantuan and describe how, when, and why to steer clear of it and navigate to other ports of information. Presented at the NEO Staff Day 2014, Kent, Ohio.
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Beyond Google: Not Just for the Reference Librarian
- 1. Program Description While Google remains one of the Internet's most useful tools, it does have its limitations and frustrations. Google Search doesn't (yet) find absolutely everything, so it's good to have multiple tools and strategies ready at your fingertips. This program will provide some alternatives to the Google gargantuan and describe how, when, and why to steer clear of it and navigate to other ports of information.
- 2. Beyond Google Not Just for the Reference Librarian... presented by Don Boozer NEO Staff Day 2014 http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&uri=full=3100001~!289411~!0#focus
- 3. Chuck & Beans comic by Brian G.
- 4. Chuck & Beans comic by Brian G.
- 6. “Hi. My name is { }. And I’m a Google user.”
- 7. “Hi. My name is { }. And I’m a Google user.” You?
- 10. Convenient, Integrated, Powerful, and...
- 11. Free!
- 14. Personalization & Filter Bubbles
- 23. duckduckgo.com
- 26. ixquick.com
- 27. ixquick.com
- 29. millionshort.com
- 32. bing.com
- 33. bing.com
- 34. bing.com
- 36. bingiton.com
- 37. Karen Blakeman Search Strategies http://www.rba.co.uk/search/compare.shtml
- 38. Make it easy to make a choice. e.g., in Firefox...
- 40. wolframalpha.com
- 45. medlineplus.gov
- 48. Cars
- 49. kbb.com
- 50. nadaguides.com
- 51. iihs.org
- 52. Go straight to the source… Trademarks? Patents? USPTO.gov # of people working in manufacturing in Ohio? Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) Artwork? Louvre, National Gallery of Art… Legislation? FindLaw, THOMAS,… and so on, and so on...
- 53. Books
- 55. hathitrust.org
- 59. dropbox.com
- 60. box.com
- 62. zoho.com
- 63. Recommended Resources Karen Blakeman Anything but Google: you can say “NO” to Google www.slideshare.net/KarenBlakeman/anything-but-google-you-can-say-no-to-google OEDb: Open Education Database Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible and Comprehensive Resources oedb.org/ilibrarian/research-beyond-google/
- 64. Online Handout http://tinyurl.com/NEO-BeyondGoogle And even MORE resources to break the Google habit
- 65. Thank You! Slides available at http://www.slideshare.net/donboozer Don Boozer Questions? donald.boozer@cpl.org http://www.glasbergen.com/cartoons-about-the-internet/
Editor's Notes
- There’s ALWAYS A COST somewhere. While we may not be paying in cash up front, we’re paying in the sense of giving up privacy and information about ourselves. As are our patrons. So, let’s take a look at what’s maybe NOT so good about Google.
- It’s FREE. Google’s services are “free” in the sense of us not having to pay up-front for them.
- There’s ALWAYS A COST somewhere. While we may not be paying in cash up front, we’re paying in the sense of giving up privacy and information about ourselves. As are our patrons. So, let’s take a look at what’s maybe NOT so good about Google.
- They *are* a For-Profit corporation!! Being for-profit does NOT make them bad. Let us be clear. Free market, etc. Yay. Hooray. BUT they do not provide resources, tools, and services out of the goodness of their heart. See those tombstones? Those are just a few of their discontinued products and services over the years. Google Reader. Gone in 2013. iGoogle. Gone the same year. Remember Meebo? Yep, Google bought them on June 4, 2012. No longer available now. Translated foreign pages? An easy advanced search feature? Gone and gone. Google provides services and products as long as it’s beneficial and/or profitable for Google. There are also the hidden costs that we give Google when we use their products and services. Our personal information, image, etc., are all part of Google’s resources that they can use to target advertising and to insert into “endorsements.” Unless you UNcheck a box at the bottom of one of your “Shared Endorsements” page in your Account Settings, Google “may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads.” Google also has a political action committee, Google Inc. NET PAC, that has been contributing to both Democratic and Republican candidates which isn’t uncommon. It’s also been reported that the PAC has contributed to some right-wing groups such as the Koch brothers’ and Grover Norquist’s organizations. ALEC [american legislative exchange council], for instance, which includes Google among its members, actually writes legislation used to shape states’ laws to favor corporate interests. If you lean to the right, this might be considered a good thing. If you lean to the left, you may not be as happy about that. In either case, it’s at least good to be aware of what our Internet overlords are doing. We’ve included links to articles about all these aspects of Google on our handout. Again, the links will be provided at the end.
- SEO DISCUSSION!! Need additional content here. "Inasmuch as SEO and personalization of search result ranking seem to be increasingly influential, are we heading for an online world in which search engines are implicitly deciding for you what sort of answer you would like? Depending on what one is seeking, this might be ok (entertainment, commercial activities) or not (factual knowledge). This is an overstatement, but I think the threat is there.
- Tor has even been loaded on library computers.
- One thing ANY search engine is going to miss are parts of the DEEP WEB. As you can see from this infographic from CNN Money, Google and the other engines we’ll discuss in a moment only skim the surface of the web. Yes, at the bottom, you’ll find all kinds of illegal activities, but further up, consider that Google and others don’t peer into databases. They don’t peer into academic journals (Google Scholar has begun to do this a little, but you don’t always get the actual articles). It even doesn’t drill down into some online government resources. I tried an experiment with ERIC (the Education Resource Information Center) and looked for an article on school uniforms policy and found a good one right at the top of a search results list on ERIC. I did a Google Search for school uniforms policy but didn’t see that ERIC article in the first couple pages of results. I had to end up searching for the exact title of the article in Google and *then* it found it. That first whale denotes “Databases” No doubt you’re all familiar with our statewide Ohio Web Library databases. We are extremely lucky to have such a valuable set of tools available to all of us here in the state. There are many states that do not offer that robust of a suite of databases to its librarians and patrons. Be sure to use them, because NO search engine is going to uncover all the resources available within the databases.
- One thing ANY search engine is going to miss are parts of the DEEP WEB. As you can see from this infographic from CNN Money, Google and the other engines we’ll discuss in a moment only skim the surface of the web. Yes, at the bottom, you’ll find all kinds of illegal activities, but further up, consider that Google and others don’t peer into databases. They don’t peer into academic journals (Google Scholar has begun to do this a little, but you don’t always get the actual articles). It even doesn’t drill down into some online government resources. I tried an experiment with ERIC (the Education Resource Information Center) and looked for an article on school uniforms policy and found a good one right at the top of a search results list on ERIC. I did a Google Search for school uniforms policy but didn’t see that ERIC article in the first couple pages of results. I had to end up searching for the exact title of the article in Google and *then* it found it. That first whale denotes “Databases” No doubt you’re all familiar with our statewide Ohio Web Library databases. We are extremely lucky to have such a valuable set of tools available to all of us here in the state. There are many states that do not offer that robust of a suite of databases to its librarians and patrons. Be sure to use them, because NO search engine is going to uncover all the resources available within the databases.
- We can laugh at this satirical graph from GraphJam, but it does illustrate a very important point. We have to remember that a good search for information can take time. Just because Google and other engines give us instantaneous results, doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the BEST results. Patrons, and a few librarians I’d be willing to bet, think the “best” Google search results appear in those first few pages, somewhere around “It’s gotta be here somewhere…” and “desperate”. The problem with this is that what you see may not be exactly what you want. Two reasons for this is Search Engine Optimization and personalization of results.
- So, Google is neither completely good nor completely bad… It’s simply a tool we can use to find things on the Internet. If we use Google because we like it’s search results and their Android operating system, that’s probably alright. HOWEVER, If we RELY on Google just because it’s fast, easy, we know it, and it’s a default, we’re really not adding any value to patrons’ Internet searches because most likely they’re doing the same basic searches many of us might do. Google can be a great tool, but we should use it intelligently, knowing its benefits and hazards, and be able to explain these to patrons, and *choose* to use it and *know* what alternatives are out there and when to turn to them.
- Bing has a lot offer and includes many of the same applications as Google including translate, videos, of course, OneDrive at onedrive.live.com which provides document creation, spreadsheets, etc. similar to Google Drive. But...
- Bing does offer some advanced search options so you can create a little more targeted search.
- Information specific searches.
- Information specific searches.
- Information specific searches.
- Information specific searches.
- Information specific searches.
- 2 GB FREE Can’t edit very well, but storage is good.
- 7 GB storage when you sign up. Live.com also has word processing, spreadsheets, note from Microsoft. So it is an alternative to the suite of applications at Google Drive (Docs, etc.)
- ZOHO has storage and Docs. 5 GB of storage.
- Karen Blakeman Anything but Google: you can say “NO” to Google http://www.slideshare.net/KarenBlakeman/anything-but-google-you-can-say-no-to-google (118 slides on Search, Images, Statistics, News, !) Again, these are on our handout.
- And speaking of our handout...