[WEB4LIB] Re: Mooter search engine

[Jerry Kuntz]

...hmm, I was just about to praise their visualization for being so "primary" and clear--in contrast to animated hovering globes in a 3D enviroment, or globes of varying size and color on wires of different lengths (all of which I find non-intutitive and often bewildering, which may mark me as old, but then again I'm not seeing visualization system catch on yet after lo these many years they've been touted).
My quick test was using a search suggested on the Scirus home page:
the single term "Dolly". I tried it in Google, Google Scholar, Scirus, and Mooter, and thought the Mooter results were best. But one of the problems with evaluating search engines (including federated search tools) is that you can construct searches that show off the tools to their best advantage, while other searches work very poorly. As we talk about these on Web4lib, it would be nice to have a standard set of representative search terms taken from real-life samples of audiences matching the intended audience of the tools.

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Alain D. M. G. Vaillancourt" <ndgmtlcd at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: ndgmtlcd at yahoo.com
Date:  Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:05:11 -0800 (PST)

> --- Terry Nikkel <Terry.Nikkel at Dal.Ca> a écrit : 
>A couple of simple searches show that
>> 
>> Mooter has some great features, particularly clustering of related 
>> results.  http://www.mooter.com
>
>I got some rather stunning results from a few searches.  Their
>algorithm is quite wonderful.  I can't say the same for the
>visualization they present as the first page of search results.  The
>"Calder mobile" type of beads on wires is rather innocent and primary
>and adds nothing to the usability of their system. Information
>visualization is a vast and complex field.  They should stay away from
>it instead of blundering into it, given that its use here distracts us
>from their incredible asscociative engine.
>
>Alain Vaillancourt
>
>__________________________________________________________
>Lèche-vitrine ou lèche-écran ?
>magasinage.yahoo.ca
>
>

--
Jerry Kuntz
Electronic Resources Consultant
Ramapo Catskill Library System
jkuntz at rcls.org

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