[WEB4LIB] Open WorldCat searching

[gary price]

Corey:
About a month ago Jessamyn, Andrea, and Michael created a bookmarklet
that offers direct searching of Open Worldcat via Google.
See:
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/new-openworldcat-bookmarklet_23.html

and

Direct to Bookmarklet
http://www.librarytechtonics.info/archives/2004/09/i_heart_hacking.html

on a somewhat related note, I've found that when searching without
any limits (ie: site:), Yahoo returns better results v. Google.

Yahoo is still FAR FROM idea, but I've noticed more results in the
top 20 compared to Google.

cheers,
gary



Quoting Corey Murata <murata at u.washington.edu>:

> I've been playing around with Open WorldCat for a month or so, and
> in my
> laziness I've been fiddling with ways to search it that are
> faster, easier,
> tastes great and less filling.
> I've fiddled enough, now I want to see what others think.  I've
> got three
> different working ideas (I don't know that they rise to the level
> of
> 'solutions') at:
> http://faculty.washington.edu/murata/worldcat/
>
> The first is a simple web form that does a URL rewrite so you
> don't have to
> type in 'site:worldcatlibraries.org' (that's how lazy I am).  It
> uses a
> small Perl script, though it could also be done in PHP.
> The second adds a WorldCat plugin to the Mozilla/Firefox search
> bar.  It
> works but because the syntax you can use for these search plugins
> is fairly
> limited, I can't make it search Google directly, instead it sends
> the query
> to a Perl script, which rewrites it (just like the script used by
> the web
> form) then sends you off to run the search.  It works, but it
> takes an extra
> step that I wish it didn't have to.
> The third was actually the easiest of the three to set up.  It
> uses a
> customized search in the Google Deskbar (not the new Desktop
> Search tool but
> the old Deskbar).  As long as you're living in a Windows world,
> this is a
> nice option because it doesn't care what your default browser is.
>
> So, if you're so inclined, take a look at it and let me know what
> you think.
>
> Cm
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Corey Murata
> Business Computer-based Services Librarian
> Foster Business Library
> University of Washington
> Box 353224
> Seattle, WA 98195
> (206) 543-4360
> murata at u.washington.edu
>
>
>


--


--
Gary D. Price, MLIS
Librarian
Gary Price Library Research and Internet Consulting

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