SV: [Web4lib] Rollyo?

Mon Jul 24 15:25:09 EDT 2006

(I think I made a mistake in the e-mail when posting this earlier... if not, please pardon the repost)

As an experiment, I set up a Gigablast Custom Topic Search using the sites listed in the Librarians' Internet Index subtopic for "Internet Searching" (http://lii.org/pub/subtopic/2718):

http://libwebdev.catawba.edu/test/cts.php

As a general concept, I think this could be very useful for subject guides and/or virtual reference.  However, from my initial tests, it has some significant flaws.

Pros:
* I was able to get the search box up and running with a minimum of effort.
* I was able to insert the search box into the framwork of my web site with ease.
* It will search individual pages as well as directories and domains.
* It provides links to the gigablast cache of the result pages with highlighted keywords (a feature I find helpful on pages with an abundance and/or variety of content).
* It is very low-profile (the results page is very simple).

Cons:
* How results are sorted is unclear.
* Results can contain several repeats of the same page (turning on site clustering is supposed to fix this, but it doesn't appear to do so).
* Results are given 10 at a time, without an obvious way to change this option.
* Squirrelly behavior (see below).

I did a test on the terms "Partial Word" and was pleased to find that the results included those from individual pages, such as the Search Terms Glossary (http://www.searchtools.com/info/glossary.html).  

I then did a search on "Evaluate" and was pleased to find numerous results from many different sources.  However, I found that 4 of the 6 top results were from the very same page.  I tried turning on site clustering on the web form, which is supposed to limit the number of results from the same site to two, but that had no effect.

Initially, I could not figure out how to change the number of results displayed from the default of 10.  Eventually I found an unlabelled dropdown next to the search form on the results page.  I copied the html for it onto my test search box, and behold it worked!  However, using it resulted in some very odd behavior.  When I changed the value, not only did the number of results that display change, but also the number of results that were *found*.  My initial set of 72 results jumped to up to 242 results, depending on the number of results displayed per page.  On cursory examination, the extra results seem to be more repeats, but I'm not sure.  I went back and removed the html from my test page, in case I was causing the problem.  However, I found that the behavior persisted with the dropdown on the results page.

A tool like this shows a lot of promise.  I particularly like being able to set it up on our web site.  However, it seems to be too buggy to use in a production setting at this point.

Keith Engwall
Head of Library Systems and Technology
Catawba College Library
kengwall at catawba.edu
http://www.lib.catawba.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] 
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 12:23 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: SV: [Web4lib] Rollyo?

In only 3 minutes by means of Rollyo I invented a combined "Scandinavian Wikipedia"!

http://rollyo.com/bibliotekrollyono/biblio_skandwikipedia/ 

This is of course not equivalent to Wikipedia's "Go" search = Go to The Article, but rather to Wikipedia's "Search" option. It's in fact a Yahoo search (Yahoo is "behind" Rollyo) for word occurrences in the selected nations' Wikipedia articles. But nevertheless useful for our altogether 20 million people in the Scandinavian countries, and even a lot of people in Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands who more or less understand the 3 Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). 

Perhaps there are more Wikipedia options that we never thought of?

Regards,

Anders Ericson

-----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] På vegne av Bonaria Biancu
Sendt: 24. juli 2006 10:02
Til: web4lib at webjunction.org
Emne: Re: [Web4lib] Rollyo?

Hi all,

I've set up a Rollyo about library 2.0:

http://www.rollyo.com/bonariabiancu/the_geek_librarian/

Some months ago, I also tried a similar tool - Swiki:

http://biblioteca-20-swicki.eurekster.com/biblioteca+2.0/

(again about "Library 2.0", but in Italian version: "Biblioteca 2.0").

I've noticed that Swiki has more commercial ads than Rollyo - furthermore Rollyo gives explicitly communication of advertisements by the "sponsored links". However, with Swiki you have much power on search engine's layout and you can block trash tag/websites displayed within the results, building you own search patterns.

The Rollyo 25 websites are a big limit, and I'd like to try the Gigablast mentioned by Patricia Anderson. I think these customizable search engines can help in library activities: I suggested to colleagues of mine to use them in reference with patrons, setting them up on pre-determined topics.

Best regards,

Bonaria

Bonaria Biancu
Biblioteca di Ateneo - Sede Centrale
Universita' di Milano Bicocca
Piazza Ateneo Nuovo, 1 - 20126 Milano (Italy)
Tel.: +39.02.64486236
E-mail: bonaria.biancu at unimib.it
Web: http://www.biblio.unimib.it
##################################
http://bonariabiancu.wordpress.com/

2006/7/21, Anders Ericson <anders.ericson at norskbibliotekforening.no>:
>
> Anybody into Rollyo (make-your-own-search-engines) for library purposes?
> Their internal search is down today, but I can't find very much by 
> means of Google site search either.
>
> I've just tried to get along with this on a national level and made 
> myself a blog to administer things; I'm sorry, in Norwegian only:
>
> https://bibliotekrollyono.wordpress.com/
>
> Here are my 3 initial rollyos:
>
> http://rollyo.com/bibliotekrollyono
>
> On environment, aviation and Norw. political parties
>
> Anders Ericson
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
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