Customized Search Engines

Eurekster Swicki

Today I was researching how to build a customized search engine, and I thought that it would be incredibly useful for users of the VRC Web Resources page to be able to conduct a federated search across all of the resources that we list. Here is the basic search engine that I designed in the Eurekster Swicki. I have included the first seven sites listed on the Web Resources for architecture.

Grab this swicki from eurekster.com

It seems to work by searching the sites you have listed first and then across the web generally. I also customized this search engine to search images and video content. We can post the swicki on the site and it is also listed in a directory with other swickis and a user can "grab" any swicki on the Eurekster Swicki site and put a link to it on their site. Users can also rate the sites found by searching the swicki and results that are "voted" for are rasied higher in the list of results. The owner of the swicki retains complete control over it.

Google Custom Search

As a point of contrast, I also created a custom search in Google using the same sites. 

Comparison

Personally, I prefer the look of the Swicki.  The tag cloud gives the Swicki more visual interest than the Google page, and it allows users to browse via one of these keywords, which give an indication of the topics included in the sites in the search engine.  Users can also search on their own terms.  Additionally, the Swicki is something the VRC could include directly on its Web site.  

The main advantages of a Google custom search is that it has no limit to how many sites you can include in a customized search .  The swicki has a limit of 50 sites.  Users are also familiar with the Google interface and they may feel more comfortable using this interface.

In any case I think that we could use one of these formats to make it easier for users to find images on the web.

Week of January 28-February 3

RSS Feeds

This week I researched Web 2.0 tools that I learned about in the publication How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library by Phil Bradley.  I have found the first few chapters on RSS and blogs to be very useful in terms of thinking about how I could leverage these technologies for the Marketing Plan.  This book had some interesting suggestions, including incorporating RSS feeds from a source, such as the New York Times, and incorporating them onto your site.  I also researched RSS providers which allow you to create RSS feeds and to post feeds from multiple sources onto your website.  I have bookmarked these sites on my delicious account, which you can access here.

I explored the Arts feed from the New York Times, and it doesn't seem like it would be the best feed option, if we added RSS feeds to the VRC website.  I think that if I could find a way to incorporate a feed from the magazines Metropolis or Dwell, it would be much more interesting since these magazines tend to focus on the latest trends in architecture, interior design, and sustainable design.  

Blogs

This week I also thought it might be interesting if we incorporated a video blog (vlog) on the VRC's Web site.  There are a number of topics that we could do a vlog on.  It might be really useful to have a short vlog on how to find images through resources available to UT affiliates, such as ARTstor and Digital Archive Services (DASe).  Another interesting vlog would be on how to find maps and we could showcase UT's map collection.   These vlogs could be incorporated into the Web Resources Guide on the VRC's website and they could also be shared with a wider audience via YouTube.  One software that the VRC could purchase to create vlogs is Vlog It, available from Adobe for $29.00.  This software seems very easy to use and the low price tag makes it attractive to use for experimenting with vlog publishing.

The VRC curates and exhibition every semester.  We could use a blog to publicize this exhibition by creating a virtual exhibition in Flickr with images from the exhibition.  Of course, this would depend on several factors, such as copyright and permissions, but it would be another way of connecting users with the VRC's services by using Web 2.0 tools.

Web Analytics

This week I contacted Chris Rankin, the School of Architecture's Webmaster, about obtaining usage statistics for the VRC's Web site.  He is going to send the reports to me next week.  I thought that it would be interesting to evaluate how the VRC's Web site is currently being utilized.  The VRC could also use these statistics to track how traffic to the site evolves as Web 2.0 features are used.  

Additionally, the developer of DASe is going to send me information about how the users of this collection save images in their personalized collections.  This information will be valuable for determining how users are currently using the VRC's images in DASe.

For Next Week

Next week I would like to review the Web sites of the VRC's peer institutions to evaluate how they are leveraging Web 2.0 tools.  I would also like to continue researching Web 2.0 tools and begin writing the Marketing Plan.