In light of the current recession and rising unemployment, it is more important than ever to be an informed consumer. Consumer search engines can help you to identify high-quality items, gain access to product reviews and locate online merchants who sell the products. Two of the best consumer search engines are ConsumerSearch and Active Buyer's Guide.
ConsumerSearch - COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS
You can get an education about hundreds of products using ConsumerSearch. This search engine not only provides valuable background information and reviews of products, it furnishes links to other product reviews which it rates for credibility. In addition it displays the names of online vendors who sell recommended products.
Full Story: For example, suppose you need a new refrigerator, but have no idea what criteria to use in judging this item. After choosing the category Refrigerator, click on Full Story and you'll get a complete description of the different types of refrigerators (e.g., freezer on top, on the bottom, side by side), various product features (e.g., adjustable shelves, icemakers), and an analysis of the price ranges for different models.
Also discussed in Full Story are the opinions of various reviewers and their consensus (if any) concerning the best models for different needs and situations.
Fast Answers: If you're familiar with the features of refrigerators and just want to find out which models are recommended, you can select Fast Answers. Displayed here are the top refrigerators in each category with a paragraph summarizing the research about them. In addition, you're presented with some general information about refrigerators.
All Reviews: To see reviews of refrigerators, click on All Reviews. Here you'll find links to reviews both on the Internet and in publications that you can buy (e.g., Consumer Reports). The reviews are rated by ConsumerSearch, and include discussions about the way the products are tested, and how reliable and informative the reviews are.
Where to Buy: Finally, you can click on Where To Buy to find links to approved online outlets that sell recommended refrigerators. In addition, there are links to several shopping search engines.
ACTIVE BUYER'S GUIDE - HELPING YOU FIND THE BEST PRODUCT FOR YOUR NEEDS
Active Buyer's Guide is like ConsumerSearch in that it contains a lot of information about the products it covers, however it encompasses far fewer products. Unlike ConsumerSearch, it also provides a search engine and an interactive buyer's guide that can help you find a product specifically suited to your needs.
Let's continue with our example of trying to find information that will be helpful in buying a new refrigerator. After selecting the category Refrigerators, you're offered three categories of information - Refrigerator Decision Guide, Basic Search, and Tips for Buying Refrigerators.
Tips for Buying: If don't know what to base your purchasing decision on, click on Tips For Buying Refrigerators. Here you'll find information about several features of refrigerators, (e.g., price, freezer location, shelves, bins, etc.), and a discussion of why they may be important to people with particular needs.
Basic Search: Your next step might be to search for products by selecting Basic Search . The Active Buyer's Guide search system provides two ways to search - by specific brand or model, or by using its menu to specify the features you want. For example in refrigerators, you can specify the price, brand, color, freezer location and size. I have found this search feature to be extremely useful and effective.
Each result includes a link to a picture of the product, a list of over 40 features (including color, capacity, yearly energy consumption, refrigerator shelf type, etc.) retail outlets selling the product, reviews of the product, and the price. (Of course, the list of features varies by product.)
Selecting a result transports you to a page for that specific refrigerator which includes links to product reviews and online vendors who sell the item, plus links to general information about refrigerator features and a glossary of terms relating to refrigerators.
Side-by-Side Charts: A fabulous feature of Active Buyer's Guide is that you can compare all the features of an unlimited number of resulting models in a side-by-side chart by simply checking the Compare box included for each result.
Decision Guide: The Decision Guide (in this case Refrigerator Decision Guide) is an interactive question and answer exercise which is supposed to provide you with a list of the products that best fit your needs. You're asked to specify which features you care about most, rating how desirable a particular feature is to you. The "tradeoffs" are where it really gets tricky. For example, would you rather have an icemaker and one bin or three bins and no icemaker?
My attempt to use the Decision Guide did not result in a list of products appropriate for me. You may have a different experience.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/81237
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Review of InfoWar.com - A Search Engine Covering Terrorism
If after being barraged by the media with information about terrorism, you have more questions than answers, searching InfoWar.com can help. In addition to terrorism, Infowar.com is a specialized search engine that covers information warfare, national security, privacy, espionage, related law and legal issues, cyber crime, the military, weapons of mass destruction, electronic civil defense, etc.
Informative Government Reports and Other Materials
Many of the items included in InfoWar.com are the full texts of various government and agency reports, but there are also theses, newspaper and magazine articles, case studies, reports of conferences, etc.
For example, the government reports retrieved in a search using the keyword bioterrorism included Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response, Recommendations of the CDC Strategic Planning Workgroup, published April 21, 2000 and 2001 Combating Terrorism: Considerations for Investing Resources in Chemical and Biological Preparedness, Testimony Before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, Wednesday, October 17, 2001.
The category Articles Submitted (link on the left side of the home page) and its three subcategories, Class I Privacy, Class II Espionage, and Class III Terrorism contain the most current material.
Some of InfoWar.com's other categories are Law and Legal Issues, Military and C41, and WMD (weapons of mass destruction) among others. Included in the documents listed in the latter category were several long, chilling but informative documents on anthrax.
There is also a Security Store selling software, hardware and books. One of the books is being sold is titled Usama Bin Laden's AlQaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network, published in April, 2001. Unfortunately, it seems expensive at $44.00 but it sounds interesting.
Search Tips
InfoWar.com's search page displays two search boxes that access two different databases, InfoWar.com and InfoSec.com. The top search box corresponds to Infowar.com's database which contains material about national security, terrorism, etc. It's menu-based, using the Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT.
Even if you don't use the menu, all the search words you type in the search box will appear in each document by default. If you want to indicate that a word is not preferred but not required without using the menu, you can insert a comma after the search word.
You can also use quotation marks to indicate a phrase, and an asterisk to search for different endings of a word root (e.g. invest* will retrieve items containing investor, investment, invested, etc.)
The bottom search box corresponds to the InfoSec.com's database containing material about computer and Internet security.
Results: Each item resulting from a search includes the title and url as well as a relevance rating.
Features: There are many other features at InfoWar.com. For example, there's a list of more than 20 publications with archives that are available for viewing. And there are several categories relating to InfoSec.com that contains material about cryptography, access control and identification, viruses, operating systems, etc.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/83889
Informative Government Reports and Other Materials
Many of the items included in InfoWar.com are the full texts of various government and agency reports, but there are also theses, newspaper and magazine articles, case studies, reports of conferences, etc.
For example, the government reports retrieved in a search using the keyword bioterrorism included Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response, Recommendations of the CDC Strategic Planning Workgroup, published April 21, 2000 and 2001 Combating Terrorism: Considerations for Investing Resources in Chemical and Biological Preparedness, Testimony Before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, Wednesday, October 17, 2001.
The category Articles Submitted (link on the left side of the home page) and its three subcategories, Class I Privacy, Class II Espionage, and Class III Terrorism contain the most current material.
Some of InfoWar.com's other categories are Law and Legal Issues, Military and C41, and WMD (weapons of mass destruction) among others. Included in the documents listed in the latter category were several long, chilling but informative documents on anthrax.
There is also a Security Store selling software, hardware and books. One of the books is being sold is titled Usama Bin Laden's AlQaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network, published in April, 2001. Unfortunately, it seems expensive at $44.00 but it sounds interesting.
Search Tips
InfoWar.com's search page displays two search boxes that access two different databases, InfoWar.com and InfoSec.com. The top search box corresponds to Infowar.com's database which contains material about national security, terrorism, etc. It's menu-based, using the Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT.
Even if you don't use the menu, all the search words you type in the search box will appear in each document by default. If you want to indicate that a word is not preferred but not required without using the menu, you can insert a comma after the search word.
You can also use quotation marks to indicate a phrase, and an asterisk to search for different endings of a word root (e.g. invest* will retrieve items containing investor, investment, invested, etc.)
The bottom search box corresponds to the InfoSec.com's database containing material about computer and Internet security.
Results: Each item resulting from a search includes the title and url as well as a relevance rating.
Features: There are many other features at InfoWar.com. For example, there's a list of more than 20 publications with archives that are available for viewing. And there are several categories relating to InfoSec.com that contains material about cryptography, access control and identification, viruses, operating systems, etc.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/83889
Medical Search Engine Reviews: WebMD and OMNI
Human cloning, anthrax and other medical issues are at the forefront of the news right now, and the decision of whether or not to get a flu shot must be faced. Confused? WebMD and OMNI are two excellent medical search engines that can help you find understandable, reputable information about these and other health-related subjects.
WebMD - AN EXCELLENT, COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL SEARCH ENGINE FOR CONSUMERS
WebMD is one of the best all-around consumer medical search engines. It contains information about an extensive range of subjects approached from many orientations (e.g. news, informational articles and reports, transcripts of interviews and chats, and shopping sites with relevant products). Many of the reports contained in WebMD are written by its own journalists and reviewed by board-certified physicians.
There are a wide variety of special features and sections on WebMD. For example, there are special sections on 65 of the most common diseases and conditions, with information on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, etc. There's a very useful drug and herb database which provides information for consumers (e.g. usage, warnings, side effects, dosage) about hundreds of drugs. In addition there are also links to lists of clinical trials (research) being done on specific diseases and newly approved drugs to treat various conditions.
Search Tips
WebMD is not the place to do highly detailed searches. No search operators are available. You can search using any number of keywords.
Results
Search results are divided into four categories - Library (articles and reports), News, Boards and Chat, and Shopping.
Each result contains the title, a description of the document, and its source (e.g. Web MD, ADAM encyclopedia, etc.). After every result you can select the link to related documents to obtain a list of documents similar to that item.
OMNI - FOR HIGH QUALITY HEALTH AND MEDICAL WEBSITES
OMNI calls itself the "United Kingdom's gateway to high quality Internet resources in health and medicine," and it lives up to this description. It was created by the University of Nottingham Greenfield Medical Library, in partnership with organizations in the UK and beyond. Although its database is heavily weighted toward UK sites, many of the sites stem from the United States and other English-speaking countries.
While OMNI is aimed at students, researchers, academics, and medical practitioners, the sites retrieved by most searches can be understood and used by the general public.
OMNI is one of the BIOME group of databases, which also includes VetGate (animal health), BioResearch (biological research), Natural Selection (resources relating to the natural world) and Agrifor (resources in agriculture, food and forestry). You can search any or all of these databases.
OMNI is especially useful for finding reputable sites (e.g. government agencies, nonprofit organizations, journal articles, research projects, etc.) that can be used to get an overview of a subject. In a search that I did entering the keyword cloning some of the eight documents I retrieved were from the sites of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania (US), Human Genetics Advisory Commission (UK), AIDS reagent project (UK), and the Society, Religion and Technology Project (Scotland).
Search Tips
In OMNI's Simple Search mode, you can use quotation marks to indicate a phrase and the Boolean operators AND and OR .
The Advanced Search mode allows you to choose additional search parameters and lets you specify how you want your results to appear on the page. For example, there are menu choices for searching only specific types of resources (e.g. reports, position statements, news services, etc.). And you can select use truncation, in order to search for other endings of your search words (e.g., the search word invest will retrieve investment, investor, investing, etc.)
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/86161/1
WebMD - AN EXCELLENT, COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL SEARCH ENGINE FOR CONSUMERS
WebMD is one of the best all-around consumer medical search engines. It contains information about an extensive range of subjects approached from many orientations (e.g. news, informational articles and reports, transcripts of interviews and chats, and shopping sites with relevant products). Many of the reports contained in WebMD are written by its own journalists and reviewed by board-certified physicians.
There are a wide variety of special features and sections on WebMD. For example, there are special sections on 65 of the most common diseases and conditions, with information on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, etc. There's a very useful drug and herb database which provides information for consumers (e.g. usage, warnings, side effects, dosage) about hundreds of drugs. In addition there are also links to lists of clinical trials (research) being done on specific diseases and newly approved drugs to treat various conditions.
Search Tips
WebMD is not the place to do highly detailed searches. No search operators are available. You can search using any number of keywords.
Results
Search results are divided into four categories - Library (articles and reports), News, Boards and Chat, and Shopping.
Each result contains the title, a description of the document, and its source (e.g. Web MD, ADAM encyclopedia, etc.). After every result you can select the link to related documents to obtain a list of documents similar to that item.
OMNI - FOR HIGH QUALITY HEALTH AND MEDICAL WEBSITES
OMNI calls itself the "United Kingdom's gateway to high quality Internet resources in health and medicine," and it lives up to this description. It was created by the University of Nottingham Greenfield Medical Library, in partnership with organizations in the UK and beyond. Although its database is heavily weighted toward UK sites, many of the sites stem from the United States and other English-speaking countries.
While OMNI is aimed at students, researchers, academics, and medical practitioners, the sites retrieved by most searches can be understood and used by the general public.
OMNI is one of the BIOME group of databases, which also includes VetGate (animal health), BioResearch (biological research), Natural Selection (resources relating to the natural world) and Agrifor (resources in agriculture, food and forestry). You can search any or all of these databases.
OMNI is especially useful for finding reputable sites (e.g. government agencies, nonprofit organizations, journal articles, research projects, etc.) that can be used to get an overview of a subject. In a search that I did entering the keyword cloning some of the eight documents I retrieved were from the sites of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania (US), Human Genetics Advisory Commission (UK), AIDS reagent project (UK), and the Society, Religion and Technology Project (Scotland).
Search Tips
In OMNI's Simple Search mode, you can use quotation marks to indicate a phrase and the Boolean operators AND and OR .
The Advanced Search mode allows you to choose additional search parameters and lets you specify how you want your results to appear on the page. For example, there are menu choices for searching only specific types of resources (e.g. reports, position statements, news services, etc.). And you can select use truncation, in order to search for other endings of your search words (e.g., the search word invest will retrieve investment, investor, investing, etc.)
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/86161/1
Home » Technology » Search Engines » Articles » Reviews of Two Legal Search Engines for Consumers
--Hi Paula, this is Janice, your SME. You accidentally posted two copies of this article today. I've dated the second copy into the distant future as a fix. I haven't made any other changes to the copy.----
I'm a believer in the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," but not when I need the services of a lawyer. I find that when I'm familiar with the basic legal facts about a matter, my lawyer and I can accomplish my goal with a minimum of confusion, in the shortest time possible.
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents.
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88088
I'm a believer in the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," but not when I need the services of a lawyer. I find that when I'm familiar with the basic legal facts about a matter, my lawyer and I can accomplish my goal with a minimum of confusion, in the shortest time possible.
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents.
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88088
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