Library clips

I guess where to search depends on what you are searching for, and what access you have to certain resources…here is an example of some free resources.

My search quest was for examples of vision statements.

Search queries:
“vision statement”
“vision statement” list
“vision statement” examples
“vision statement” companyA

What else could I have used?

I’ve rated the following sources based on the subject matter, none of them did to well in returning me a list of examples…I found I had to surf around to collect examples…am I the first to do this, I bet I’m not.

Web - eg. Google…great
Articles - eg. Google Scholar…no good
Forums - eg. BoardTracker…not too bad
Topics guides - eg. Squidoo…nothing
Social Bookmark tags - eg. del.icio.us…great by not enough
Social Bookmark search - eg. del.icio.us…excellent
Blog tags - eg. Technorati…excellent
Blog search - eg. Technorati…no good (Google Blog Search returned incredibly better results)
Lists - eg. H20, Listible, Otavo (although Otavo leads into Q&A like FAQQLY and the like)
…I didn’t bother with lists, as they are still in their infancy, but Q&A is certainly an option (search the knowledge base first or ask a question)
NOTE: hmmm…wikis can be used as lists, but there really isn’t a wiki search engine.

Google really had some good articles, but I was moreso looking for examples, so I entered “examples”, I also tried “list” in the search and it still didn’t get me much closer.

del.icio.us tags was ok but there weren’t many hits.

del.icio.us search was excellent, it cuts out the noise you get with Google, all the hits were relevant…this is searching the human indexed web at its best, I was very excited by this (but like Google I couldn’t hone in on examples)
NOTE: I tested the bookmarkosphere using del.icio.us as the example because it probably has the largest data set to compare it to Google.

Technorati search didn’t do to well at all, especially when compared to Google Blog Search

Technorati Tags aced it, would you believe it, there are people that tag their blog posts - vision+statement

The icing on the cake is that via Technorati Tags I found a blog dedicated to this subject matter called Man on a Mission.
This is what I was looking for, I was looking for a hit in the search results that came from a compiled list…I was looking for a website that has already gone around and made a list of examples of vision statements, and I found it in the form of a blog…BINGO!!!!!!!

The A-Z list on the sidebar is handing it to me on a silver platter.

Thanks Technorati Tags…not only is this the human indexed web, but it is also the human created web (we create the content and also index it).

Thanks blogosphere, you have saved me lots of time by putting me in touch with an author who is already in the game…I didn’t have to re-invent the wheel.

[ADDED: By the way I found whonu a handy meta-utility search tool.]

[ADDED 9/08/06: It just occured to me to do a URL search in Google eg. inurl:visionstatement…this works a charm…actually this has the best results yet, virtually all hits are relevant]

In usual 3spots style here is a list of Q & A services

…are you a librarian 3spots?

Do yourself a favour and check out the popular posts from the sidebar of the 3spots blog.

According to TechCrunch, Feedburner are releasing a new service next month.
Simple really, they are just bundling up feeds into Networks…something already popularised by BlogBridge Experts (hosted in the BB:Library), PubSub Lists, Technorati Blog Directory (eg. folksonomy), and the many other newsmastering services.

Technorati Blogs has an OPML, but not a spliced feed…it also has a HTML content stream (you can even search the feed set)

BB Guides have an OPML, but not a spliced feed…lacks a HTML stream, but each guide has an announcement blog.
(I like the idea of subscribing to the feed of the announcement blog that will mention if any new feeds are added or cut from the network…this content will automatically reflect in your spliced feed or OPML, but I like the idea of being officially told).

PubSub Lists has an OPML, but not a spliced feed…it also lacks a HTML stream.

What will Feedburner have?

See this blog post about the announcement, the sidebar hosts an example of the network badge for the VC network.
At the moment it offers a spliced feed, and a link for people to buy ads for the network.

This is great for blogs who publish with Feedburner, if you are lucky enough to be included in a network, this will give your blog more exposure (people may discover you because you are on the same network as some blogs people prefer).

I like that Feedburner give the members a cut of the cash pie, whereas Technorati Blog Directory doesn’t, but then again the prime directive of Technorati is a search engine, so this must a privilege.

Feedback

Create a network directory page, just like BB:Library (but unlike BB:Library you can’t make your own network).

When you click on a network have another page that complements the feed landing page. What I mean is have a HTML page that shows you a river of news, or click on a feed to see contents just from one feed, even better click a selection of feeds to see a portion of content. This page can have ads on it from the network, in this respect you can go to the network page to read the latest or subscribe to the feed instead. Also you could subscribe to the network via the Feedburner email subscription box.

Now when you subscribe to the spliced feed, there could be a way to just subscribe to one feed, or a selection of feeds or subscribe/export the OPML.
The ultimate is to subscribe to a search generated feed across a network, maybe you can do this yourself at Feed Digest or MySyndicaat.

What about if a network feed set grows beyond 20 or 30, then you may want to organise these in folders…for the ultimate of this check out Technorati Favourites.
You can read feeds by folder/tag river of news or top level river of news, each folder/tag has a feed and an OPML (even search your favourites). You can also read content from just one feed, but not from your sidebar, you have to click on the folder/tag it lives in then click on the the Blogs tab, then click on the blog name (this takes you to the blog info page, where you can even search in the blog).
NOTE: this is not a traditional RSS Reader that marks read/unread posts.

As well as network badges, linkroll widgets are a must…what about a spliced subscriber number chicklet (that de-dupes common subscribers).

Again unlike Technorati Favourites or BB:Library, the Feedburner Network will be limited to blogs that have Feedburner feeds, and the networks will be created by the Feedburner team.

This post alludes to most of these features.

[ADDED: Check out the Corante Web Hub network, this is comprised of a selection of blog feeds, where you can choose a feed or subscribe to the spliced feed or the OPML or email…there is even an editorial blog.
It once also re-syndicated tags from blog posts, subscribing to tag feeds would’ve been great, or even generate search feed across a selection of blogs.
Actually this is a must feature I think we will see in the future, for a given set of feeds, select the ones you like to create a spliced feed or OPML on the fly]

[ADDED: Also check out Top 10 Sources for networks…here’s my post]