By Heather Darrow

Special to Cougar News

The Preston Ridge Campus library is filled with stacks, portable laptops and a wireless lounge that features frequent seminars on the latest information about databases and search engines. Recently Collin College students, professors and staff enjoyed cookies, cider and “Web 3.0 and New Search Tools.”

What does Web 3.0 really mean?

According to technology guru Nova Spivack, “It just means we’re in the third decade of the Internet.” According to Librarian Jeanette Jones, Web 1.0 reigned from approximately 1990-2000 and focused on read-only content. Web 2.0, 2005-2008, was more interactive and featured read-write content.

“No one is quite sure how Web 3.0 will evolve (or what to call it) but it is likely to include the semantic web, artificial intelligence and personalization,” Jones said.

What are the latest search engines?

Three search tools that introduce principles of Web 3.0 technology were launched earlier this year: Wolfram Alpha, Google Squared and Bing.  According to Jones, continuous upgrades and new partnerships have kept these tools interesting and in the news.  Chromatik, T2 and Truevert also offer new possibilities for students, professors and staff.

I use Google. Why should I consider using a different search engine?

If you are interested in mathematics, comparisons, tables, charts and a dry wit, Wolfram Alpha has a lot to offer. Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine; it is a “computational knowledge engine.” If you type in “Big Mac Whopper” you will get charts comparing the nutritional information of both hamburgers. Jones suggests starting searches with one word and then specifying as you go. You can type in practically any math problem, and see how to work it. If you are interested in music, you can type “D Blues scale” and view music notation, keyboard displays, note names and even hear an audio recording of the scale. The downside is that you may get the message “Wolfram Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input,” and while a list of primary sources is provided, individual attributes are not made in association with specific data. However, the database redeems itself with pithy answers to inane questions like “Can you think? “How are you feeling?” “How old are you?” and “What do men want?”

What is Google Squared?

Google Squared is a search engine that is still in the lab, or beta, format. What is interesting about this search engine is that it structures information. You can search for something, view a chart and then add your own additional columns to get more information. For example, if you search for romantic movies and you are given a synopsis, release date and running time, but you really want to know the production cost, you can add that column. The downside is that not all columns have data, there are mistakes because this is a beta and Wikipedia is often the source of information, so you cannot cite data for academic papers.

Bing is Beautiful

Bing typically has beautiful landscape photos on its main page with fun, interactive boxes for those who like to hover on images. According to Jones, Bing is a decision engine which organizes search results into categories. Bing focuses on delivering answers not web pages. If you type “RFID” (Radio Frequency Identification) into this search engine, the information will be divided into RFID overview, specifications, tools, implementation, community and images to help you refine your search. This search engine is user friendly. If you type in “Abraham Lincoln,” select the Videos option and hover over a video icon, the video will begin to play. If you move your curser off the video icon, the video will stop playing. If you click on the “reference” hyperlink on the left side instead of selecting the Videos option and then type in a question such as “Was Abraham Lincoln married?” you will get highlighted text from various sources which will answer your question.

Jones notes that a new feature Bing offers is “Visual Search” (www.bing.com/visualsearch).

“You are limited to the topics provided. Color image tiles display results. For example, Pulitzer Prize winning fiction results can be refined by sorting by author, award year, most recent or practically anything else you can imagine,” Jones said.

On the down side, Bing references Wikipedia quite a bit.

Color me Chromatik

If you are interested in adding a little color to your day, check out Chromatik from Exalabs. This unique beta starts you off by asking you to select a color. The site is chock full of Flickr images which are sorted by your color selections. You can change the proportion of your selected color to refine your search and you can add colors as you go. You can also search for particular images with or without color specifications. You get ready made photos when you open this box of “colors.”

Unraveling a Ball of Twine

According to Jones, the creators of Twine are developing a semantic search engine called T2 that will scale across the web, which means that T2 will “learn” your interests and will make suggestions about other things you may want to explore. T2 is a successor to Twine which encourages people to collect information (such as photos, videos or articles) and share it with friends and family or other people using T2 that have similar interests. T2 is still in the developmental stages.

Truly Green

Truevert is a green search engine in a beta format. This search engine will make the assumption that you are searching for the environmentally friendly answer to every query you type. According to the site, “Truevert grabs results from Yahoo Boss.” A few of the most popular queries include “How much electricity does a computer use?,” “Guide to Solar Powered Charger for Laptops,” and “How to Recycle Electronic Devices for Money.”

Don’t miss the next Collin College library seminar. Librarian Terri Karlseng will present “Databases that Dazzle!” from 12:30-1:15 p.m., Monday, Nov. 2, at the Preston Ridge Campus library wireless lounge. Karlseng will discuss the merits of Anatomy TV, ARTstor, Films on Demand, Theater in (streaming) Video and Smithsonian Global Sound (streaming music).

Librarian Jeanette Jones will offer “The Web 3.0 and New Search Tools” workshop on a continuous basis to cover new, key tools as they are launched.