[Sigia-l] Google Scholar

[Stewart Dean]

Andrew doth say..

>it is news today because Google is doing it... if Google put out their own 
>brand of cat food, this would also make the news

Never underestimate the power of brand. The question is is it any good.


>Seriously - as one that accesses academic research not as often as he would 
>like these days - it is probably because the Google name appears to make 
>the initial search more accessible - people can shop for cameras, or 
>research eye tracking, using the same search engine. Which they could have 
>done already, I guess

Kind of. The ability to search through a known universe of information is 
very useful. It precludes having to play word games with googles to preempt 
the results you don't want.

I personaly think there is still much to be done in the area of search 
something google appears to understand and Microsoft missed by trying to do 
a 'me too' search product.

>It is a bit like when Intel put out those cute toy USB microscopes - they 
>were more notable at the time because Intel was selling them, rather than 
>that they were cool toys.

The coolest thing Intel ever did was a hand held web browser, it was 
designed for the living room not to be mobile and worked via WiFi. Great for 
web browsing. Guess it was dropped as you couldnt really do email using it 
and it wasnt a 'mobile' device. Intel pulled back from the 'home appliance' 
space quite sharpish - it was probably a step to far they probably thought. 
The home microscope represents about as far as they went down that path (and 
yeah - it was quite cool).

Stewart Dean