The Research Practitioner - Skills Day :The Research Practitioner - Skills Day Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services, UK 03 December 2008 1 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk Using the Web


Slide 2:03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 2 Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services Tel: 0118 947 2256 Int. Tel: +44 118 947 2256 karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk http://www.rba.co.uk/ blog: http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/ on Facebook – Karen Blakeman Twitter: karenblakeman This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License


What Google's homepage may look like in 2084www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/10/10/opinion/1010opart.html :03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 3 What Google's homepage may look like in 2084www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/10/10/opinion/1010opart.html


Using the web to track down people :Using the web to track down people Traditional ways of searching the Internet Web usual web page search file format searches site searches email discussion groups (but may be closed) web based forums Google and Yahoo Groups Web 2.0 blogs, photo sharing, videos, presentations social and professional networking e.g. Facebook, Twitter, mashups, visualisation tools people search tools 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 4


General search techniques and tricks :General search techniques and tricks Use double quote marks around a phrase e.g. company or a person’s name (can be used in all search engines) e.g. “Karen Blakeman” Use alternatives to Google live.com, yahoo.co.uk, mse360.com different coverage results listed in a different order File format search ppt to identify conference speakers and experts on a topic also pdf staff lists e.g. staff list filetype:pdf OR filetype:xls Site search for revealing documents and pages buried deep down in the site 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 5


Google file format search – Advanced Search screen :Google file format search – Advanced Search screen 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 6


File format search on Intelways.com :File format search on Intelways.com 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 7 http://www.intelways.com/


General search techniques and tricks (2) :General search techniques and tricks (2) Focus your search on areas of the document inurl: for example "process engineer" inurl:cv looks for the term in the URL intitle: for example “process engineer” intitle:cv looks for your term in the title of the page Boolean search OR, AND, NOT must use capital letters for the operators only OR works in Google and even that does not work well Live.com and MSE360 are best for example chemical engineer AND (inurl:cv OR intitle:cv) AND (oil OR petroleum) See the summary and comparison chart for the major search engines at http://www.rba.co.uk/search/compare.pdf and http://www.rba.co.uk/search/compare.shtml 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 8


http://ranking.thumbshots.com/ :http://ranking.thumbshots.com/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 9 Compare different search engines for a strategy


Alternative search engines :Alternative search engines Yahoo http://www.yahoo.co.uk/ Live Search http://www.live.com/ MSE360 http://www.mse360.com/ Exalead http://www.exalead.com/ Ask http://www.ask.co.uk/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 10


Compare search engines :Compare search engines Intelways http://www.intelways.com/ run your search through a plethora of search tools one by one Zuula http://www.zuula.com/ similar to Intelways Graball.com http://www.graball.com/ compares two search engines of your choice side by side TripleMe http://www.tripleme.com/ compares Google, Yahoo and Live side by side 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 11


‘People’ search tools :‘People’ search tools War of the people search http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/09/war-of-the-people-search/ Beware mash-ups a website or application that combines content from more than one source to generate a new page or resource usually automated with minimal human input or control many people search tools use this approach as the basis of their service, even the priced ones 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 12


Zoominfo :Zoominfo http://www.zoominfo.com/ Now owns Xing – very good for German, Austrian and Swiss networks (highly rated by several workshop participants) Zoominfo uses multiple web sources to generate profiles of people and networks Automatically created by computer Subject of a profile can update or correct their profile but no checking done by Zoominfo Search by person or use multiple search criteria in priced Powersearch to identify relevant companies and people by job description Use with care and always double check the information before acting upon it 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 13


Zoominfo - Karen Blakeman’s verified profile :Zoominfo - Karen Blakeman’s verified profile 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 14 Information ‘verified’ by Karen Blakeman View the ‘references’ (web pages) to see the information in context


LinkedIn :LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ Aimed at professionals for building networks As well as personal profiles, corporate profiles are now possible BUT the spammers have moved in spam sites inviting you to join their “network” spammers registering and sending emails via Inmail people and organisations sending Inmail and pretending they know you and/or ignoring your stated preferences – DON’T DO IT!!!! 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 15


PIPL :PIPL http://www.pipl.com/ Review at http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2007/05/05/pipl-people-search-beta/ Searches ‘hidden’ web + Google search blog search, Google Groups, LinkedIn, Flickr, Google Scholar, Electoral Roll, Directories, Amazon, Hoovers, Zoominfo etc. Google web search results not the same as an ordinary Google search – they incorporate terms such as resume, CV does not always come up with better results 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 16


Pipl search (1) :Pipl search (1) 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 17


Pipl search (2) :Pipl search (2) 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 18


Cluuz :Cluuz http://www.cluuz.com/ “Cluuz … core technology understands the relationship between the entities, terms, or persons searched leading to more relevant, easy to understand search results” Not totally intuitive but the network visualisation is ‘cool’ The links in the network visualisation do not always relate to the same person or organisation but they are usually working in a similar field or subject area Results vary from one day to the next, one hour to the next! Nevertheless, definitely worth a look 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 19


Cluuz :Cluuz 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 20


Other ‘people search’ tools :Other ‘people search’ tools Most of the so-called people search tools trawl social network sites, and results are often poor to mediocre Worth trying them if you want to make sure you are covering as much as possible As always, make sure you are looking at the right person yoName http://www.yoname.com/ Spock – http://www.spock.com/ Wink – http://www.wink.com/ Spokeo – http://www.spokeo.com/ 123people – http://www.123people.com/ recommended by one of the workshop participants 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 21


Blogs :Blogs What is a blog? short for web log content can range from self-indulgent drivel to extreme erudition can be infantile ramblings or intelligent, detailed analyses on a topic Search on an industry sector to track down knowledgeable people in that sector Search on a person to see if they are blogging and what they are saying, and what others are saying about them Search for blog postings on conferences and conference presentations who is hot and who is not! 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 22


Blog searching :Blog searching Google Blogsearch http://www.google.com/blogsearch Ask – Blogs and feeds http://www.ask.com/ click on the Blogs button Technorati http://www.technorati.com/ Blogpulse http://www.blogpulse.com/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 23


Blogpulse search and trends :Blogpulse search and trends 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 24 Click on the graph to see ‘trends’


Blogpulse Trends :03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 25 Blogpulse Trends Shows how often your search terms occur in postings – can compare up to three searches


Looking for experts on a subject or industry? :Looking for experts on a subject or industry? Look for their workshop and conference presentations Use advanced search options to limit your search to file type or file format ppt or pdf Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/ authorSTREAM http://www.authorstream.com/ YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 26


Facebook :Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ Originally set up to enable students of Harvard University to keep in touch Now available to anyone Set up your personal profile Join and create groups can be open, closed or secret discussion boards, ‘Wall’, photos, videos, events Most corporate groups are now private but the ‘interest’ and ‘professional’ groups can lead you to other potential contacts 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 27


Karen Blakeman’s Facebook Profile :Karen Blakeman’s Facebook Profile 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 28


Facebook – members of the Competitive Intelligence Group :Facebook – members of the Competitive Intelligence Group 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 29


Flickr http://www.flickr.com/ :Flickr http://www.flickr.com/ Search on a person or organisation Look at photo tags and descriptions to collect more information on a person, or identify networks and linked people 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 30


Twitter :Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ “Blogging is soooo yesterday” Microblogging – postings are called ‘tweets’ and 140 characters long See who is ‘following’ whom 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 31


Twitter :Twitter What are people saying about you? Oh dear! 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 32


Searching Twitter and Tweets :Searching Twitter and Tweets How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands - BusinessWeek http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2008/tc2008095_320491.htm Searching public tweets http://search.twitter.com/ http://www.twitterment.com/ http://www.tweetscan.com/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 33


So you thought you’d covered your tracks? :So you thought you’d covered your tracks? Facebook you may have erased your profile but what about those photos and videos of you that are on your ‘friends’ profiles? (also check out Flickr) Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/ history Wayback Machine http://www.archive.org/ takes snapshots of the web, some going back to 1996 can go straight to a known page or browse a web site as it existed in the past useful for looking at staff pages going back several years not 100% guaranteed 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 34


http://www.wikipedia.org/ :http://www.wikipedia.org/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 35


http://www.archive.org/ :http://www.archive.org/ 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 36


Staff list from 17th Jan 1999 :Staff list from 17th Jan 1999 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 37


Finally…. 3 Top Tips :Finally…. 3 Top Tips Make use of the advanced search features of the search engines People search engines, social and professional network sites do help identify relevant candidates and ‘linked’ people, but they can add to the ‘noise’ not reduce it. Use with care. Remember - we have ways of finding out what you did and said in the past! 03 December 2008 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk 38