Google Scholar
 

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet, but apparently Google has started a new 'add-on', I guess you would say, to, well, Google. It's suppose to separate "Scholarly" texts, and what have you from the mainstream commercial sites that Google is known for picking up first in its searches.

If you want to read the full jobbie, go http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6520633/

It seems like an interesting concept, and I've been testing it out a little bit, but it seems to pick up very abstract results, especially if you're search scientific stuff, like, the planet Jupiter. :P But it does say it's a beta. http://scholar.google.com

I tried it for the first time yesterday, for some work-related technical questions, and I like it a lot so far. I hope that lots of places open their backfiles to Google.

That is a BRILLIANT idea.

I can imagine this becoming VERY helpful in the future.

Until some scam-merchants find a way to enter their adverisments for porn, viagra and breast enlargement into the academic pool...

Just tried it using the topic of a current paper. I didn't look too indepth, but it looks pretty good.

Not bad, not bad. Love that companies are taking a step in the right direction.
Trolling removed

neat :)

sometimes I just like to poke around the inet looking for 'brainy' stuff, so this could be very cool.

This looks like it has some potential, thanks for the heads up!

Yes! Hearkens back to results of the late 90's, before search engine manipulation made non-product searches difficult. A lot of people have wanted this.

At the same time, I agree with earlier posts that it'll be a target. Ad-free zones are so much cat-nip to scammers.

This web search service has done wonders for my senior thesis research. Sticky this topic!

When I first started using google, one of the biggest reasons was because it returned relevent content for my search phrases. I think that has changed over time. SPAM and finding ways to beat the SPAM has really hindred the services they provide. I think this service will help get the tech/educational crowd back.

Part of me wants to say "Is google throwing too many darts at the wall to try to stay ahead?". Have they lost the focus since the pre-adsense days?

I have always wanted to find stuff for school online

Thank loads for the heads up

Wow, that's great...too bad I didn't know about it before all my term papers and everything...sigh. But it will come in handy next term, I'm sure.

It seems like a great idea, however most of the articles / pdf files require subscriptions and often with little or no abstract to preview. It would be great if google could separate the free articles from the ones you have to pay for.

Google Scholar being sued by ACS Scifinder Scholar
 

I read yesterday that ACS is sueing Google over the use of the word Scholar in their literature search site. The link is included below:

But I digress, I have been a user of Scifinder Scholar 2003-2004 for the past 3 years. The software has utilities for chemical structure and keyword searching which is useful in my chemical research. However, our institution only has 5 user licenses, so for a large research institution it is a pain to keep logging off to share resources and is not conducive to my research needs. This is where "web of science" (another really good, high cost, subscription literature search site) and Google Scholar come in to the equation. At our university the leased ip address information grants full text permissions to all e-journals in the schools subscription list. So, the job of finding relevant literature abstracts has been greatly simplified with the new Google site. I commend the researchers at Google for creating this outstanding product. I hope it helps to release the stranglehold imposed by the major scientific journal publishers on the advancement of an open access journal publication system.

Slashdot Reference:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...id=123&tid=146

Thanks for the link. Will no doubt be of use next year at uni!

just checked it out real quick. it's alright... i guess. Very good for research in depth papers, but not good when you need just quick historical informational stuff. Also if you try to put in a name it mostly comes up with authors rather than the more famous person you're looking for, for example when I typed in Rydberg, came up with pretty random stuff.

I think its pretty slick! google has definately pushed the envelope when it comes to search engines. They have some excellent technology and this just proves that they are here to stay! I really like this new feature.

The wave of the future fo sho. That's my $0.02