Amazon.com Widgets
For weekly "Inspiration" by email send email.

Signup here for AWE by email

A Writer's Edge

English words, writing, and books--with a tech touch

My Photo
Name: Georganna Hancock
Location: San Diego, California, United States

About...Blog...Writing Help...Editing Services...Writing Services...Resume...ID & Credits...Subscribe...LinkedIn Profile


Search the web Search A Writer's Edge

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Kokogiak Book Search

I was so excited in yesterday's post to find my name in someone else's book (I blow my own horn enough!) that I neglected to write about this interesting new KOKOGIAK - Book Search Mashup. The creator says:

I built this little app in response to a complaint in this blog post by Tim O'Reilly - that the various competing Book Search engines that let you search inside books (Google Books, Amazon Search Inside/A9 & MSN Live Book Search) are in proprietary bins. They require the searcher to either guess which website is most likely to house the results they want, or to try them one after the other.

Okay, well, it's easy enough to gather them all into one meta-page, so I did: http://kokogiak.com/booksearch/ - search all 3 at once.

It's been interesting to see the quantity/quality differences between the 3 in trying several searches. Results for "ajax", for instance - Amazon is all current programming books, Google is a mix of classic mythology and programming, and MSN is all classic mythology.

It may not solve the problem of making all the big boys play nice together and share their scanning efforts for the greater good, but it at least puts it all on the same page.
The actual search page is a little intimidating in its minimalism. When not performing vanity searches, I often use another fave, "Siamese cats", as a test topic. What a variance among results: A9 (Amazon) gave me all calendars; Google, all nonfiction, but at least they pertained to the subject; but the MSN LiveSearch results were weird beyond words, appearing to be mainly novels and only the first two dealt with cats.

Listen to this article
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

3 Comments:

Blogger Rashenbo said...

Very cool :)

4:41 PM  
Blogger Lillie Ammann said...

Georganna,
Thanks for sharing this neat tool, and congratulations on being mentioned in a book!

Second, I've tagged you to tell five things about yourself that we probably don't know. You can read my five things and see who else I tagged on my blog. After you share five things about yourself, you get to tag five more bloggers to do the same ... and so on and so on and so on.

Looking forward to learning some of your secrets,
Lillie

12:14 AM  
Blogger Georganna Hancock said...

Ohhhh, Lillie -- I knew participating on MyBlogLog would come back to haunt me sooner or later! I'm too old to play tag, she groaned. Secrets, huh? I think I sent them all to PostSecrets, but I'll try to come up with something soon.

11:50 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

SPECIAL AWE DEALS

Ask About Gift Certificates for Yourself or
Writerly Loved Ones




Psybertron
Bread and Roses
Shrinking Violet
Damian's Blog
Thought Patterns
Outpost Mavarin
Still Unhinged
Twerpette
Ballpoint Wren
The Writing Show
Media by Sistrunk
River Tyde
Mark Leslie's Blog
At Home, Writing
Pop Culture Casualty
Kate blogs about writing
Dangerous Bill's
Incurable Disease ...
Education by Sistrunk
Messages from Mavarin
Write Outta My Mind!
Writer's Words/Ed.'s Eye
The Writing Life
I Breathe; Therefore...
the way I see it
Horizons Past
Web Writers Cafe
Spirit Moved Me Again
The Hermit
Ain't Nothin' Like ...
The Write Life
Coffee and Critique
Writing Thoughts
Elvis, Elves and ...
A Newbie's Guide ...
leftbrainwrite
Writer's Perspective
Words on The Page
The Opinions
Yunar's Online Venture
worlds that never were
Web Writers Cafe
Confessions ... Writer
Howling in Silence
bluemango
The Writer's Perspective
Circuit Mouse
Blue Ribbon Bloggers
Speedcat Hollydale
Paradise Valley 2...
1writeway
The Night Country
Beth and Writing
B.Burcroff
The Freelance Zone
Struggling Writer
Jack Mandora
Editor Unleashed
Midwest Book Review
Day by Day Writer
Spunk on a Stick
The Hermit
Obstreperous Heart
Writing...Wings...Dreams
Writing for Hire
Daily Writing
Finding the Write Moment
RD Williams' Blog
NoDirectOn
Blue Mango
Antje's Notes
Momentum of the Muse
Word Thief
Living a Life of Writing
Word Thief
The Writer Today
In the Margins
Kit Courteney Writes
Recent Posts Performancing Metrics Blog Statistics

Visit LAMPhost.NET for great web hosting

Ask About Gift Certificates for Yourself or
Writerly Loved Ones


AddThis Social Bookmark Button