Thing #29, part 2 -- Google Tools: Search

I wasn't familiar with any of the tools listed in the Search Tools category, so I looked at most of them. The ramifications concerning privacy, or lack thereof, in using Web History made me a little uncomfortable. I wasn't sure the benefits of saving my search history were worth it, so I didn't explore this one very far.

I went further with SearchWiki, watching the video and reading the articles. Opinion is mixed regarding its usefulness. Many people who commented on the articles also questioned Google's motives for having SearchWiki--whether they were looking to provide a beneficial tool to users, or interested in enhancing their search algorithm based on users' comments. I suspect it was probably a little of both. For my part, I don't see a need for custom search results. If I find search results I wanted to keep track of, I would add the sites to del.icio.us or another bookmarking tool, rather than have to repeat a search just to get to them. The ability to view others' comments on a site doesn't appeal to me either. I don't tend to use other review/opinion kinds of web sites, so why would I use this feature in Google?

The search tool I did implement is Alerts. I set a few up for parts of the library's web site that I maintain, to get an idea of who is linking to or commenting on them. I am intrigued about the idea of using alerts to detect copyright violations. I work with a collection of images owned by the library, and in constructing the search to use for one alert I discovered several blogs using images from the collection. Note to self: decide if it is worth tracking down blog owners...

Just for fun, I created one for my name, and was surprised to receive an alert informing me about my previous blog post!