INFORMATION UPDATE "Helping Businesses Find the Facts" May, 2001 Number 21 A Monthly Publication of Shamel Information Services mailto:InfoUpdate@shamelinfo.com ============================================================ Welcome to INFORMATION UPDATE, the free monthly newsletter for business and healthcare professionals. For subscription information, refer to notes at the end of this newsletter. ============================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------ IN THIS ISSUE ------------------------------------------------------------ => DO IT YOURSELF - The Invisible Web => DID YOU KNOW - Hoover's => Notes, News and Announcements => Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information ------------------------------------------------------------ DO IT YOURSELF - The Invisible Web ------------------------------------------------------------ Careful Information Update readers will remember last month's "DID YOU KNOW" section. That article pointed out (again) that not everything is on the Internet. Well, this month's "DO IT YOURSELF" section will show how "even if it IS on the Internet, we may not be able to find it." This unsearchable portion of the Internet is commonly called The Invisible Web. The invisible web is estimated to be about 500 times larger than the searchable web http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/00/08-deepweb.html Here's what's going on. Search engine spiders crawl the web going from link to link picking up interesting sites for the search engine database. There are lots of web pages that these spiders can't detect. Such pages include portable document formats (pdf's), which are very popular on govern- ment sites; real time data like stock quotes, weather reports, and airline information; dynamically generated pages using javascript, cgi, asp or most pages with '?' in the url; and the content of searchable databases. There are good reasons why the search engine spiders can't find these pages, but you'll have to read the book for the particulars (see below.) Let's just recognize that the situation exists and see if there is anything searchers can do about it. Google http://www.google.com/ will retrieve a few sites from the invisible web. Your best bet, however, is to rely on the search skills of librarians and information professionals. These experts have compiled some excellent directories of the kind of quality information sources common to the invisible web. You might want to visit some of these sites and bookmark them for future use. Digital Librarian-a subject based directory http://www.digital-librarian.com/ Direct Search-links to the search interfaces of resources that contain data not easily accessible http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/direct.htm The InvisibleWeb.com-contains over 10,000 databases http://www.invisibleweb.com/ LibDex-The Library Index-catalogs of 16,901 libraries http://www.libdex.com/ The Librarian's Index to the Internet http://lii.org/ Price's List of Lists http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm The ResearchIndex-A scientific literature digital library http://researchindex.com/ Speech and Transcript Center http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/speech.htm Internet wizards Gary Price, creator of Direct Search, Speech and Transcript Center, and Price's List of Lists and Chris Sherman, Associate Editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, http://searchenginewatch.com/about/about_cs.html will tell us more in their new book "The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See." http://store.yahoo.com/infotoday//invisibleweb.html ------------------------------------------------------------ DID YOU KNOW - Hoover's ------------------------------------------------------------ Gary Hoover really knew what he was up to when he began to publish Hoover's Handbooks. These directories and descrip- tions of U.S. and World businesses became immediate hits with libraries and individuals. As soon as the technology allowed, Hoover put his handbooks online in order to keep them current and make them searchable. Hoover's Online http://www.hoovers.com/ offers this description on its web site. "Hoover's Online: The Business Network was built to serve the needs of people behind desks. Everything you'll find here was selected by our editors with the businessperson in mind. Every feature, every link, every tool represents the best the Web has to offer the busy professional. At the core of Hoover's Online is the proprietary company and industry information on which we've built our reputation for quality, accuracy, and reliability. Now we've extended our expertise to provide a business-oriented perspective on other topics important to our users: money management, career development, news, and business travel. The result is the Web's most comprehensive source of business information, designed to be the first and only site businesspeople need. Period." Hoover's offers a great deal of free information in its company capsules, but there is a whole lot more available to subscribers. Shamel Information Services subscribes to Hoover's Online, therefore we can provide you with: company profiles, printable PDF profiles, in-depth financials, competitive landscapes, full lists of officers, full lists of competitors, products/services/segment data, and mailing lists. For more information call 858-673-4673. ------------------------------------------------------------ Notes, News, and Announcements ------------------------------------------------------------ Information Update readers have written in to comment on last month's suggestion that Californians purchase uninterruptible power supplies for computers. Readers in any area prone to power loss, for example the southeast where thunderstorms are common, could benefit from having a UPS. SCOUG - Southern California Online User's Group, "Building Information Communities," May 4th, 2001 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, Burbank Airport Hilton. Register Now http://www.scougweb.org/ Special Libraries Association, San Diego Chapter, May 18, 3 pm. "A Mission to Prepare for a Profession," hosted by Linda Coates, Librarian, Zoological Society of San Diego. To attend, call 858-673-4673. Biotechnology for Lawyers, May 18 8:15 am to 4:30 pm, Del Mar, CA, presented by BioTekEd Series for Non-Scientists. For more information call 858-534-0485 Principles of Biotechnology June 1 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Del Mar, CA, presented by BioTekEd Series for Non-Scientists. For information call 858-534-0485 Special Libraries Association meets in San Antonio, June 9-14. http://www.sla.org Bio 2001 in San Diego, June 24-27 http://www.bio2001.org ============================================================= Information Update articles are now searchable on the web. Visit http://www.shamelinfo.com and click on "Newsletters." From that page you can enter your search terms to locate articles from past issues of Information Update. Give it a try and let us know what you think. The Shamel Information Services web site at http://shamelinfo.com contains Information Update archives. Just click on "Newsletters" and check for any issues you might have missed. -------------------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE -------------------------------------------------------------- Subscriptions to INFORMATION UPDATE are free. You may subscribe or unsubscribe by sending a message to: mailto:InfoUpdate@shamelinfo.com with SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Copyright 2001 Shamel Information Services Please feel free to forward this issue to colleagues, in its entirety. Other uses without permission may violate copyright. Online archives at http://www.shamelinfo.com/newsletter.htm =============================================================== Cynthia L. Shamel, editor Shamel Information Services Poway, California mailto:cshamel@shamelinfo.com Ms. Shamel is on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Information Professionals http://www.aiip.org, a Special Libraries Association, San Diego Chapter Director and a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals http://www.scip.org Telephone: 858-673-4673 Toll Free: 800-330-9939