Information for Energy Group, Energy Institute, New Cavendish Street, London Thursday 13 May 2010 Advanced Internet Searching for Energy Information & Market Research This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 3.0 License Photo:

Search is changing How people look for and find information is changing Social media and networks are now an essential part of the search mix Facebook for market research and customer feedback e.g. the marmite bar Business students assignment on advertising history of Cadbury’s Crème Egg and Dairy Milk – Youtube! Twitter and blogs used as an essential part of reputation monitoring What’s happening at conferences - Twitter, Slideshare, Flickr, videos, podcasts Search engines now including social media and professional networks in search results

Search on a person Blogger profile Twitter profile Facebook profile LinkedIn profile 06 September 20153Karen Blakeman

Search on a topic – first page results 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk4 Results from Google News Latest results - rolling feed from Twitter, blogs, discussions

Search on a topic – first page results 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk5 Images Wikipedia article Blog posting listing videos YouTube video Results from my “social circle”: Twitter, RSS feeds, FriendFeed, Google Wave contacts etc.

Social media It is where many companies and organisations market themselves, provide customer support and distribute information It is where an increasing proportion of the population grow up & they don’t differentiate between the different means of communication It is where an increasing number of people feel comfortable and share information It’s impossible to ‘gag’ social networks –BBC NEWS | Politics | When is a secret not a secret? – For serious research, social media and professional networks are not optional extras - they are an essential part of your research strategy 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Types of search tools Humans –is a colleague or a friend already working in, or knowledgeable about the subject area? –who have you met at meetings, conferences? –discussion lists, bloggers, LinkedIn, Facebook, trade/professional associations, Twitter etc. (social “stuff”!) Search engines –Google, Yahoo, Bing, So called “deep web” and specialist tools, evaluated listings, subject listings, customised search engines Databases and peer reviewed sources Multi search engine tools, federated search –search lots of search tools or databases at once –or type in your search once and click on each search tool in turn 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

How up to date are search tools? Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. –you are searching an out of date index of the web and not the web itself –may take days to months for a site to be added to the index –hierarchy of sites for updating Real time, social media search tools –Twitter, blogs, discussion boards, RSS feeds –what is happening NOW 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

What are you looking for? Authoritative facts? Official or corporate announcements/press releases? News articles? Views and opinions on a topic? –from experts –from consumers –from people who don’t know what they’re talking about! Spur of the moment rants about failed services or products? Rumour, speculation, gossip? Or do you want to gather new data? –e.g. set up surveys on Facebook, Survey Monkey, Twtpoll.com 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Switched on by default Google adjusts your search results according to what you have clicked on in the past See Karen Blakeman's Blog - Your Google results are about to get weirder results-are-about-to-get-weirder/ results-are-about-to-get-weirder/ Before we start - is your Google web history on? 06 September Karen Blakeman

A search engine’s results may vary In content and presentation –from one minute to the next –different server being used –testing out different search and ranking algorithms Country versions –different emphasis –local content –different interface –different search features –use if researching a person, company, subject located or based in another country 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

06 September 2015 Karen Blakeman 12

General search techniques By default, the main search tools look for all of your terms in a page Use double quote marks around phrases or names To exclude pages containing a term, precede the term with a minus sign (-) but use with care Focus your search in areas of the page - use advanced search screens or commands - inurl: for example UK inurl:carbonemissions looks for your terms/phrase in the URL - intitle: or allintitle: for example UK intitle:"carbon emissions" looks for your terms/phrase in the title of the page 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

General search techniques Search sites or domains using the advanced search screen or site: command – wind turbine energy generation site:statistics.gov.uk – wind turbine energy generation site:gov.uk Imagine what you would like to appear in your ideal document and include those terms in your strategy - renewable energy generation UK wind solar wave hydro Repeat your key search terms in your search strategy – tar sands EROEI – tar sands EROEI EROEI EROEI different results Change the order of your terms – biodiesel fuel UK buses efficiency – biodiesel fuel efficiency UK buses different results 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

File format search Use advanced search options to limit your search to file types or format: –pdf or doc for government or industry/market reports –xls for data and statistics –ppt or pdf for presentations, experts on a topic Use Google and Yahoo Advanced Search Bing.com sometimes picks up unique content –use command filetype: in your search strategy e.g. filetype:ppt car ownership UK 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Docjax searches pdf, xls, doc, ppt in Yahoo and Google 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk16

Presentations For : –find experts on a topic –what are companies doing –introduction to a topic or a general overview –data and market statistics –company structures, who’s who Presentation search: –Slideshare –Authorstream –Slideboom –Slidefinder 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk17

Slideshare.net 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk18 Search: biofuels UK public transport

Slidefinder Identifies individual slides within a presentation 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk19

Slidefinder Can limit search to universities Also Advanced Search to search areas of slides 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk20

Google Additional search features previously hidden under “Show options” now in left hand side menu Most are self explanatory A few that aren’t.... Updates = Twitter 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk21

Google Wonderwheel 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk22

Google Timeline –but Google can get it wrong 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk23 ?

Unique Google search features Similar or related pages –looks for pages that are similar in type and content –click on the Similar link next to the page in your results list –or use the related: command e.g. related: 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk24

Unique Google search features Automatically looks for variations on your terms –to stop it, precede your terms with plus signs e.g. +Norne oil field to stop Google looking for ‘Horne’ –or use double quote marks around the term or phrase “Norne” –(hat tip to Even Flood for this example) Numeric range search –can be weights, distances, years, prices, measurements of any sort –use Advanced Search screen –or the search box on the Google home page –search term(s) first value..second value unit of measurement – toblerone 1..6 kg – world oil production forecasts September 2015Karen Blakeman 25

Unique Google search features Proximity –use the asterisk (*) to stand in for one or more terms –useful when searching for people –separates the terms by one or more words – Karen * Blakeman picks up: Karen Blakeman Karen Mary Blakeman Karen Sands Blakeman Karen Marie Blakeman – solar * panels picks up: solar heating panels solar electricity panels solar thermal panel solar voltaic panels solar concentrator panels 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Google Finance 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk27

Yahoo! very busy interface! simpler, Google like interface 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Yahoo! Advanced Search hidden under “More” Similar options to Google Advanced Search 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Yahoo! Deal with Bing Some country versions already using Bing web search, rest will follow during the year Now includes options in the left side menu for limiting your seearch 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Yahoo Finance 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk31

Bing (was live.com) “decision engine” Results tend to be more consumer oriented Seems to have the most up to date database and possibly the most extensive database of web pages Results vary considerably depending on the country version Supposedly incorporating real time, social media results into main search Advanced Search screen ‘minimalist” but can use commands (see Search Engine Summary and Comparison Chart September 2015Karen Blakeman

Compare search engines TripleMe – –compares Google, Yahoo and Bing side by side Blindsearch – –compare Google, Yahoo and Bing results for web or images –vote on which are the best without seeing the branding Zuula – –runs your search through a range of search tools one by one – order can be customised Browsys Finder (was Intelways/Crossengine) – –runs your search through a plethora of search tools one by one 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

iSEEK Clusters results into topics, people, places, organisations, date & time “Education” option – more research oriented pages 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Biznar Real time federated search of selected business resources, some of them “hidden web” or “deep web” Click on Advanced Search to see a list of the sources 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Intute Funding to be discontinued but has been given a stay of execution Excellent starting point for quality resources in all subject areas and industries 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk36

TechXtra ICBL and the Library at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Engineering, mathematics and computing Free information and pay per view 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Alacrawiki spotlights Key resources for major industry sectors Most pages have not been updated for 2-3 years  BUT much of the information still valid 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk38

Alacrasearch Google custom search engine 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk39

LGSearch Another Google custom search engine Searches UK public sector web sites 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk40

Directionlessgov.com 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk41

New! Information on the oil and gas sectors 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk42

People, Feature 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk43

Statistics Some general starting points –OFFSTATS - The University of Auckland Library by country or subject or both excellent list of energy web site stats including the BP Statistical Review of World Energy (2009) –RBA Energy Information Sources (under revision!) –Google Public data explorer See review Google Public Data Explorer- fine as far as it goes explorer-fine-as-far-as-it-goes/ explorer-fine-as-far-as-it-goes/ –Guardian datastore and datablog store and World Government Data government-datahttp:// storehttp:// government-data the latter is a better way of searching 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk44

Guardian World Government Data data.gov.uk 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk45

Energy Export Databrowser /09/2015www.rba.co.uk46

Free industry and market research Individual publishers –tables of contents, executive summaries, free sample chapters Government bodies –US –regulatory bodies e.g. in the UK - Competition Commission, Ofcom Management consultants Academic sector Trade, industry, manufacturing associations Trade and industry press 06/09/201547www.rba.co.uk

Priced industry and market research Aggregators may not be comprehensive –many publishers embargo reports for weeks or months –many publishers withhold reports from aggregators –check the publisher’s own web site or them to see if there is additional or more recent research available –may get a better deal by going to the publisher direct –use aggregators as an index to see who is publishing on your topic, for example (go to Energy and Utilities) For emerging markets 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk48

Priced industry and market research Many sites specialising in energy reports –just search on energy market research reports –Energy market research, analysis, databases, forecasts and energy market consulting –Energy Market research –GBI Research (Go to the Oil and Gas section) 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk49

News Newspapers, journals, trade press Blogs Twitter Video Podcasts Set up alerts and RSS feeds Google News – –good regional, national, international and trade press coverage –free sources only so misses some important publications –useful way of identifying industry publications 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk50

Chipwrapper Google Custom Search engine Searches everything available on 15 free UK News Sites “Time slices” for last 24 hours, past week, past month, past year 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk51

Silobreaker covers free resources news, blogs, video, tweets geographical location of stories people networks use as a starting point for in depth research has an energy section 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk52

RSS for... Current awareness and alerts –newspapers, blogs, twitter –customised alerts on topics or as part of reputation monitoring/management Read feeds in –an online feed reader e.g. Google Reader –desktop client e.g. FeedReader, RSS Bandit, Omea –Outlook (2007 and later) –Start pages e.g. Netvibes, My Yahoo, iGoogle, 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk53

RSS feeds (in Omea) 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk54

Netvibes.com 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk55

Netvibes.com New dashboard feature –type in your keywords and Netvibes automatically searches across news, social media, videos etc. –looks in places you might not think of 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk56

Video & Audio Search engines’ video/audio tabs YouTube, Vimeo.com, iTunes U Blinkx - Truveo – –country versions available Zuula - –click on the video tab Browsys Finder (formerly Intelways/Crossengine) – –click on the video tab Podcasts associated with news stories on e.g. BBC, The Guardian, New Scientist, Nature etc. Odeo September 2015Karen Blakeman

Blogs and blog search tools Blogs are a very easy and quick means of publishing New postings are picked up within minutes - sometimes seconds – of publication RSS feeds for alerts and keeping up to date Google left side menu –Blogs –By date and time Latest, Past 24 hours, Past week include large proportion of forums, news and press releases, blog postings Blog search tools –Look for the blogroll or list of links on a known, trusted blog –Google blogsearch –Blogpulse –Icerocket (also Twitter and MySpace) –Technorati 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Blogs Many researchers and industry experts run blogs Some have lengthy articles, analysis and serious discussion e.g. The Oil Drum ( Energy Balance ( 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk59

Searching Twitter and tweets To use Twitter’s Find People you need to be signed in to Twitter Alternatively search for people or organisations using Tweepz ( Searching public tweets – Backtweets.com – enter the URL of a web site and see who has referred to it in a tweet Phil Bradley's weblog: Twitter Search - 20 alternative search engines – twitter-search-20-alternative-search-engines.htmlhttp://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2009/03/ twitter-search-20-alternative-search-engines.html 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Twitter search 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

LinkedIn.com Check up on individuals, companies, groups 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Design your own search engine For –regularly searched sites –selected sites on a topic –searching sites on a reading list Google Custom Search Engines – –at least hundreds of sites, maybe thousands! –can import lists of sites Need a Google account to set one up Cannot search password protected sources or sites where you have to fill in a form to access the information 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Create your own Google CSE 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Host it on Google Keep it private or make it public URLs are horribly long but you can create a TinyURL, Bit.ly URL etc. to make it easier for your users 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Disappearing pages  Search engine cache copies –Google, Yahoo, Bing  UK Web Archive   Wayback machine – –from 1996 to about 1 year ago –navigate the archived site or type in the full URL of the document if known 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk66

UK Web Archive of 06/09/2015www.rba.co.uk67

Wayback Machine 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman

Further information & keeping up to date Information World Review (IWR) and IWR Blog – Phil Bradley’s Blog – I want to – Web 2.0 tools and applications: Web2 apps listed, annotated – Karen Blakeman’s Blog – Annual Online Information Exhibition, London, usually at the beginning of December – –Extensive programme of free seminars, updates and master classes on the exhibition floor. 06 September 2015Karen Blakeman