Google advanced search tools

This afternoon, I'm attending a Google-sponsored session on its search tools and services. Ben Bunnell, who presented on the Google Book Search Project at LITA 2005, is the presenter for this session. He is currently showing the entry of info requests in the web interface that are equivalent to Google SMS requests. Bunnell referenced a Google info site for libraries, www.google.com/librariancenter.

He also described Google Co-op, which enables end user participation in site labeling. Bunnell described Google's approach to this process, in that tag assigners must use the classication tags, thus encouraging responsibility. Finally, Bunnell demo'd Google Custom Search. This could be a killer app for web-based searching, enabling the creation of truly customized searching with a low technical threshold for implementation. I plan to visit the Google booth to see some additional customization examples. More to come....