March 4, 2009, Vol. 3, Issue 4

Searching the Invisible Web or Deep Web requires a federated search across multiple resources. Sounds intimidating, right? Maybe even a bit like science fiction? If you’ve never heard of the Invisible Web or Deep web, then you may not even realize that the results you get on Google only scratch the surface of what’s actually available online. There are resources out there, very possibly resources you need, that aren’t accessible via a traditional search of the Web.

You might see articles about this stuff and assume it’s just for hard-core researchers like us. But we’re here to tell you that it’s not that scary. And you’re going to love federated search if you give it a try. So give us 3 minutes and we’ll boldly take you where few Web searchers have gone before…

Into the Kosmos

Kosmix touts itself as a “guide to the Web” that allows you search by topic and returns results from across the Internet including photos, videos, news, opinion, etc. In addition to the search engine, it’s a slick, hip Web site that offers a snapshot of the hottest topics on the Internet from sources like Twitter, Hulu and Yahoo! Not only will it pull together from a variety of sources, it’ll break down the results in a way that will help you get your arms around it. And it’s all laid out nice and neat. Searching for culture on the Web has never been easier.

Go Deep!

If you’re looking for a clean, easy to use search engine for diving into the Deep Web, look no further than DeepDyve.com. Type a sentence or paragraph into the search box and DeepDyve scours the Internet for untapped resources returning only relevant, expert content (no opinions here!). DeepDyve also allows you to further refine your search criteria by subject area, as well as attach advanced filters to help return only the results that answer your question. If you’re looking for results from scholarly journals, this is the search engine for you!

Biz Wiz

When it comes to searching for business information you need a truly rich federated search engine to find those nuggets you know are buried in corporate Web sites and other sources. Enter Biznar (We’d almost forgotten this one! Thanks to Donna Fryer for reminding us!) Each search is done in real- time as if you were entering search terms into each separate engine yourself. Biznar also returns results from blogs, wikis and mainstream sources with duplicates omitted and ranked for relevance based on your search terms. No business information is safe from Biznar (sounds like an alien, doesn’t it?).

So there you have it.

A little lesson on federated searches and three sites for searching three different kinds of information. And all for three minutes of your time. Nothing like keeping it short and sweet. Until next time…