The Sentient Search Engine

Hey!

So I had a patron wanting to know how to make sidewalk chalk paint. We tried several books and didn’t find too much that was interesting, just some typical kids crafts and activites books. Several had recipes for sidewalk chalk, but nont had recipes for “sidewalk chalk paint” or “sidewalk paint”.

I did a google search and found some things that were perfect for her. She left truly pleased!

Here’s the links:

Sidewalk paint – http://www.recipegoldmine.com/childpaint/childpaint30.html
Sidewalk “chalk” paint – http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Chalk-Paint

Enjoy!

HowStuffWorks – www.howstuffworks.com/ – 3 Stars

HowStuffWorks is a really fun site and very informative. It provides articles on how things work from “British Titles of Nobility” to “Comets”. The articles are in plain English as benefits the general audience they target.

Most importantly, it is not the public that contributes the articles like Wikipedia. Instead, the contributers are genuine experts, including lawyers and PhDs, working in the field they are asked to write about. One can click on the authors name to see their credentials. In doing so, one does find that some authors write on topics that they don’t have an obvious expertise and there is nothing said about what their qualification to write on that topic is. This is troublesome. However, from what I can gather, for some topics it is presumed that an ability to research and write effectively is important. Obvious efforts are taken to research topics as many articles include acknowledgments to other experts for their assistance.

The site is well designed, but it is a bit more cluttered than I usually prefer.

There’s two sites on the docket for today’s post, something fun and something related, but more sober:

Gamespot – www.gamespot.com – 3.5 Stars

Gamespot is my personal favorite site when it comes to gaming news. The site is a great source for information on games new and old for PC or any major (and most minor) console system in existence, past and present.

Actually, I’d more accurately describe Gamespot as an electronic magazine. It includes many of the same things like feature articles and game reviews, but is usually updated 5-6 days a week. The core of the content are the game reviews in my opinion. Their rating system is on a 10 point scale and is well described on the site. Few games get 10s and fewer get 0s, with most games seeming to fall in the 6-8 range. Gamespots editorial policy is availble though the “about us” page accessible by scrolling to the bottom.

In addition to this more “traditional” content, Gamespot has a lot of multimedia content including downloads, video, screenshots, and podcasts. It also includes many features like fourms and the ability to maintain a “wishlist” and “owned list” which really lend it a sense of community (for good or ill).

The layout of the site is busy, but consistent, so its easy to learn to navigate. The site is more conducive to browsing (read: the searching stinks). Be prepared to play and explore a little bit when you visit the first couple times.

Entertainment Software Rating Board – www.esrb.org – 4 Stars

This is a very well constructed site. For those not in the know, the Entertainment Software Rating Board is the group that decides what rating symbol ends up on the game boxes you buy. Their website is an excellent extension of their mission to help parents keep track of what games their kids are playing.

The site includes resources for parents and children that explain the rating system and define the “content” codes on the ESRB labels among other things. The site also includes a great “webliography”that lists other sites that will be of use to parents.

However, the center of attention is and should be the search interface. It allows the user to search by Publisher or Title keyword, by Rating, by Platform (PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox…), or by content (mild violence, etc.). This lets you print out great lists of titles to refer to while doing christmas shopping, for example. Overall, one of the best intersite search tools I’ve seen.

Clusty – clusty.com – 3 Stars

Okay, so I say that I’m not going to review a search engine, and then I go and review a search engine in my third post. What gives? Well Clusty is just that cool.

In my defense, Clusty is not a search engine, its a metasearch engine (Yeah Mike, BIG difference). If you aren’t aware, a metasearch engine queries several search engines at once. So Clusty’s results tend to cover a lot of ground. The excellent thing about Clusty is the way it organizes search results by grouping them by subject, so not only are the results more complete, but they’re also more useful.

The interface clean and straightforward to use. It includes a filter for adult sites. You can also use the interface to search to news, images, wikipedia, blogs, jobs, and more. What’s more, the site is now completely “Wii Friendly” (If you don’t know what that means, then it probably doesn’t apply to you.) Look in the “about” page to find out how to add a Clusty Cloud to your blog or website like the one at the bottom of this page.

Internet Movie Database – http://www.imdb.com/ – 4 Stars

Internet Movie Database is the gold standard of cinema information. Librarians love it for its usability and comprehensiveness. One can find information on films, tv shows, filmmakers, actors, and more from around the world. A great source of trivia and source of information for bar bets.

Home page has film industry news and lists of the new and top films and DVDs.

You can also use the site to purchase movie tickets, talk about movies, and even post your resume so you can get a job in the film industry yourself!