Sunday, January 20, 2008
Gerry McGovern on...when search words are misleading
Gerry McGovern writes on When Search Words are Misleading on his Giraffe Forum blog. Some interesting concepts to consider on both ends of the spectrum - whether you are trying to improve on your search results, or to improve on your SEO, there's definitely something to be learned here.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Jimmy Wales Launches Wikia
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, has just launched Wikia. Wikia offers open source searching that will, supposedly, be entirely free of commercial bias. To search on Wikia, hit the alpha version now live. Btw, Jimmy's blog makes for a great read for all those of you who believe information wants to be free! I just wish he'd update it a bit more frequently (although clearly he is VERY busy doing many other different things... :-)
Internet Audience Reaches 800 Million Mark!
A new report from comScore's qSearch 2.0 provides some phenomenal new statistics on Internet and search use worldwide. The Internet population is now fast approaching 800 million individuals. More astonishing still, at least 95% of those seem to be extremely and consistently active online, with approximately 750 million conducting Internet searches in the month of August 2007!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Grey Literature
Came across a wonderful source of research today that I'd like to share with all. Grey literature.
According to Greynet, Grey Literature is "Information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." (Luxembourg, 1997 - Expanded in New York, 2004)
GreyNet provides GreySource, which is a wonderful index to a multitude of Web-based resources on Grey Literature.
According to Greynet, Grey Literature is "Information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." (Luxembourg, 1997 - Expanded in New York, 2004)
GreyNet provides GreySource, which is a wonderful index to a multitude of Web-based resources on Grey Literature.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Primary vs. Secondary Research - What's the Deal?
Many marketers (and other business people) often confuse primary and secondary research; it's worth exploring the differences and understanding which is what.
Primary data is first-hand data elicited through direct interaction with the research subjects using primary methods such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and experiments. Typically, primary data is gathered for a specific research problem. Market research that leverages primary data is called primary research; this may include interviews and focus groups, for example.
There are three types of primary research - exploratory research, descriptive research and causal, or experimental research. I'll be delving into each of these in future segments of the blog.
Secondary data includes data not collected for a specific project and may include information made available by a wide variety of commercial and government sources. Research that leverages secondary data is called secondary research. Places for finding secondary research include the library, the Internet, proprietary databases, and research firms that supply syndicated data.
Primary research is more expensive and more time consuming to conduct. Therefore, secondary research will almost always precede primary research, because by undertaking secondary research we can determine whether primary research is a viable route to pursue - and we can also refine our research agenda along the way. Secondary research can be quick, effective and relatively inexpensive. The following table summarizes the differences between primary and secondary research (data) -
(based on: Marketing Research - An Applied Orientation by Naresh K. Malhotra)
Comments? Questions?
ragingacademic
Primary data is first-hand data elicited through direct interaction with the research subjects using primary methods such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and experiments. Typically, primary data is gathered for a specific research problem. Market research that leverages primary data is called primary research; this may include interviews and focus groups, for example.
There are three types of primary research - exploratory research, descriptive research and causal, or experimental research. I'll be delving into each of these in future segments of the blog.
Secondary data includes data not collected for a specific project and may include information made available by a wide variety of commercial and government sources. Research that leverages secondary data is called secondary research. Places for finding secondary research include the library, the Internet, proprietary databases, and research firms that supply syndicated data.
Primary research is more expensive and more time consuming to conduct. Therefore, secondary research will almost always precede primary research, because by undertaking secondary research we can determine whether primary research is a viable route to pursue - and we can also refine our research agenda along the way. Secondary research can be quick, effective and relatively inexpensive. The following table summarizes the differences between primary and secondary research (data) -
(based on: Marketing Research - An Applied Orientation by Naresh K. Malhotra)
Comments? Questions?
ragingacademic
Thursday, February 15, 2007
What has Bezos, $6 million, and 20,000 contractors...
...and is not even half a year old?
CHACHA...
But no, not the dance.
ChaCha is a new guided search engine staffed by real live human beings.
The search engine launched September 2006, has raised $6 million in financing from Jeff Bezos among others, and has already signed up 20,000 guides to help the human race find what it is looking for...
Give it a whirl, the search guides seem to be quite chatty... :-)
Raging Academic
CHACHA...
But no, not the dance.
ChaCha is a new guided search engine staffed by real live human beings.
The search engine launched September 2006, has raised $6 million in financing from Jeff Bezos among others, and has already signed up 20,000 guides to help the human race find what it is looking for...
Give it a whirl, the search guides seem to be quite chatty... :-)
Raging Academic
New Search Resources
Came across some new (to me) search resources that I wanted to share with you all -
Search Engine Journal
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
Search Engine Radio
http://www.seoradio.com/
John Battelle's Searchblog
http://battellemedia.com/
ragingacademic
Search Engine Journal
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
Search Engine Radio
http://www.seoradio.com/
John Battelle's Searchblog
http://battellemedia.com/
ragingacademic
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