Information Aggregators for Online Researchers

Information Aggregators for Online Researchers

by: Ron Tower

One way of looking at online research is as a project that starts with searches and ends with summaries. The online researcher searches for information to meet the needs of their client and produces a summary report for the client. Information aggregators help in the production and display of summary views and are therefore a natural tool for the online researcher. What kinds of information aggregator features would be most helpful for online researchers?

First, it would be useful to have help in collecting the information for the research project. Tools to capture links and selections from Web pages and to add notes would be useful. This information needs to be organized into a structure. Information aggregators can do this by providing a personal knowledge base or Web directory. The project is added as a new category in the knowledge base and the information collected can be organized into categories within the project. It would be useful to have a browser extension to help capture this information while browsing.

For example, the researcher does a search and is going through the results. Some of the links prove useful and can be captured into the knowledge base. On some pages, a particular selection from the page proves useful. This also can be captured. This captured information can be annotated and organized into categories. As the project progresses more information is captured, annotated and categorized. It would also be useful to be able to enter text and tabular information directly into the project within the same knowledge entries in the knowledge base. This is all part of the process of building up a summary view from the vast amount of information on the Web.

Of course, an online researcher may do similar projects for different clients, so it would be useful for them to be able to build up their own knowledge base of commonly used resources over time. They can go to these resources again and again on different projects. Notes can be included to remind them on the ways to use the resources. It would be useful to be able to copy information from these common areas into a particular project to reuse the work.

Since these sites change over time, it would be good to be able to get summaries of what is happening on the sites and be able to click through to see the details. Information aggregators can help here by providing personal pages containing a variety of modules that provide automatically updated information on what is new on a site.

Many sites provide summary headlines of what is new on their site as RSS feeds. An obvious use is for news headlines, but this is also used for more specialized information. An information aggregator should come with many builtin feed definitions and allow the researcher to easily add others that are specific to their research interests.

Many Web sites provide กfree contentก as an HTML fragment that can be added to a page. These serve a similar function as RSS feeds, providing an automatically updated summary view of new information available on the site. An information aggregator should include a number of these and allow the researcher to add new ones.

Another useful feature would be to allow the researcher to provide keywords that the information aggregator will use to periodically do a search on their behalf. The top search results can be shown on their page, and they can click through to see the complete results. This would allow them to monitor new sites of interest for keywords they often search on. It should be possible to set this up to only show the new results.

It would also be useful to be able to monitor commonly used sites to see if new content has been added to the site.

Finally, information aggregators should provide help in packaging the results of the project for the client. Export tools should be provided to allow the contents of the knowledge base to be edited in a word processor, for example. It should be as easy as possible to get the information out of the information aggregator into a form that the client would like to see it.

This area of packaging also presents an opportunity. Professional online researchers are always looking for ways to add extra value in the package they give to their clients. One idea is to provide the clients with กactiveก reports, that is, reports that automatically will provide updated information after they are delivered. Static reports produced with a word processor are a snapshot of the information at a particular point in time. An active report provides this same snapshot view but also has elements that can change over time from feeds.

These active reports will require the client to have their own tool to read the reports and to access the updated information. Some clients will have their own information aggregators. The researcher can then export parts of their knowledge base and the client can import it. Some information could be exported in a standard format like RSS so that the client can use any RSS reader they like. For more extensive active reports, the client will need some kind of package reader. This reader should be free, similar to how the Adobe Reader allows the reading of PDF files.

So the researcher could create an active report or information package using their information aggregator. They would deliver this to their client with a free information package reader that would allow them to receive the updated information. The information package could contain the knowledge base generated for the project along with pages that automatically update. The online researcher in this case becomes an กinformation package developerก.

For clients who do not want to commit to a particular package reader, some of the active content can be exported as HTML pages that could be read by their Web browser and some as RSS feeds that could be read by any RSS reader. But to get the most active versions they would need to use a particular reader.

Many clients will prefer to continue to get their static reports. The information aggregator will still be there to help the information professionals produce these static reports as well as the active reports.

This article presents a target view of features for information aggregators that could be useful to online researchers. Some of these features are available in current products. Others will evolve over time. The bottom line is that information aggregators can be a great tool for online researchers.

About The Author

Ron Tower is the President of Sugarloaf Software and is the developer of Personal Watchkeeper, an information aggregator supporting a variety of ways to summarize the Web.

http://www.sugarloafsw.com

This article was posted on January 28

by Ron Tower

CD ROM Business Cards

CD ROM Business Cards

by: Scott กGearsก

Created properly, an extremely effective marketing tool.

Itกs a great concept, and it has a กcool factorก of 300%.

Many people will pop these into their drive just because of image appeal alone. Whatกs really neat is when one is so well done, so informative, so interactive, that everybody wants one.

This type of viral marketing can be very effective and create residual traffic to your business. The point I would like to make here is, don’t undertake these projects without specific goals in mind. Yes, they are cool, yes, they (themselves) are not that expensive, but without a well done message, or purpose, they lose the กcoolก effect very quickly. The point is to keep interest, no matter what your selling, or announcing, or rollingout.

Anyone can get online and find a dozen CD replicating firms pretty quickly. What you really want to find is a pro fessional consultant that can assist you in putting it all together, making it all work, and keeping it interesting.

This presentation is what will make the CD card become a success (sizzle!). Hyperformance Media is available for consultation on your project, contact us at your convenience. The CD cards are not your real expense (under $1), itกs the chosen platform and presentation you care to deliver and how.

Letกs look at some ideas…

One of the first things you should consider is that the presentation have live links to itกs major content. In this way, we can constantly keep our site pages updated and the CD remains usable (not outdated). When loading, you can choose to have a permission based icon burned onto the userกs Desktop that links directly to your website (and even ask permission).

You can make special offers that can be retrieved at your website. You can use them for your next huge Tradeshow, Product Announcement and Rollout. How about your Corporate Year End Results?

These cards can hold different capacities (MBกs), and come in many shapes. You can create a custom shape, but that adds heavily to the investment (there are plenty of shapes available).

You can fit audio, video, and most content within this form factor. The popular interface is currently Flash™ or other Macromedia™ applications. They are fast, allow complete creativity, and interface well on both PC and MAC platforms. If you have a Flash™ specialist inhouse, then you can save money in the creation process.

Now you should take the major goals of the CD and layout a Storyboard that accomplishes those goals. We have a lot of flexibility here, we have audio, sounds, voices, music, and we have animation, video, and links to more information.

This should be your interactive TV commercial. Besides, the CD ROMกs, we keep a copy of the commercial on our website for the benefit of the people who didn’t receive a CD card. They can view our webmercial from online too! Use your logo prominently throughout your presentation (branding). Keep your messages and information focused, always restating the benefits. Know your audience! especially if this CD Project is directed at a specific market segment. Create the environment with that audience in mind, not what desk executives like.

The image on the cover of the CD is completely flexible as well. You can use a photograph, a screenshot, or a combination. The image resolution has improved dramatically in the past 3 years. Use or create some of your กbest stuffก for these CD projects, it is worth it.

You also pay for plastic sleeves that each CD has been inserted into (you want these). It makes them very easy to mail.

Consider that image, you receive one in the mail with your Christmas card from the company. Maybe you ship one out with every order for a month..? It really depends on what you want to accomplish. We will spend the time with you to come up with the concepts necessary in having a successful campaign.

http://www.hyperformancemedia.com

[email protected]

About The Author

Scott is the Founder and Sr. Project Manager for Hyperformance Media.com, a Technology Marketing Company serving online businesses since 1996. His 23+ years of experience in the computer industry will help you succeed. Their website offers free education & resources that will assist any business in successfully marketing their company online.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 03, 2003

by Scott กGearsก

FOCUS on Your Business Program

FOCUS on Your Business Program

by: Raymond Johnsen

Power of Focus !

If you are anything like me, you probably find yourself often thinking of new projects to start, new things to achieve.I did that in my beginning on Internet. That in itself is very beneficial and indeed a required ingredient for success. The trick is to know where to draw a line.

The trap I kept falling into was hoping and looking for new and better programs all the time,easy to find new once,but i forgot about them the next day,instead of working on the programs you already joined and going for the results there.

I would often actually get dragged into gathering more and more information on new opportunities. I would spend time on developing them right then and there. I would be stealing the precious time away from the current project I was supposed to be working on. Obviously, it was a trap.Be aware of this trap! The current project would suffer, because there is only so much time in a day.No one gets results form Surfing the Internet for กGet Rich Tomorrow กand thinking,there must be an easier way!There is not,only hard work will give you success.Focus and work on your Business !

Then I would get discouraged with my current project and drop it because I didn’t see any results. Think long term!One of my future projects would become my current project for the time being, until Iกd drop it in favour of the next project.Its a trap,yes.

This is how most of New to Internet do it!!Dont do the same! Can you see the trap? And it gets even worse: If you keep on doing this for long enough, you will actually program your subconscious mind NOT to complete a project EVER. You will forever keep on failing. Eventually it may even filter through to other areas of your life.I did the same in the beginning,so much waste of time and money!

There is to many Traps out there.Itกs easy to see how working on your online business can become such a trap quickly. Internet is overloaded with information. I won’t even mention the plethora of rubbish that exists online. But there is so much valuable information out there, go and find them,that developing your online business to a profitable stage can take forever, UNLESS you start employing the tremendous power of focus.Its the only way to do it,when you understand this you will get results!

Here is only one way,focus.To be a success in your online venture, you must not be working on more than two projects at a time, EVER. And preferably work on just one project, particularly if you only do your online venture on parttime basis.

And by that I mean, don’t get distracted. Don’t dilute your precious time. Work on your project, whatever it may be, until completion.Learn the program,take the training section over and over again,until you really know how it works!

Many programs can be difficult to understand,but take your time to understand it!

Learn how to!By all means, plan you future. If you want to work on the future ideas, set an hour per week aside for doing just that. And then each week spend that hour thinking about your new projects, write them down. When the time is up, go back to your current project.

I will guarantee you one thing: If you develop and use the power of focus, your success will get better and better with each project. Thats how i got from not getting any results to see great results every week.Focus.

On the other hand, if you keep falling into the trap of working on too many projects at the same time, the chances are you will get nowhere.

http://businessopportunityonline.info

About The Author

Raymond Johnsen is the author of กFOCUS on Your Business Program.ก He has helped a lot of individuals succeed online. Visit his site to find out how you can get Free info about Business Opportunities on Internet and info about how to succeed online..

http://businessopportunityonline.info

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This article was posted on April 20

by Raymond Johnsen

Honest InDepth SEO Elite Review

Honest InDepth SEO Elite Review

by: Joseph Tierney

This is a REAL INDEPTH review of the SEO Elite version 3.2 software that is currently out. Every claim I make here is 100% accurate, and you can even verify the results yourself.

I started up my Central Florida Surf Report website in January 2005. I was receiving around 40 unique visitors a day from wordofmouth traffic. Being out of the website design business for about 2 years, I didn’t even know what Google PageRank was. I had no idea that backlinks with anchor text was what ran the search engines nowadays.

After realizing this by reading on the forums over at GeekVillage I decided I better get jumping on my link campaign. I started going around the internet in search engines and emailing potential link partners that had the same basic content as my website.

Many of the people liked my website design and content, thus giving me a high trade link success rate. In my niche กsurfingก or กsurf reportsก most of the webmasters aren’t out to get money or take your search engine rankings, so it was actually a little easier getting backlinks.

For about 4 months I was manually doing this by hand and only got up to around 250 backlinks in MSN and Yahoo!. Hardly any backlinks were showing in Google, but everyone knows that Google doesn’t show the correct amount of backlinks. Even right now it shows link:www.cflwaves.com as having ONE backlink.

In June, I finally decided that I was over the process of manually finding the link partners. I started using the program Arelis and was amazed at the ease of use finding new link partners. I DID NOT like the fact that the program didn’t show me any of the pages PageRank though. I only used Arelis for about 3 days, getting around 25 backlinks.

I started searching around in the internet for an alternative and stumbled into SEO Elite by Brad Callen. I downloaded the demo and was amazed at the results I was getting. I had picked up about 50 backlinks in only 2 days of use. Then I saw Brad introduced the new Project 8: Find and Submit Using Link Submission Forms.

After watching Bradกs tutorial videos on this new project, I IMMEDIATELY went and purchased the product. After the first day I had already picked up 50 new backlinks using this new feature.

The keyphrase that I was targeting was กCentral Florida Surf Reportก. If you check MSN, I am ranked #1. If you check Yahoo! I am ranked #1. If you check Google I am still ranked #3 but I am pretty sure after the next Google update I will be #1. The cool thing about it is that since I was targetting กCentral Florida Surf Reportก, it eventually rolls over to กFlorida Surf Reportก. On MSN I am #1 for กFlorida Surf Reportก. On Yahoo! I am #1 for กFlorida Surf Reportก. On Google I am #15, but this should also go up the next Google update. Rolling over again, it eventually turns into กsurf reportก, currently on MSN I am ranked #13 for this keyphrase. It is very exciting to watch all my work actually pay off.

My traffic has tripled since January, and this month (August) I am expecting to receive from 11,000 12,000 unique visitors. Pretty good for a surf report website where all I do is update the surf report daily and forecast every few days right? This website is currently earning me over $600 a month in Adsense revenue, and that is increasing every month.

It is important to note that not all of your traffic comes from the search engines. When you are trading links with other websites, you also receive traffic from their websites, so the more backlinks you have, overall the more people you have!

These results are all due to the SEO Elite software by Brad Callen. Now here is my detailed project by project review of his software:

Project 1: Analyze backlinks using a specified search engine

________

This project allows you to analyze your competitors search engine backlinks using any of the major search engines. The program will show you what anchor text people are linking to them with, the IP address of the website, the PageRank of the website, the Alexa Rank of the website, the Page Title that the link is on, how many outbound links the page has, and how many total links the page has. This project also shows you in an easy list how many PR010กs and their percentage that are linking to the site. It is kind of hard to explain so here is the format:

PR = 0 520.1%

PR = 1 810.5%

PR = 2 1313.3%

PR = 3 4543.3%

PR = 4 2420.4%

PR = 5 1210.2%

PR = 6 43.7%

PR = 7 00.0%

PR = 8 00.0%

PR = 9 00.0%

(Not my siteกs statistics.)

Project 2: Find and Email High Page Rank Link Partners

________

This is my favorite project of the whole program. It lets you find and email people that have atleast the minimum PageRank that you specify. You can find sites based on sites that link to your competitor, based on a search term, or from a links page such as if your competitor has a long links page, and you want them all to link to you as well.

All you have to do is start the project, then load up one of your email templates, select multiple email addresses from the list and SEO Elite will send an email to every single one of them. None of the receivers know that you have also sent that email to another person. You can also customize your site templates to include the receiverกs name and website URL, so that the emails do not look machine generated.

Project 3: Analyze allinanchor, allintitle or allintext.

________

This project allows you to enter a keyword and analyze the top 10 ranking for allinanchor, allintitle, or allintext.

Allinanchor shows you the top number of websites with that particular keyword in their anchor text. If you are ranked #1 for allinanchor, you should soon be ranked #1 for that certain keyword.

Allintitle shows you the top number of websites with that particular keyword in their tags.

Allintext shows you the top number of websites with that particular keyword in the body of their webpage.

SEO Elite allows you to compare the allinanchor, allintitle, and allintext with the actual results, frame by frame.

Project 4: Verify that link partners are still linking back.

________

I personally do not use this feature of SEO Elite, but some of you may find it very valuable.

What you do is give SEO Elite the location of your links page, SEO Elite will then crawl the links page getting the websites out of it. SEO Elite then visits all of those pages checking to see if your link is still on their website. If it isn’t the program will tell you and you can send them an email asking them what happend to your link.

Project 5: Find out where your site is ranked for a given keyword(s):

________

This project allows you to see where you are ranked for certain keywords on every search engine. SEO Elite saves the results and shows you a comparison from the past times that you have checked. This is great to show you how much SEO Elite has helped your search engine rankings.

Project 6: Find out how many webpages are indexed.

________

This project allows you to enter any domain name then the program will check each major search engine and return how many pages from that domain are indexed. Great time saver.

Project 7: Find well optimized websites.

________

This project shows you what the top 10 are doing to get their rankings. You enter a certain keyword and it returns the top 10 and then analyzes them based on certain factors:

Page PR

Alexa Rank

# of Top 10กs

Total Appearances

Total Score

I also do not use this project very much at all, I think I have only used it 3 times.

Project 8: Find and submit using link submission forms.

________

This is the greatest project of SEO Elite next to Find and Email High PageRank partners. What this project does is allow you to enter a certain keyword, select the number of websites that you want to exchange links with, and click submit. The program will find related websites to yours that have setup an automatic link exchange script.

All you have to do is enter your information into the SEO Elite program and each website that you select to trade links with, the program will automatically fill in the required fields for every website. All you have to do is click submit! Excellent feature, and a great time saver.

Overall I think that this is the greatest SEO program on the internet today. No other program has the amount of features that SEO Elite does. I think that this is a MUSTHAVE for any webmaster trying to market their website. This program is responsible for almost every visitor that I receive on my website. I give it a 10/10.

About The Author

Joseph Tierney is a surfer, internet marketer, and a 2005 high school graduate. To view this article with webstat images and a $15 rebate off of SEO Elite, visit SEO Elite Review http://www.cflwaves.com/seoelitereview.htm

This article was posted on August 26, 2005

by Joseph Tierney