Feeling Dumbfounded

I'm Google dependent, just like all the rest of you. But I heard about a new search function that's going live today, and I've been checking it out. (Full Disclosure: I heard from a friend here in D.C. who's involved in promoting this search.) The name is catchy--Dumbfind. It doesn't replace Google, and it takes some getting used to, but it seems to allow for better sifting of results for those who know exactly what they're looking for through the use of tags that organize the content, as explained here and here. As a bunch of science geeks, I figured that some of you folks might want to give it a try. Let me know how it works for you.

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I just searched for "magicians toledo oh" All I got was a list of advertising sites. A useless result. Apparantly this isn't for the average user with common need for information. Or I'm too dumb to use it.

By melissa p (not verified) on 25 Jan 2006 #permalink

I'm Google Scholar dependent. It even finds obscure German articles, most immediately downloadable no less. And with citation links. You can get a sense of an entire research area in a one hour session, a process that used to take days or more.

For example, searching for pages related to Riemann's famous lecture Ãber die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen (On the Hypotheses which lie at the Foundations of Geometry) on Google, Google Scholar, and DumbFind, I'd have to say that the choice is clear.

By Steven Thomas Smith (not verified) on 24 Jan 2006 #permalink

Chris,

Apparently, ScienceBlogs' international character set isn't working properly [see the misrendered Ãber (Uber) above, ha-ha]. This is obviously very important for accurate reference to foreign language sources, as well as to headbangers that wish to cite Mötley Crüe, as well as Spinal Tapâunfortunately, n-umlaut and dotless-i cannot be rendered using HTML.

By Steven Thomas Smith (not verified) on 24 Jan 2006 #permalink