Google PowerMeter

Though not strictly reference news, this is green information, and may prove useful for both staff and our customers.

Google has announced their first eight utility partners for their PowerMeter tool, a gadget "that can show consumers their personal electricity consumption right on a home computer" using new smart meters.  

Local utility provider JEA is among the group of initial partners working with Google on this project.  Currently it's available to a limited number of users, but if the pilot program is successful, the service will be expanded to more users next year.

Note:  Thanks Ed for sharing your electrical consumption with us!

The Empire Strikes Back

As we mentioned previously, Wolfram Alpha looks to push the envelope of web searching by going beyond organizing and retrieval of information to computing answers to factual questions, creating what Stephen Wolfram calls a "computational knowledge engine."

Google Labs is working on a project called Google Squared.  The idea is to add structured data to results displayed in spreadsheet form, giving context and meaning to the unstructured information freely floating about the Web.  Blogs Chris Dawson for ZDNet:

...between Wolfram Alpha, Google’s efforts in semantic search, and a host of competitors that will be popping up in this field, we may very well be on the edge of Search 3.0. This is good news for our students, teachers, and library scientists struggling to help our students get the information they want from the billions of pages of junk (and millions of pages of interest) floating around the web.

Rest of article here

Click here for more news results about Google Squared.

New Books in Reference - 5/13/09

The Newberry & Caldecott Awards, 2009 (026.162 Newberry)

Never heard of 'em.  I think they're kind of like the Heisman Trophy, but for college hockey or something.

CQ Researcher 2008 (300 CQ 2008)

Offers detailed and balanced research on controversial topics in each issue.  This bound volume contains the entire collection for 2008.

S&P Security Dealers of North America (332.62 Standard)

The revised 174th edition contains a security dealers directory arranged in "geographical-alphabetical sequence."  Includes three indices:  Firm Name Changes, Discontinued Listings and Location of Investment Firms.

Encyclopedia of the United Nations (341.2303 Moore)

An encyclopedia, the topic being the UN.

TheStreet.com Ratings' Guide to Life and Annuity Insurers (368.32)

The latest quarterly ranking includes six sections:  Index of Companies, Analysis of Largest Companies, Recommended Companies, All Companies by Rating, and Rating Upgrades & Downgrades.

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word & Phrase Origins, 4th ed. (422.03 Hendrickson)

Revised edition includes 2,500 new words and phrase origins.

Warman's Antiques & Collectibles 2010 Price Guide, 43rd ed., incl. DVD (745.1 Warmans)

The latest edition has been updated to reflect currents trends and offer "a fresh, 21st-century perspective to the collecting world."  Includes price guide, full-color pictures for identifying items, a Future of the Markets section for antique investment guidance and a comprehensive guide to art market.  The DVD includes a discussion of fakes and reproductions.

Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog, Vol. 1, A-B (769.56 Scott)

An identification and price guide for philatelics.

Note:  These will be placed in their customary location for previewing; three items do not have spine labels yet, nor have they been added to the catalog, so be sure to return them to the holding area.

Google Search Options

Google is launching a new tool called Search Options.  In it's simplest form, Search Options allows the user to customize how the results are ordered and displayed.  They can be ordered by type (review, image, etc.) and time, among other options:

The Search Options panel also gives you the ability to view your results in new ways. One view gives you more information about each result, including images as well as text, while others let you explore and iterate your search in different ways...We think of the Search Options panel as a tool belt that gives you new ways to interact with Google Search, and we plan to fill it with more innovative and useful features in the future.

This video explains all of the new features, including Timeline and Wonder Wheel:

When A Search Engine Isn't A Search Engine

The other day, I read a story whose headline hailed a new software that would quite possibly "change the Internet forever."  

Jeesh, sounds pretty important.  I'll bite.

The website is WolframAlpha, and the story goes on to suggest that it's significance lies in the fact that the software will be able to communicate in everyday language, rather than computer-speak:

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does....The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly", according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

There are limitations, though, especially when it comes to pop culture:

Wolfram Alpha has been designed with professionals and academics in mind, so its grasp of popular culture is, at the moment, comparatively poor. The term "50 Cent" caused "absolute horror" in tests, for example, because it confused a discussion on currency with the American rap artist. For this reason alone it is unlikely to provide an immediate threat to Google, which is working on a similar type of search engine, a version of which it launched last week.

It's expected to launch in May 2009, which I hope is more accurate than the original "day after Staff Development Day" introduction of the new Workflows.  At any rate, it will be interesting to use and see how this tool affects reference services.