Apture gives users the power to search and explore rich content without leaving the current webpage, blog, VLE etc.

• Install instantly;
• free for publishers and users;
• Used by the New York Times, Financial Times, Reuters, and thousands of sites - including mine at http://www.acljohn.com/.

Apture is changing the web browser experience. Apture’s award-winning products enable instantaneous access to information with its in-page search technology. Apture’s products not only l...

All pictures on Ookaboo are available free under public domain or Creative Commons and can be used on web sites and for coursework and other creative projects.

Ookaboo is an intelligent image search engine that uses the Semantic Web API to intelligently categorize your results.

Visitors can also browse topics...

• that have been searched recently; or
  
• that are most popular.
  

Images can be viewed in up to 4 different sizes and the provided HTML code allows users to directly li...

Qwiki...

• has just opened its doors to the general public after refining its system during closed beta;

• is a web application that will change the way most of us search and consume information.

"Qwiki's goal is to forever improve the way people experience information."

In a sense, Qwiki is both a search engine and a curator for Wikipedia entries – and much more.

It will...

• help visitors search for specific information;
• collect the results in a visual list; and
  
• create a ...

I'm not sure if those of you working with learners, in Functional Skills for example, are aware that Google search will now yield results by reading level.

Users can check out search results that are designated either basic, intermediate or advanced.

• Go to http://www.google.co.uk;
• Click on 'Advanced Search' (on the far right)
  
• On the dialogue box that opens, enter a search term (as normal)
  
• In the 'Need more Tools?' Section (see image below)...
  • open the 'Reading Level:' drop down m...

Why scrap a perfectly useful catalogue system if it will work with the latest advancements?

Dewey Digger is an interesting attempt to catalogue the web according to the Dewey Decimal System.

To use Dewey Digger just...

• click on a Dewey Decimal category;
• select a topic in that category; Dewey Digger presents twenty-seven sources of information;
• Click on any of the provided sources to see...
  • articles;
  • videos; and
  • images on your chosen topic.

Dewey Digger could be a nic...

Dulcinea Media, host of the academic search engine Sweet Search <http://www.sweetsearch.com/>, has a new free offering for family learning and other practitioners and learners called Sweet Search 2 Day.

Sweet Search 2 Day is a one page stop for good, up to date, web content for...

• history,
  
• language arts,
  
• science,
  
• news,
  
• culture and
  
• other topics.

Visitors to Sweet Search 2 Day will find engaging content, cartoons and image galleries, that are safe for learning envi...

Google Image Swirl is an image search tool intended to help users visually refine and alter their searches for images.

To use Image Swirl...

• enter search term;the results of the search will be displayed in a grid similar to that with which users are probably familiar.

• Click any image in the grid and a 'swirl' of more, related, images will appear

• Click an image in the swirl and another swirl of images will appear etc., until a single image is located.

On the iFaceSearch homepage users will...

• find a text bar;
• enter the name;and
• Click on the "Let's Search" button...

A percentage of the search results will be irrelevant as there is more than one person with a given name.

Note: iFaceSearch can display the data in four views:

• Image Flow,
  
• Classic,
  
• HD, or
  
• Low-res.
  

Users can se...

TinEye is a reverse image search engine.

Users can upload an image to TinEye to...

• find out where it came from;
• how it is being used;
• if modified versions of the image exist; or
  
• find higher resolution versions

TinEye claims to be the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks; it is free to use for non-commercial searching.

The URL <http://www.manuals-search-pdf.com/> of the site is something of misnomer - here users will be able to look up far more than PDFs.

On the UFO Search Engine website users will be able to locate DOC, PPT and XLS files.

All users have to do is...

• specify a title of an eBook they are interested in, and
• the results will be displayed for them to choose from.

Imagelogr is a search engine for images.

The objectives of Imagelogr are to...

• index every image currently available for free on the Internet; and
  
• make them instantly accessible to anybody;
• offer image manipulation capabilities so users can modify the selected picture in a way that they see fit, including...
  • the ability to rotate images on the fly;
  • zoom in and out without having to re-size the entire website in order to achieve the desire effect;
• enable users to download and save the s...

Mashpedia is...

• a combination of a search engine and an encyclopedia; 
  
• very simple to use; just type in a search query and hit search.

Mashpedia generates a page of information links about the search topic, collecting information from multiple media and different sources from...

• books;
• blogs;
• text;
• images;
• video; and even
• Twitter references.

Mashpedia is a great tool for creating reading and research tasks for learners, based around authentic materials. It creates web based reading tasks t...

There are many search engines on the web that focus on accuracy and relevancy even though that sometimes means displaying inappropriate and explicit content.

I'mHalal is a search engine design for the Muslim community that filters out all the ‘explicit’ content when displaying the search results.

This allows users, and they don't have to be Muslim, to use the internet in a clean and safe environment.

I'mHalal is still in relatively early stages it...

• is available in the followin...

Currently in public beta, RefSeek is a web search engine for learners and researchers that I mentioned during 2009.

Since then, RefSeek has been building some excellent lists of resources for practitioners and learners.

They include, among other things...

• 25 educational video sites;
• A directory of writing and grammar resources and
• A list of professional development resources for teachers. 

Find out more by visiting http://www.refseek.com/directory/.

Are you and/or your learners interested in knowing what foreign language websites have to offer?

Then ForiSearch should be checked out.

This simple online foreign image or video search tool lets users enter a search term, in their native language, and then find images and videos from a different selected language.

ForiSearch is very easy to use...

• enter search keywords
• choose whether to look for images or videos
• choose a language to get back search results

Keitor is an interesting site that offers learners a useful way to type and search Google in their native language.

The homepage of Keitor lets learners activate virtual keyboards for different languages around the world. The list currently has 37 different languages from...

• Albanian to Uzbec_latin

Click on a tab and a virtual keyboard of the selected language pops up on the screen. It can be...

• Dragged anywhere on the page
• Used to enter a query...
  
  • Hit search and users get results fr...

Hilary Thomas, our HE Adviser, brought  C-LINK to the RSC Team's attention.

"C-LINK  is new search tool for for finding related and possibly unknown concepts that lie on a path between two known concepts."

In their own words...

"Knowledge repositories proliferate at an accelerating rate. While these offer excellent support for specific information searches, there is limited support for unstructured browsing or semi-structured information gathering, when a user does not...

What is Microsoft Academic Search?

Microsoft Academic Search is a free academic search engine developed by Microsoft Research Asia, and it is also a test-bed for their object-level vertical search research. Driven by the latest search engine technology, Microsoft Academic Search enables users to not only find papers but to discover more information that goes beyond simple query results.

With Microsoft Academic Search, users can...

• Locate top research papers
• Find...
  • top scientists,
  • confe...

Google Labs have just announced Fast Flip:

"Google Fast Flip is a web application that lets users discover and share news articles. It combines qualities of print and the Web, with the ability to "flip" through pages online as quickly as flipping through a magazine. It also enables users to follow friends and topics, discover new content and create their own custom magazines around searches."

Radio Locator can...

• help foreign language practitioners find radio broadcasts that they can use in their classrooms for learner listening exercises.
• be useful for social studies practitioners who would like to bring the sounds of other cultures into their classrooms.

Radio Locator, formerly the MIT List of Radio Stations on the Internet, is a search engine that helps users locate radio stations that are broadcasting on the Internet. Users can find radio stations by U...

DeeperWeb is a free search engine tool for Google users that allows navigating through search results by employing Tag Cloud techniques. 

Technologies such as Topic-Mapping methods are also  implemented to assist users in identifying relevant results upon a specific topic.

There is a tutorial available at http://www.deeperweb.com/help/tutorial-howto.php.

Visit http://www.deeperweb.com/ to try it out.