Specialty search engines and specialized book (un)recommendations
Wow. Google is now letting people make their own search engines. Just a few days ago I was trying unsuccessfully to find a specialized search engine only for opera companies and performers and performances; now I can make my own. I wonder if I can get extra credit for my Information Resources and Services class if I build the kind of engine I wanted to use for our latest homework assignment? (Via Carnival of the Infosciences #59 at the Shifted Librarian.)
Also, my new favorite time-sink is LibraryThing’s UnSuggester, which displays "anti-recommendations": if you like book X, you’re very unlikely to read book Y. There’s also a really interesting conversation at the LibraryThing blog about bridging the gaps between non-overlapping groups of readers and deliberately trying to read unsuggested books.
I love the unsuggester. Also, I really like their example of Kant and Shopaholic. Nothing is funnier than jokes that start with Kant! I
I would agree with the suggestions that it would be better if there were an option to limit results to the tags, since I find it a little less satisfying when it comes up with some genre title I’ve never heard of. Still, over all a wonderful idea, and a great procrastination tool.