--- Begin Forwarded Message --- Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 10:05:43 -0700 From: Bill Thoen <[log in to unmask]> Subject: "Deep web" and "Invisible web" sites for GIS? Sender: Bill Thoen <[log in to unmask]> I've seen it written recently that the big search engines (Google, Alta Vista, Lycos, etc.) can only search about 1/500th of today's web content. Much of what's out there is either too recent, too deep, too esoteric, or stored in unsearchable formats (PDF, mutli-media, etc.) to be indexed by these big engines. However, a new breed of specialty "web mining" servers is beginning to emerge (e.g. http://www.google.com/unclesam for US govt info, http://searchpdf.adobe.com for PDF file searches, and http://www.ditto.com for images, to name a few.) I'm looking for sites that specialize in indexing websites of particular interest to people who "do GIS" for a living. Odden's (http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.html) is a good example of the kind of sites I'm looking for (deep, broad, high-quality, searchable, constantly updated, and specialized in GIS-related area.) A couple of others have come to light since I asked this question on GISlist. These are "The Ultimate GIS Search Engine" at http://search.geocomm.com, "The Maps & GIS INFOMINE Search Screen" at http://infomine.ucr.edu/search/mapssearch.phtml, and the GIS Master Bibliography, now managed by ESRI at http://campus.esri.com/campus/library/bibliography/ Does anyone here have any additional suggestions for other notable sites of interest to the GIS community? These sites have to be good for locating the most obscure or interesting info inside GIS. They can even be general servers that are good for ferreting out information about business or financial activity (that can be applied to GIS companies or the industry), or for searching obscure journals, bibliographies or data sets. Where do you go for info when someone asks you to find endangered species habitat spatial data for the proposed Prairie Palace flagpole subdivision in Sprawl, CO? Or where can one search the academic papers on the current state of the art in spatial indexing (what ever happened to GBT, for example?) Who online does the best job of delivering current (or useful, or interesting) news and analysis on the GIS industry? Where do you turn to first when you want to find out something? I'm also open to opinions of where the research libraries stand compared to the 'net, too. When you need an oracle, where do you turn? Basically, I'm looking for the best search strategies that GIS/mapping researchers use and the top-level sites they start with for a "deep dive" into the 'net. I'll summarize responses (unless you ask to be left anonymous), so feel free to email me directly. TIA, - Bill Thoen ------------------------------------------------------------ GISnet, 1401 Walnut St., Suite C, Boulder, CO 80302 tel: 303-786-9961, fax: 303-443-4856 mailto:[log in to unmask], http://www.ctmap.com/gisnet ------------------------------------------------------------ --- End Forwarded Message ---