Many thanks for the feedback. Since FURL was taken over by Diigo, I anticipate that this will be an argument for not using social bookmarking services. But there are ways of backing up your online bookmarks and there are significant advantages in the ability to share and collaborate on resources in the research environment. I have also heard – far too many times – stories about lost local PC bookmarks because IT decided to upgrade the browsers over the weekend! “Wot? You didn’t back up your vital, essential, if-i-lose-them-i-am-dead bookmarks?”

Karen

I stumbled upon your blog whilst doing some research for my own blog.

Some interesting tools in this post. Some that I already actively use and others I can see a good use for. I also completely agree with using social bookmarking to support search activity. This is something that I have been championing with our internal teams.

Thanks.

For Open Access journals, see also Open J-Gate http://www.openj-gate.com/

Quintura was included in a list of search tools that are offering a different way of searching, analysing and viewing results. I personally love Quintura and, paradoxically, tend to use it when I am working in an area I am already familiar with. The attraction for me is being able to play around with the keyword/tag cloud so that I can get out of a very linear rut and explore other side streets and avenues.

I clicked on the site search link you mentioned and discovered/remembered that I had already registered! Must go back and explore that further.

The other two ‘alternative’ tools that work for me are Kvisu (don’t know why – it must be the way my brain works) and Cluuz for its network map. I use Cluuz when I am researching a company, organisation or person to get a map of the sites, activities and institutions that they are involved with.

I’ll have a look at the Quintura Kids site this evening. May be useful for a presentation I am doing next month.

Please also check Quintura site search via http://affiliates.quintura.com

As well, we have got a special version of Quintura for children, Quintura Kids, on http://kids.quintura.com