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SearchReSearch

A blog about search, search skills, teaching search, learning how to search, learning how to use Google effectively, learning how to do research. It also covers a good deal of sensemaking and information foraging.

Republished with permission from SearchReSearch
2022 in Review: A year of SearchResearch
December 28, 2022
2022 in Review: A year of SearchResearch
 Once again we're at the close of the year... Sunset over the Pacific with a tiny green flash... and I'm trying to summarize all that happened in SRS as a way of looking back over the year.  It's a bit of a complicated story--we certainl...
Answer: Does animal color and weight change by latitude?
December 21, 2022
Answer: Does animal color and weight change by latitude?
 Colorful tropical birds... Keel-billed Toucan in Belize, Arctic tern in Alaska.  P/C William Walker © 2016, 2010 see: BirdWalker.comLead us to a mystery--don't tropical birds seem much more colorful than the bir...
SearchResearch Challenge (12/14/22): Does animal color and weight change by latitude?
December 14, 2022
SearchResearch Challenge (12/14/22): Does animal color and weight change by latitude?
Colorful tropical birds... Keel-billed Toucan in Belize, Arctic tern in Alaska.  P/C William Walker © 2016, 2010 see: BirdWalker.com... are one of the glories of the avian world.  And I've noticed something odd--don't tropical ...
AI writing systems, a poetic prompt, and The Cyberiad
December 13, 2022
AI writing systems, a poetic prompt, and The Cyberiad
I was reading in the hammock... Image by Parti. Prompt: "Robot swimming in a sea of text" ... in my parents backyard, swinging beneath a guava tree and reading scads of science fiction and old National Geographic magazines.  It was summe...
Answer: How to read other scripts and languages?
December 7, 2022
Answer: How to read other scripts and languages?
It can seem magical... ... when you realize that you have the ability to read another language, especially one that you don't know and in a script that you can't even identify.  But that's what this week's Challenge was all about--a...
SearchResearch Challenge (11/23/22): How to read other scripts and languages?
November 23, 2022
SearchResearch Challenge (11/23/22): How to read other scripts and languages?
 I'm never one to turn down an SRS opportunity... As you can imagine, in the back pocket of my mind I've got 4 or 5 SearchResearch Challenges queued up and ready to go, questing ever onward bringing you the tidbits of knowledge we all need in...
More surprising insights about bat predation
November 22, 2022
More surprising insights about bat predation
 I ended last week's post with this... Once you know that other animals capture and eat bats, you can do a more direct search for them (e.g., [ spider eats bat ]) and get even more articles to expand your range of bat-dining predators, i...
Answer:  Questions about bats–How many? Why do they hang upside down?
November 18, 2022
Answer: Questions about bats–How many? Why do they hang upside down?
 Bats are mysterious...  Greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) P/C C. Robillier, from Wikimedia.... creatures of the night, and you have to admit they have a real PR problem--vampires, high-pitched squeaky noises, their long assoc...
SearchResearch Challenge (11/9/22): Questions about bats–How many? Why do they hang upside down?
November 9, 2022
SearchResearch Challenge (11/9/22): Questions about bats–How many? Why do they hang upside down?
A small bat flittered by me... Greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) P/C C. Robillier, from Wikimedia.... early one summer evening a few weeks ago, flashing in a hinky-jinky flight path across the blueing sky.  Bats have always been creatur...
Answer: A missing building in the park?
November 4, 2022
Answer: A missing building in the park?
 This mysterious space in the park...  What was once here? ... is mysterious no more thanks to the remarkable SRS Regulars!  To remind you of the Challenge for this week...  I was walking through a park in Berkeley (C...
SearchResearch Challenge (10/26/22): A missing building in the park?
October 26, 2022
SearchResearch Challenge (10/26/22): A missing building in the park?
 Blank spaces on maps intrigue me, What was once here? .. as do blank spaces on the land.  More than a few SRS Challenges have centered on attempting to find out what happened here--this week's is in that category--what happened her...
Answer 2: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in other places?
October 19, 2022
Answer 2: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in other places?
 Let's wrap this up...  Side comment:  Why so long between posts?  Answer: In addition to my regular gig at Google as a research scientist, I'm ALSO teaching a class at Stanford University on "Human-Computer Interaction & A...
Answer 1: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in other places?
October 5, 2022
Answer 1: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in other places?
 Another way...  As I mentioned last time, there are multiple ways to think about answering this question.  I'll give one way today, and then ANOTHER answer later this week.  (I promise that next week we'll move to another Chal...
Hint 2: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in other places?
September 30, 2022
Hint 2: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in other places?
   Let's think about this some more...   This is such a rich topic that I'm going to break my answer up into multiple posts.  Here's the first with the simplest way to use Wikidata.  1. Can you find a way to...
September 21, 2022
Hint: Can you find the characters from Moby Dick in other places?
  Let's think about this... I've been enjoying reading all of the comments on the post, watching as people try different search strategies to get at this question.  (A general comment--they're mostly pretty good!  Nice job, SRS...
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About the Author

Dan RussellDan Russell

I study the way people search and research. I guess that makes me an anthropologist of search. I am FIA's Future-ist in Residence. More »

Recent News

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    Deepfakes and the Future of FactsSeptember 27, 2019
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    The Joy of Search: A Google Insider’s Guide to Going Beyond the BasicsSeptember 26, 2019
  • The Future of Facts in a ‘Post-Truth’ World
    The Future of Facts in a ‘Post-Truth’ WorldMay 15, 2018
  • The Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive Storytelling
    The Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality and Immersive StorytellingJune 6, 2017

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