15 | March | 2010 | Advocate's Studio

This is downright crazy! The Next Web (link here) shared this Social Media Cheat Sheet by Drew McLellin (dailybloggr.com – link here) about a week ago. While it doesn’t really simplify the comparison process, it does include an awful lot of information. And you can always resort to the familiar green – good, yellow – proceed with caution, red – WATCH OUT! coding for a quick analysis. Because the Advocate is all about social media, even this crazy chart has its place.

It’s been a while since I talked about getting to “hidden” web documents. I figured it was about time to hit it up again – I like search and just love a good mystery.

The Deep Web (also known as the Invisible Web), for those unfamiliar, is the huge expanse of resources lurking below the reach of traditional search engines. Google’s minions cannot access content protected by passwords, or unfamiliar document extensions, or privately stored information. Over half of the estimated amount of Web content out there is attributed to this relatively untapped Deep Web.

I was prompted by the good people at MakeUsOf, my favorite tech for dummies web site. They just ran this great article compiling some of the current Deep Web diving tools (link here). The tools include Infomine (link here), the product of a consortium of libraries that taps stuff stored in databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and other resources. The WWW Virtual Library (link here) is a venerable collection started by Web Daddy Tim Berners-Lee. Intute (link here) is UK-based and university sponsored, with topical content and human-curated links. Cool add – Intute has 60 free online tutorials on how to improve your internet search skills! Complete Planet (link here) also organizes by topic, promising to uncover hidden web content with advance search filters. Infopedia (link here) should be considered as a curated alternative for Wikipedia – it accesses encyclopedias, almanacs and other reference materials. DeepPeep (link here) offers a deep but transient look at forms across a limited spectrum of subjects. IncyWincy (link here) is a metasearch engine for the Deep Web, with the ability to set alerts. DeepWeb Tech (link here) offers access to five search engines as well as plug-ins, for medicine, science and business information. Scirus (link here) meets your DeepWeb scientific needs. TechXtra (link here) is all about the math.