metasearch

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Back in April, I shared a private invite to those of you who were following me on Twitter. Anytime I stumble across new websites, or get invites to pass out for something new, I try to pass them along right away. Even though you may think you have enough websites already, you really need to check this one out.

Read more on Is This the World’s Best Metasearch Site?…

From Rickie Dickie, a passionate OPMLer - pointing out that grazr makes TagJag OPML much more usable on-demand:

Here's a TagJag / grazr mashup smart bookmarklet for Firefox (right-click and add this link to your Bookmarks). Written as a smartlet - but JUST in case you don't know what that is, you name the bookmark keyword to something like "tags" and then in the address bar type "tags gnomedex" to browse TagJag's OPML for that keyword in grazr. I posted HTML embedding script; check out grazr's site for particulars.

The equiv favelet (bookmarklet) for either IE or Firefox would be something like this:

This favelet is written to work like this:

Read more on TagJag in Firefox...

Until a few more legal loopholes get closed, I won't be able to expand much further upon the whole "I'm offering you a stake in TagJag" concept; I'd rather underpromise and overdeliver on this idea. I'm on the lookout for some kind of hip lawyer who can help us get it wrapped up. It's a community-building effort, so I'm hoping to find someone who understands what that means. I should probably talk to Buzz and/or Denise, eh? No matter, I have to show you a couple of emails before I explain why I did what I did with Brad, Jeff, and Rick (the VCs) at Gnomedex.

Read more on Happy TagJag’ed Publishers...

Don't expect every one of these searches to yeild results, though. The output was generated by a single OPML file and the Optimal OPML WordPress Plugin. Looking for other easy ways to display the OPML from Gada.be right now. Hell, entirely new sites could be built on top of the OPML we produce - much like RSS, it's a poor man's API.

Read more on Over 300 Tag Searches in One Spot...

Okay, I'm not making this up, folks: Ask.com's RSS Search isn't outputting RSS properly. Actually, it is and was - according to the RSS 2.0 spec, the link element is completely optional - though I must admit this was the first time we had encountered an RSS 2.0 feed that lacked the link element altogether. I completely stand corrected As with any Web service that outputs RSS for search queries, I immediately integrated it into Gada.be results. You'll certainly find Ask.com listed on Gada.be today, but the links to results aren't working properly (a discovery pointed out by a few of our regular users). I looked at the source, and it seemed normal to me. When Shayne went to troubleshoot it this morning, he came up with an amazingly ironic discovery: "This may sound stupid, but when I tried to filter Ask.com to work using my methods... I came to find out, they're not putting a <link> node in their RSS!!!" Okay, now that's just too funny. ROTFLMAO funny. No, what's funny is that I didn't realize the link element was optional - because to me, it would seem to be obligatory, and I can't help but wonder if other news aggregators had issues with Ask.com RSS feeds. I'll be sending a note to my friends at Ask.com immediately, as I can't imagine this being a difficult fix. Wasn't really a fix, but they did update it to include the link element rather quickly - speaking to the dedication and understanding that's happening behind the scenes over there. There ya go - Gada.be makes for an excellent troubleshooting tool sometimes (as it also discovered feed discrepancies in MSN's feeds a few months ago). Boo-ya! Here's a screen shot for posterity. Just to show I'm not completely nuts - only partially. If it's possible to be right and wrong at the same time, I did it.

Read more on Ask.com RSS Search – NOT!...

I needed to do this sooner or later, so I've revamped our About page with the following sections, outlining Gada.be cases for eight types of users: Enthusiast, Mobile, Developer, Business, Casual, Researcher, Jobseeker, and Shopper. I'd consider this a comprehensive list, but I'm sure there are a few usage points and user types I missed. The About page also now includes an extensive list of Gada.be's resounding credibility in the blogosphere. The reasons for pointing out our supportive features will become evident to you in the Gnomedex timeframe. Do you have a usage case for Gada.be? Read more on Is Gada.be for You?...