Microsoft have launched Windows Live Academic (beta), a potential
competitor to Google Scholar (http://academic.live.com/). It covers peer
reviewed articles on computer science, physics, electrical engineering
and related subjects and boasts more than 6 million records from
approximately 4300 journals and 2000 conferences.
The initial version is limited to computer science, electrical
engineering and physics from scholarly societies, but content from other
subject areas are promised. Unlike Google, Microsoft does provide a
source list at http://academic.live.com/journals
This service is very much "beta" and I suspect that Microsoft is putting
down their marker to say "Google are not the only ones doing this". Gary
Price has published an excellent overview of the service together with
comments at
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/04/microsoft-launches-academic-search.html
I like the sort options (relevance, date - newest and oldest, author,
journal and conference) but search does not reflect this structure.
Unless I have missed something, the only option that I can see is
keyword. When I am searching this type of literature I often want limit
my search by author. I may also want to limit the search by date. None
of these options are currently available. I do like the way the results
are presented, though. The left hand side of the screen lists your
results. When you move your mouse over one of the results the right hand
side of the screen displays title, abstract, author(s) and the
bibliographic details.
Although the search results and bibliographic details are free, you must
either have a subscription to the journal or pay on a per-article basis
to access the full text via the publishers web site.
This is a beta service but there is no feedback option on the search or
results pages. It is only on the FAQ page that they give you an email
address that you can use for comments- [log in to unmask]
It will be interesting to see how this service develops.
--
Karen Blakeman, UKeiG Management Committee
mailto:[log in to unmask]
t: +44 118 947 2256 f: +44 20 8020 0253 m: +44 7764 936733
88 Star Road, Caversham, Berkshire, RG4 5BE
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