Bringing it all Together...

When it comes to remembering all the different options for online searching, news, image and video sites, etc., it's hard to know if you are using all the relevant sites. I have been introduced to InfoDesk, and it is AWESOME! Any feeds that you are currently receiving from Factiva, Nexis, RSS, Google Alerts, etc., can all be managed through InfoDesk. And, they are an aggregator - not like Alacra where you are charged per article or database you access.

The options are endless...do you want to pull together all the technology news you are receiving from Nexis, Factiva, CNN.com, RSS alerts, and the like? Do you want to create newsletters quickly with all the most pertinent information for your constituents? Are you having trouble with maintaining feeds on your SharePoint webparts (you can't modify what is put on the part or how many articles are added to the widget?)?

Here comes InfoDesk!

A competitor to this product might be Alacra - but really, it's not. They don't have the capability to aggregate feeds from multiple sources, or provide newsletter templates...and they charge per viewing - not so with InfoDesk! NewsEdge, a big name in the early 00's, was the head cheese when it came to this technology, but InfoDesk has ripped that title right off their head.

I love InfoDesk.

Thank you for understanding what Librarians need. Why have I never heard of you before?

This gets me thinking and wanting to share some other "all in one" sites with you. They are NOTHING like InfoDesk, but they are places to start when you want to use mulitple sources for searching.

I think Intelways does a really good job at pulling many different options together for certain subjects of interest and providing appropriate sites to use. While it's definitely not a comprehensive list, it's a good place to start a search if you're not sure where to go.

If you want to find a web 2.0 application for a specific subject, or if you just want to browse all the amazing sites, Go2Web20.com

Another one I like is Silobreaker

Another fun search engine that I like that is refereed (not by librarians, per se) is Mahalo. I've been unimpressed by Mahalo in the past few months. I would put it at the end of your list of where to go, but still a site to keep an eye out for.