Internet Research Project

Name of and link to the tool: inSuggest

Summary or description of the tool: inSuggest is a search engine that does exactly that- suggests websites, images, and helps the user bookmark relevant information. inSuggest gives recommendations on where to find relevant websites or images based on information entered by the user. Results are based on user opinions from fellow inSuggest users. inSuggest neatly organizes search results with a large thumb-nail picture preview to the left of a short summary of the website as well as tag words.

Strengths: useful for bookmarking when using with del.icio.us account, neatly organized search results, good search recommendations

Weaknesses: does not search keywords easily, poor images results

Search engines, directories, and other applications searched: inSuggest has the ability to search the web, images, or to search your personal bookmarks via del.icio.us. Using it in accordance with del.icio.us is a good way to save time and find relevant resources based on a pre-determined list of bookmarks.

Databases: inSuggest can be used in accordance with de.lici.ous.

Operators: It is easiest to use a webiste, or bookmark, that is useful to the research topic and to find related resources that way. inSuggest did not work as well when searching using keywords.

Case sensitivity: I did not find a high level of case sensitivity.

Stop words:

Advanced search function: I did not find an advacned search function.

Limits: inSuggest is limited because it is based on suggesting additional resources, meaning that it is not necessarily meant to "find" new resources, rather it is meant to find related resources that might be useful.

Sorting: You can bookmark websites in your de.licio.us account and use those bookmarks to sort through results using inSuggest.

Display: The display is nice and neat, it gives the user a concise view of the websites in their search results. When putting the mouse over a result, it becomes larger and more visible.

Help function: There is a tutorial labelled "how it works" in the lower right-hand corner that gives a quick run-down of how to navigate inSuggest and what to expect.

Special features: inSuggest has the feature of dragging relevant websites to the top of the page, and it then pulls up a new list of websites also favored by users who liked the initial site. This is useful because it allows the user to save the website and come back to it, and the search results, easy is needed.