Roll your own Anthropology Search Engine

Today I tried out a new search engine that lets you list up to 25 sites and then search just those sites using Yahoo! search. It is called Rollyo.com, and you can search a whole bunch of anthropology related web sites by going to this link.

I really like the idea. The site, however, has some limitations. For instance, you can’t only search a specific portion of a site, you have to search the entire domain. That means if someone has a blog hosted on their university web servers, you have to include the entire university in your search. Still, I think we will soon see more of this kind of thing. Some sites already let you search your blogroll, but those tend to only search the most recent posts – sites like this let you search everything that has been indexed in a large search engine over the years. I can also imagine setting up custom searches that just look at sites related to your research topic, or a class you are teaching. It is important to remember that not everyone has the same skills when it comes to finding information on the web, and this will enable the more sophisticated web-researchers help those who are less adept.

While I’m at it, I should also mention that Savage Minds is at the top of the Technorati list of anthropology related blogs! We are also near the top when using Google’s new blogsearch engine to look for “anthropology.”

PS: The sites I added to the current Rollyo search are just for testing, as the site improves I will try to create more focused lists – perhaps for each subfield. Or you could do that yourself and post the link to the comments!

2 thoughts on “Roll your own Anthropology Search Engine

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