The Ask.com web search now looks for RSS feeds related to a search query. If it finds a relevant one, it links to its three most recent items. All this takes place at the top of the returns page, and below it the other returns are listed as usual. For example, search for open access (or open access news or peter suber) and the three most recent posts from OAN will appear at the top of the page. If a publisher, like the National Academies Press, has an RSS feed, then a search for it (national academies press or even nap) returns the three most recent items from its feed. (Thanks to Gary Price.)
For this feature, Ask defaults to the one most relevant feed on a topic. But if you want to see more than one feed for that topic, then simply click on the "Blogs & Feeds" tab at the top of the page, where three sub-tabs let you choose among "Posts", "Feeds", and "News". Click "Feeds" to see Ask's list of OA-related feeds.
Comment. This is an elegant way to make use of something useful. All RSS feeds are OA, and there are valuable ones on a rapidly growing number of topics. While blogs are impossible to overlook these days, RSS feeds still rank high on the list of best-kept secrets about the free and easy exchange of information. There are some very good blog- and RSS-specific search engines, but users who don't know much about RSS feeds are not likely to seek them out. Ask is making them visible to new users and thereby increasing the visibility of the information they contain.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/25/2006 08:43:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
