Google released a new search engine called Google Scholar Nov. 18 to help academic researchers find reliable information online.
Google is targeting this tool at scientists and academic researchers who wish to access scholarly journals, books, peer-reviewed papers and abstracts. It is still unknown how much information the service will make available.
"Google as a company has greatly benefited from academic research and this is one of the ways we can give back to the community," the engine's creator, Anurag Acharya, told The New York Times. He said he also wanted to make information retrieved from searches more up-to-date than the sources he usually found in scholarly research.
Google Scholar, which is available at scholar.google.com, works just like the standard Google search engine. It displays search results with the most relevant articles at the beginning of the list. The order of relevance is based on the analysis of the full text of each article and takes into account the article's author and publication date. Citations of older works appear in separate search results.
Despite the breadth of Google's search abilities, AU librarian Patricia Wand said she does not think the tool will drive AU students away from Bender Library.
"I suspect people will use it for their initial searching on a scholarly topic," Wand said. "After they exhaust the Google sources or once they find a particular aspect of the topic they wish to pursue in more depth, they will go to their library to seek additional sources. ... There are so many other sources of information that are available besides those accessed through Google."
Students said that the new search engine will be helpful.
Candace Hetchler, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said it is a good idea.
"I always rely on Google to find anything I need ... this will be a great program," Hetchler said. "However, I think they should be careful to make sure that the wealth of information stays inexpensive, if not completely free, to draw the crowds."
As of now, searches are free of the text advertisements found in regular Google searches. However, that is likely to change, as scientific-oriented ads could yield a big payback.
John Sack, director of Stanford University's HighWire Press, said such advertising could be profitable.
"An advertisement that goes next to an article on cloning techniques is probably going to be for services that are pretty expensive," he told The New York Times.
