Powerful Universal Search Engine Makes Scientific Research Easy to Find
Scientists across the world now have access to a powerful new tool not just to present their research, but also to have it discovered by a global audience. No longer do researchers or smaller labs have to worry about their hard work going unnoticed by other scientists, or have to feel restricted to print journals to communicate their ideas. ScienceStage.com has recently unveiled its universal search engine and recommender system, which intelligently link all scientific multimedia content found both on its website and on external scientific databases. Science 2.0 is entering the orbit of Web 3.0.
"Now while you are watching a video of a lecture or a demonstration of a particular surgical procedure, our recommender system will automatically generate lists of related content," says Heiko Krüger, CEO and founder of ScienceStage. "Not only will users be able to find videos related to the one they are watching, they will also see links to like-minded users, groups, podcasts, and even research documents that are indexed from major open-access databases such as PubMed and CiteSeer."
The new universal search function at ScienceStage unifies user searches for multimedia content. This is a big improvement over current methods of searching for scientific information in the large crowd of science-oriented online media, which require sifting through various websites for different kinds of content. ScienceStage creates a hub of information, as its slogan suggests, where a broad search can be performed from one convenient location.
Scientists can even upload their own content and share it with their peers. This is especially important for researchers who might find themselves geographically isolated or further away from the more prominent centers of research.
"How can we assist nurse managers and front-line physicians taking a stab at clinical research for the first time and who want to present their work in an audiovisual fashion without being referred to YouTube (which is often blocked by hypervigilant IT guys in hospital/corporate settings in any case)," asks Hope Leman, who is a research information technologist for a health network in Oregon and also Web administrator of the grants and scholarship listing service, ScanGrants www.scangrants.com. ScienceStage "is an ideal launching pad for those with valuable information to convey, but who don't happen to be on staff at Harvard Medical School or blessed with the services of the University of Pennsylvania. Yes, there are brilliant people in small hospitals and elsewhere outside the Ivy League."
Launched in September, 2008, ScienceStage http://sciencestage.com is a science-oriented multimedia portal that specializes in online video streaming, which is used to support communication between scientists, scholars, researchers in industry, and professionals. According to Krueger, "We developed ScienceStage in order to level the field and fill a major gap in knowledge transfer. We give researchers all over the world an even chance to showcase, share, and network their ideas on a global stage."