I’d only just posted 29 Search Tools for Savvy Speechwriters on Friday when I came across a whole new level of info on search tools. I attribute this to the “Green Beemer Phenomena” (you don’t notice green BMW’s on the road until the day after you buy one, then they’re everywhere!).

Andy pointed me to Kris’s listing of tools for the del.icio.us website which then points to a great listing of Quick Online Tips.

I’m continually amazed how these connections work in the blogosphere. Becoming a regular blog reader has allowed me to stumble across all kinds of useful tools, benefit from the knowledge of subject matter experts and gain insight.

As it is, these guys have made me aware of a new generation of search tools which the Savvy Speechwriter can benefit from. Here’s a few pointers to those I found most useful:

Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a “social bookmarking” tool . In other words, it’s a way people share the bookmarks of websites they like. One obvious use would be for communities (such as my NSA/NC Pro-Track class) to share pointers to sites of interest. There’s many ways to use del.icio.us:

1. As a search tool

A delicious search on “Public Speaking” uncovers a fantastic series of links including Public Speaking Do’s and Don’t’s; Toastmaster’s 10 tips for public speaking; UC Berkeley’s guide to more effective public speaking and much, much more.

2. As a window into the links others share

Each listing has a link to all the people who share that ‘tag’ in del.icio.us. The list of Do’s/Don’t’s’ is the most popular – shared by 409 others. Click on that link to see their common “tag cloud” and posting history. Both these are avenues down which you can explore bookmarks of interest to the 409 people who deem it worth bookmarking ‘Public Speaking’. This is akin to looking over the shoulder of a knowledgeable professor in Grad School to see what other sources of information they like.

3. similicio.us

A tool to find similar sites, based on their ranking in Del.icio.us. Example, searching on my home page (exec-comms.com) lists Rob Cottingham, the Washington Post, Slate.com and others. Interesting.

4. Built in Del.icio.us search tools

Rather than first having to access the del.icio.us site, Quick Online Tips let’s you load ‘instant’ search tools in your browser (I filed mine in the ‘Links’ button) that trigger searches by keyword, tag or user. Follow the instructions carefully!

Multiple Search Engine Tools

As I reported last time, it’s worthwhile looking for facts and supporting data via more than one search engine. I rather laboriously listed the way to locate multiple options in Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and others.

It’s no surprise that smarter folk than me have built ‘query once, search everywhere’ tools that greatly simplify this process:

1. Simply Google

Here’s a single screen that lets you search all the Google options at once. It also includes Yahoo, MSN, Ask and others. Just cut n’ paste your search terms and get the results you need from across the search universe.

2. Gahooyoogle / Twingine

Gahooyoogle and Twingine are neat solutions that let’s you enter your search phrase once and then see lists from Yahoo and Google side-by-side.

3. Soople

Soople is a meta-search site that meant for all those who are not yet familiar with all the possibilities of Google and all the required syntaxes. For instance, you can specify a search by one particular site or filetype (word, excel, powerpoint and pdf) or an imagesearch by size and type. Scope the many useful tools Google offers; search the latest news, look up definitions or use Google as a phonebook.