Music Search

Midomi is a service which allows you to do music retrieval by humming (query by humming)!

Unfortunelty I don't have the equipment to do this either at home or at work, but it does have a search button, so I tried the usual dataset on that:

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

Some searches found the relevant albums, pretty well all the relevant song were found. Seemed to work quite well. Wish I could try the query-by-humming though....

Posts in the series are available here.

Film Search

The Internet Movie Database (or IMDb for short) provides information on films either past, present or future productions.

Heres some searches for a few films with one actor (David Bowie in that guise):

• David Bowie the man who fell to earth (search produces exact result).


• David Bowie merry christmas mr lawrence (first match is approximate, and relevant).


• David Bowie the hunger. (no relevant results on list)


• 300 (first hit item is relevant).


• brazil (first hit item is relevant).


• citizen kane (first hit itme is relevant).


• decadence (very ambiguous an exploratory query, most hits would be relevant in some way).


• watchmen (2nd hit under exact match on title).

Overall its a very useful service and I use it all time. The results list comes back with all kinds of results produced in different ways, so in general you can pretty well find what you want.

Posts in the series are available here.

Video Search

Veoh is an online video website with search facilities. You can also search channels, groups and people for videos. Like other video websites (YouTube, JumpCut) it provides facilities for you to upload your videos. Lets see how we do with the 'Berlin Bowie' query set (on videos).

• David Bowie Low. (no relevant results)


• David Bowie "Heroes" (first hit was song).


• David Bowie lodger (hitlist looks the same as Low).


• Iggy Pop lust for life (no relevant results).


• David Bowie the man who sold the world. (no relevant results)


• David Bowie hunky dory (hitlist looks the same as Low).


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane (slightly different results from Low i.e. different order, but still nothing relevant).


• David Bowie ziggy stardust (first result presented is relevant).

The results on these searches is generally very disappointing, if this is anything to go by then YouTube doesn't need to fear much about the competition!

Posts in the series are available here.

Video Search

JumpCut is a website which allows people to create videos and upload them for searching. This appears very different from YouTube (a service I use all the time) in that the users create most of the content (rather than post content from third party sources e.g. music video's).

The results on the 'Bowie Berlin' query set are therefore interesting:

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

None of the searches brought back any video's of relevance to me, and many of the hitlists look very much the same. Each hit records the views, plus love's, clearly a mechanism for obtaining relevance from the user. Probably used in recommendations. Service appeared a little slow on some of the searches, I had to start a couple again.

Posts in the series are available here.

Mobile Search

Taptu is a search engine that presents results in a format acceptable to a mobile phone. They have a very simple interface for a mobile phone.

Search can be done on the following sources: All, Images, Videos, Music, Web, Artists, Blog Posts, Desktop Web, Movie Info, News Stories, Song lyrics, Songs, Travel Guides, Videos, Wikipedia.

One thing that is clear here, it doesn't use location or contextual information to refine the search as yet, its just a search for a mobile phone.

Here's some results on he 'Bowie Berlin' query set:

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

The result is generally in there somewhere (note: all searches were done on the desktop).

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Mixes

ccMixer is community web site which allows its users to create some 'new wine in old bottles' i.e. create new music from already existing music. All music is available under the Creative Commons license, which is nice. There should be more sites like these for other information or data.

It allows search for music, but that's not the focus. Searching the web site appears to be a simple string pattern match, and it really doesn't work that well from what I can see.

If you are an artist, then there are a number of ways to search for music largely by browsing (i.e. tag cloud).

(h/t: Lawrence Lessig)

Geographical Web Search

I suspect everybody has used 'local search' on Google Maps at some stage or other, but its not the only type of search you can find on the web.

Here's a list of services I have so far:

Placeopedia - Geolocates wikipedia articles.
Wikimapia - searches user descriptions of places and displays the results on a map.

I tried the search terms strawberry fields. Search didn't work on Wikimapi :(
- so I tried random place, so it does have data!

Both of these services are using Google Maps.

I've put these on one page, but will add more Web Search services of this type as I find them or people send them to me.


Posts in the series are available here.

Spanish Web Search

In a recent article in the Communications of the ACM, I picked up some URL's for non-English including Spanish.

Here's a list of Search Engines I gleaned from that article:

Quepasa (appears more like an online community - very slow!)
Orange

I tried the query spain european champions. Orange appears to index UK pages as well.

I've put these on one page, but will add more Web Search services of this type as I find them or people send them to me.

References

Chung, W. (2008). Web searching in a Multilingual World. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp 32-40.

Posts in the series are available here.

Chinese Web Search

In a recent article in the Communications of the ACM, I picked up some URL's for non-English including Chinese.

Here's a list of Search Engines I gleaned from that article:

Baidu
Yam
Timway (very slow)
Sina (looks more like a portal, difficult to see the search button).

Given the nearness of the olympics, I tried that as a search term on all of these services. Did seem to come up with some useful results, with English and Chinese words mixed in together.

I've put these on one page, but will add more Web Search services of this type as I find them or people send them to me.

References

Chung, W. (2008). Web searching in a Multilingual World. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp 32-40.

Posts in the series are available here.

Arabic Web Search

In a recent article in the Communications of the ACM, I picked up some URL's for non-English including Arabic.

Here's a list of Search Engines I gleaned from that article:

Weyak
Albawaba (service overloaded when I tried)
Ayna

I can't write Arabic so can't do any web searching which makes any sense, but typing in 'manchester utd' yields some interesting results. When you type in queries to Ayna, the characters are displayed on the right hand side, rather than left (Arabic characters go from right to left, rather than left to right in European languages). Trying 'dtu retsehcnam' is fun! It actually brings back some kind of result, but I don't understand it.

I've put these on one page, but will add more Arabic Web Search services as I find them or people send them to me.

References

Chung, W. (2008). Web searching in a Multilingual World. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp 32-40.

Posts in the series are available here.

Monday Blues Cure

Continuing my current theme on David Bowie, here's a track from 'Low' one of the 'Berlin Trilogy' Albums:



Nice video, found it on youtube with the query "david bowie sound and vision"

More from this source of the next few weeks.

British Dialect Translator

Whoohoo is a website with a number of tranlators for different British dialects, with an emphasis on humour. Translators include Ali G, Cockney Ryming Slang, Irish, Scouse, Yorkhire Chicken Run, Brummie, Geordie, Scottie and Jolly Well Spoken. You can add words to the translator, put it on your web site, translate emails and get Ali G texts (if you really want them).

Here's the translation of a paragraph from a review paper I'm currently in the process of writing with some colleages.

Original Paragraph
There is a significant amount of discussion in the literature about information retrieval curricula, for the main disciplines of concern, library & information science and computer science. The themes in curricula have two focus points: what is to be studied (delivery) and what knowledge/skills the student will have when they have completed the required study (outcomes). Using these focus points we examine the general influence from pedagogy on IR curricula, the issue of interdisciplinarity, the role of professional and accrediting bodies in the development of IR curricula and the development of the subject in both main disciplines.

Ali G Translation
Dere iz da significant amount hof discussion in da literature about informashun retrieval curricula, fe da main disciplines hof concern, library & informashun science an' poota science. da themes in curricula as two focus points: wus to be studied (delivery) an' wot knowledge/skills da student iz gonna as whun dey as completed da required bone (outcomes). usin' dees focus points we chek da general influence from pedagogy on ir curricula, da issue hof interdisciplinarity, da role hof professional an' accreditin bodies in da development hof ir curricula an' da development hof da subject in both main disciplines.

Cockney Ryming Slang
There is a significant amount of discussion in the bloomin' literature abaht information retrieval curricula, for the main disciplines of concern, library & information science and Charles Fox o' bits science. the themes in curricula 'ave Bo-le Of Glue focus points: wot is ter be studied (delivery) and wot knowledge/skills the student will 'ave chicken pen they 'ave completed the required study (outcomes). usin' these focus points we examine the general influence from pedagogy on ir curricula, the issue of interdisciplinarity, the role of professional and accreditin' bodies in the development of ir curricula and the development of the subject in bof main disciplines.

Irish
Dare is a significant amount av discussion in de literature aboyt informashun retrieval curricula, for de main disciplines av concern, library & informashun science an' computer science. de themes in curricula 'av two focus points: waaat is ter be studied (delivery) an' waaat knowledge/skills de student 'ill 'av whaen they 'av completed de required study (outcomes). usin' dees focus points we examine de general influence from pedagogy on ir curricula, de issue av interdisciplinarity, de role av professional an' accreditin' bodies in de development av ir curricula an' de development av de subject in both main disciplines.

Scouse
Thuz is a significant amount o' discussion in de litiate about information retrieval cricula, fe de main disciplines o' concern, library & information science and computi science. de themes in cricula 'uv two focus points: wa' is ter be studied (delivery) and wa' knowledge/skills de student wul 'uv whun dee 'uv boxed off de required study (outcomes). us'n deez focus points we squidge de general influence from pedagogy ed ir cricula, de issue o' intidisciplinarity, de role o' professional and accredit'n bodies in de development o' ir cricula and de development o' de subject in both main disciplines.

Yorkshire Chicken Run
Ther's eur significant amount o' discussion int' literature abaht information retrieval curriculeur, fert meeam disciplines o' concern, library & information science 'n comp-yoo-teh science. t' themes i' curriculeur av twoa focus points: wha' is ta be studied (delivery) 'n wha' knowledge/skills t' student will av when thee av completed t' required study (ahtcomes). usin these focus points we examine t' general influence fra pedagogy on ir curriculeur, t' issue o' interdisciplinarity, t' role o' professional 'n accreditin bodies int' development o' ir curriculeur 'n t' development o' t' subject i' both meeam disciplines.

Brummier
The'er is a significant amount of discussion in the literature abart information retrieval curricula, fer the main disciplines of concern, library & information science an' computer science. the themes in curricula yav tewthree focus points: what is ter be studoid (delivery) an' what knowledge/skills the student wull yav when they yav completed the required study (outcomes). usen these focus points we examine the general influence frum pedagogy on ir curricula, the issue of interdisciplinarity, the role of professional an' accrediten bodoys in the development of ir curricula an' the development of the subject in both main disciplines.

Geordie
Thor's a significant amount iv discussion in the literature abyeut information retrieval curricula, fo' the main disciplines iv concern, library & information science an' computor science. the themes in curricula hev twa focus points: wot is tuh be studeed (delivery) an' wot knowledge/skills the student will hev when the' hev completed the required study (outcomes). usin these focus points wuh examine the general influence from pedagogy on ir curricula, the issue iv interdisciplinarity, the role iv professional an' accreditin bodies in the development iv ir curricula an' the development iv the subject in both main disciplines.

Scottie
Thaur is a significant amoont ay discussion in th' literature abit information retrieval curricula, fur th' main disciplines ay concern, library & information science an' computer science. th' themes in curricula hae tois focus points: whit is tae be studied (delivery) an' whit knowledge/skills th' student will hae when they hae completed th' required study (ootcomes). usin' these focus points we examine th' general influence frae pedagogy oan ir curricula, th' issue ay interdisciplinarity, th' role ay professional an' accreditin' bodies in th' development ay ir curricula an' th' development ay th' subject in baith main disciplines.

Jolly Well Spoken
Well I say - there is ah significant amount of discussiohn in the literature about informatiohn retrieval curriculah, for the main disciplines of concern, libraaary & informatiohn science and computah science. the themes in curriculah have twoh focus points: what is to be studied (delivery) and what knowledge/skills the student will have when they have completed the required cram (outcomes). using these focus points we examine the general influence mwah mwah sweetie pedagogy ohn ir curriculah, the issue of interdisciplinaaarity, the role of professional and accrediting bodies in the development of ir curriculah and the development of the subject in buhth main disciplines.

Software to help Dyslexics with Spelling

Here's a news story on some software which can help dyslexics with there spelling. This has been created by an Israeli start up Company called Ginger Software. They have a demo of their software on the front page of their web site.

Here's what I got when I typed in three sentences:

• 1. "Oi arm a god mann hoo doz not no hou to spel. Plese, reeda Who To Us the Spel Cheker nstractions."


• 2. "My aidl holiday wood bee in nue zeelend, were I can go hickin"


• 3. "I put up q6 for us to do, I hope thas ok wiv u - its jus dat every1 was takin d qs ;) hehe lolz im at home today, was lisenin 2 d lect online. nways lemme noe if u wanna link up 2 do dis q OR u wanna jus do it over dis discussion board ting. i dnt mind."

The results:

• 1. "I am a good man who does not no how to spell. Please, readers who told us the spell checker store"


• 2. "My ideal holiday would be in new Zealand, where I can go hiking"


• 3. "Server Error in '/' Application.
  parsing ";)(\s+)" - Too many )'s. Parameter name: ;)(\s+) "

On result 3 - Oh dear......

There is also another service like this available on the web, called 'Ghotit'. Here's those same sentences above with this particular service:

• 1. I am a good man who does not know how to spell. Please, reader How To Use the Spell Checker instructions.


• 2. My ideal holiday would be in new zeelend, where I can go hiking


• 3. I put up q6 for us to do, I hope that ok wiv u - its just dat every1 was taking d qs ;) he-he lolz im at home today, was listening 2 d lect online. anyways lemme know if u wanna link up 2 do dis q OR u wanna just do it over dis discussion board thing. i don't mind

The third one is text speak, and really doesn't so that well, but is definitely better than Ginger Software's result!

Ghotit works differently from Ginger Software's version, in that it is more interactive. Ginger software just comes back with a result, whereas Ghotit's services allows you a choice of words for each spelling mistake and provides you with definitions. Ginger Software does however show where the mistakes are by highlighting them in Red.

These services are excellent, and I would recommend them to anybody. If you just want a fast result Gingers probably good enough, if you want to examine a sentence in more depth, the Ghotit's the one for you.

(h/t: Norman Geras, and Areej Al-Wabil).

Links to all the posts in this series are available here.

100th Post

I've just released that I've gone past 100 posts on this blog at last!

In celebration, here's a very funny but rude video (not work friendly):



Bit of a piss take of all those programs on cuddly animals on wildlife programs, particularly on the beeb e.g.:

Web Services Special Series

This is a special series on web services including applications such as translator or language services available on the web. These can be of any type, but usually mean that the user enters something into the website (e.g. some text) and gets some kind of result.

1. Language checker for Dyslexics
2. British Dialect Translators.
3. Pronunciation Guide with search.

Phrase Search

The phrase finder looks for well known or widely use phrases such as the 'pot that called the kettle black'. This basically does a google search on the local site, or the web. Heres another example: having your cake and eating it. A list of results is produced, including (hopefully) a defintion of the phrase.

Posts in the series are available here.

Genre Wiki

WebGenreWiki is a general discussion and collaborate wiki for Genres.

According to the email I got the "purpose of the WebGenreWIKI is to facilitate the sharing of information and resources on all aspects of genre, web genre and other related discourse categories, such as style, register, sentiment, or authorship"

It has useful links to collection for investigation, web sites and some useful definitions.

Dream Search

Dreamlines takes an entered query, and does a Web image search to create a dynamically generated 'dream' from images in that hitlist, one image at a time.

This isn't a service to generate static hitlists, it creates something from your search.

The query represents you the dream you would like to have, and the dream when generated gradually changes. Its rather interesting to watch. I can't link to any generated dreams so you'll have to try it youself (I typed in 'Emma Thompson'). Occastionly a recongnisable image comes up but there are lots of dreamlike lines and blobs. Sometimes its dark, sometimes very light. Great fun!

One small think - carriage return doesn't work, you need to press the 'submit' button.

(h/t: David Thompson)

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Similarity

In a recent court case in the U.S. (2004), a judge found in favour of the plantiff who complained that the song they wrote was to similar to one Mariah Carey had co-written. The two songs were One of Those Love Songs" by Seth Swirsky and Warryn Campbell and "Thank got I've found you" by Carey. You can compare the songs.

Using expert opinion in these cases is somewhat difficult, but the plantiff's complaint was upheld on the basis of evidence produced by Schenkerian analysis.

This is a very good example of the use of music IR techniques in plagarism detection.

(h/t: Darrell Conklin)

Music Search

Shazam is a well know service, which allows you to get information about must using your mobile phone. This is how it works. Lets say you're in a pub or club, and you hear a track for the first time. Theres nobody around to ask. Well, you can ring shazam on your mobile, hold the mobile up to the speaker for say 30 seconds and it will text you back with the result. Never used it myself, but people tell me it works rather well.

But they also offer music searching facilities on their web site. The search options include artist, album, track and all. Lets see how they work with the usual query set (with the all option):

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

Results brought back include information on Artists, Albums and Tracks 'labels'. There appears to be a limit of around 30 hits returned per 'label'. You can click on 'show all' to display more results for a particular 'label'.

Clicking on a link will allow you to find out more information on the particular item your are interested, particularly buy it from various places (e.g. iTunes). You can also listen to snippets.

Very simple interface, although the front page is quite busy, its easy to use the search and navigate the results.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

So far in the series on music search, I've looked at systems which search for music using search terms as the primary access point (although with some of them it is clear that the music itself is used at some point e.g. OneLlama.

Themefinder is a completely different kettle of fish. It allows musical symbol search, on a local held and copyright protected database. The key thing with this service is that you have to have specialist music knowledge to be able to use it properly. Sadly I do not, there when search I ended up must typing what I thought might be a few interesting random examples.

Search is very structured, allowing search on Repetory (classical, folksong, renaissance and all), pitch, interval, scale degree, gross contour, refined contour, location of theme (beginning, anywhere), Key (any or specific key), mode (any, major, minor), and meter. A basic version is available with options to theme location only available.

I just did one search, thus:



This gave me one result:



I have no idea why.....

Basically all I did in the search was to keep trying things and refining my search until I got that one result. Looks like quite a useful tool if you know what you are doing!

Themefinder is a collaboration between CCARCH at Stanford University and
Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory at Ohio State University.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

AllMusic provides search on 'artist/title', 'album', 'song' and 'classical work'. There is an advanced search, which just allows you to choose your database, either 'pop' or 'classical' - which doesn't seem to me to be particularly advanced. Right, here's the usual query set (using the album option):

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger .


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

The search won't allow me to link to the searches, so you'll have to type them in yourself.

The results come back on three tags: 'All Music', 'Popular Music' and 'Classical Music'. When using the 'Low' search I clicked on the classical tab, and tried to play a snippet from Phillip Glass's Low symphony, which is taken from the Bowie Album, and got some other song - which was a tad annoying.

Searches come back listed by relevance, the only system I've looked at which is explicit about this so far. Searches by Album didn't work that well with the artist as well, the first hit tended to be a box set of Bowie CD's. Just typing in the Album name came up with much better results, so the searches appear very targetted.

Overall this is quite an interesting, and certainly more traditionally IR focused service.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

One Llama is a playlist maker, and allows search by artist or title. A Llama is a set of personalised playlists. The are very open about the technology they use to implement the service, which are collaborative filtering and audio similarity. They also give a description of their products.

There are two ways of doing a search on OneLlama, either 'create a playlist' or 'discover music'. Right, here's the usual query set. I used the query set on both interfaces, but can only provide links to generated playlists ('discover music' brings up a new interface, and you can't link to the results):

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger .


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory (search failed).


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

The playlist search comes up with a list of similar songs, which might or might not be the same artist as you are searching for. I had problems with my 'pop up' blocking when trying to play this music from the generated lists, but others options include preview ('snippet'), find similar song, or buy the song. When typing in the query you are presented with a number of alternatives, which you can pick to replace your search (I did this above where it made sense). Only one search failed - hunky dory. The quality on the previews isn't that good.

The discover music search brings up a list, when you click on an item that items is displayed in a network with similar songs. You can play 'snippets' of the songs or add it to a playlist. Its a nice idea, but they've some work to on it e.g. I couldn't stop the music when it had started, and I found myself looking at a rather ugly picture at one stage with the visualisation and the search mixed in.

It says under the search box "COMING SOON: Audio similarity searching. Find songs that SOUND like each other". This could be fun.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

LastFm is a widely known Internet radio station and community web site. I have an account on this and have for a while. It allows you to build recommendations, using the concepts of 'love' and 'ban'. I once when through 100's of songs 'ban'ing them, and it was quite interesting how the system kept coming up with more for me to ban, which I kept doing, obsessively.

Here's the usual query set, with searches either on 'Start Your Last.fm' button or search on the web site itself. The former is basically artist search only and some of these searches don't work. You'll find out which when you click on the links:

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world. [2nd Search].


• David Bowie hunky dory. [2nd Search].


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust. [2nd Search].

A search just on David Bowie yields is profile and a ready made playlist, which starts playing when the page is loaded.

The interface changed part way through my first session, which was a bit irritating frankly. The "Heroes" and 'Low' searches were done on an interface which was different to the others therefore (I did the searches over two separate days, and didn't bother repeating them). In the first interface, searches with the artist and song title were acceptable, in the second this was variable. I've repeated the search on the site where something is returned from 'play' in the second case.

Searhes on the web site can be done on 'music', 'label' or 'tag'. You can switch between the 'tabs' on the returned hitlist.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

Seeqpod is billed as 'playable search'. Interface is very simple, with a search entry box with 'search' and 'discover' buttons. You are also presented with a list of 'PodLists', which really means playlists. Here's the usual query set with the 'search' button pressed.

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

Doesn't allow me to link to the searches, so you'll need to type them in yourself.

The search comes back with 'PodCrawler' (not clear what generated these), search (number of items) and Discoveries (number of items).

Search items include songs, video and playlists it appears to me. You can link and embed:



Playlists can be embeded as well:


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Searching with song titles brings back better results e.g. 'Heroes' gives a better set than 'low'.

You can choose which sources you want to see on the search list (although it is not clear what all the options mean).

Discovery button seems to bring back anything.

I quite like the interface, its very useful and you can move around easily on it when search is complete.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

Deezer is a service which provides "free music on demand without download". It has quite a busy start interface, with loads of options including start a smartradio, register sign in etc.

Query is by artist, title. Here's the usual query set:

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger.


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

These queries take you directly to the Album (mostly), links are provided above. Sometimes a few extra tracks are provided, say a song from the album also on a live album. Sometimes only a few tracks are provided. This is from the 'all' option on the search button. Others options available on the search button are 'Artist', 'Album' or 'Track'.

Search result also provides information on the artist, link to listen to the Album(s), watch videos of the songs (from YouTube).

There does appear to be limitations of some kind to the service, when trying the last search in the batch above nothing happened, and a 'radar' like image appear on the search button. I had to close the window down and start again.

I rather like this service, it provides information directly on the songs you want (mostly) and you can play the songs, link to them or even embed them like this:

Discover David Bowie!

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

MeeMix has quite a simple interface, with a text area inviting you to enter a song or an artist, and then click 'play'. Lets try it with the 'bowie berlin' query set:

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger .


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

No links provided by search, so you'll have to enter them yourself. No good putting in the Album, it just looks either for 'song' or 'artist'. No, after a few searches it looks like just the 'artist'. "Heroes" just brings back stuff on 'Gym Class Heroes'. However if you press the close button, you can then choose from either. But you have to create a 'station'. hmm.

A single song is brought back, with which you can do a number of things. Clicking on the song you want, doesn't always bring up that song which is annoying.

There are a number of ways you can tell the system of your relevance needs. You can click a heart symbol to put it in 'favourites' or click a zero/strike through to block it. Much like the LastFM 'love' or 'ban' idea. You can also express your opinion on a continues scale from 'not' to 'hot' with a pivot point of zero. You can recommend in/for various websites e.g. Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon. You can also recommend it, which will allow the system to build a system a database of recommendations.

You can buy the CD, play the video.

You can 'meep it up', where the 1st 'e' in 'meep' is reversed. No idea what this concept is .... perhaps Mee People? Looks like playlist probably. They don't explain the term

You need to register to use some functionality of the interface, like recording your opinions.

When the song is finished, another song is played, not necessarily the same artist however (much like LastFM).

There are some other interesting continuous options 'surprise me' with new songs (towards the right), 'atmosphere' (either 'darker' or 'lighter' songs) or pulse (either 'relaxing' or 'party time').

It has a FAQ page if your interested.

Some nice ideas here, but it doesn't quite work as well as services like 'jogli' or 'songza'.

Posts in the series are available here.

Music Search

Songza is billed as a 'music search engine and jukebox'. According to the blurb, it allows users to listen to songs only (no downloads), and allows the user to chose the song or artist they want to listen to. OK, lets try the 'berlin bowie' query set.

• David Bowie Low.


• David Bowie "Heroes".


• David Bowie lodger .


• Iggy Pop lust for life.


• David Bowie the man who sold the world.


• David Bowie hunky dory.


• David Bowie Aladdin Sane.


• David Bowie ziggy stardust.

First thing, it returns a series of songs in a search list, but doesn't provide a link with which to put in above. Means you'll have to try the queries youself - sorry :(

I'm not sure if the songs are ranked - you're just provided with a list. Not all the songs are relevant to my need e.g. David Bowie songs are retrieved, but not all from the same album (no album detection then). Results lists are much less detailed than say Jogli. Results lists look pretty good however, and the search also picks up covers.

Clicking on a song brings up a cross shaped menu with four choices: 'play', 'share', 'rate' and 'add to playlist'. If you resize your window, and options to the left (from 'share') are lost.

With 'play', you can either watch the song, play the video, buy the song or get the discography (although it doesn't collect the songs together for the Album you can find out what song it is on). Discography is just a Google search however.

I did'nt find out about this "You can use spacebar to pause/play the current song, or that you can use the left/right arrow keys to move between songs?" and until late into my searching. Doesn't seem a terribly useable way to provide this functionality. I can understand the reasoning, but there are good analogies to use on the interface which users will understand very quickly. Oh I see, I made a mistake, some functions on the bottom are provided at the bottom of the browser, completely missed that first time!

Source for the song are 'YouTube' - I assume that if you buy the song, you're buying the Album version (from say the CD).

With 'rate' you're asked if the recording is a good one: 'yes' or 'no'.

With 'share' you can link, twitter, embed or email the song. Embed is below:



The interface also allows the user to play 'featured songs' or 'top played'

Overall this is a nice service and I enjoyed using it.

Posts in the series are available here.

Monday Blues Cure

Here's a modern day version of an early 20th Century Greek Music form, called Rembetika. It emanated from the refugees from Asia minor after 2 million people were expelled from what is now Turkey, into a life of poverty - its called the Greek Blues therefore:

Search Service Series

Here is a link to all the posts so far in the search service series.

1. Grave Search, Find a Grave.
2. Lifestyle Search, VideoJug.
3. Music Search, part 1, Jogli.
4. Music Search, part 2, Songza.
5. Music Search, part 3, MeeMix.
6. Music Search, part 4, Deezer.
7. Music Search, part 5, Seeqpod.
8. Music Search, part 6, LastFM.
9. Music Search, part 7, OneLlama.
10. Music Search, part 8, AllMusic.
11. Music Search, part 9, ThemeFinder.
12. Music Search, part 10, Shazam.
13. Dream Search, Dreamlines.
14. Phrase search, The Phrase Finder.
15. Arabic Web Search, various.
16. Chinese Web Search, various.
17. Spanish Web Search, various.
18. Geographical Web Search, various.
19. Mobile Search, Taptu.
20. Video Search, JumpCut.
21. Video Search, Veoh.
22. Film Search, IMDb.
23. Music Search, part 11, Midomi.
24. Visual Web Search, various.
25. Image retrieval,, Part 1, various.
26. Music Search, part 12. Audiobaba.
27. Music Search, part 13. Gracenote.
28. Local Search, various.
29. Video Search, Corbis Motion.
30. Thesaurus Search, Thrs.
31. Medieval Image Retrieval, part 2, University of Cambridge.
32. Music Search, part 14, Spotify.
33. Non-English Video Search, RuTube and YouKu.
34. Music Search, part 15, Jamendo.
35. Image Retrieval, Part 3, TinEye by Idée.
36. Phrase search in Movies and TV programmes,  Subzin.

Alternatively to see them all on one page you can click on the relevant label.

Updated: 5th December 2010.

Music Search

Music is a big part of my life, and I have a professional interest in search for music. Search Services for music are therefore of particular interest to me. A recent article in the Washington Post pointed me to a service called Jogli.

In order to set the scene for the searches I'm about to show you, I should give you some background. I recently read a most enjoyable book by Thomas Jerome Seabrook called "Bowie in Berlin", about Bowie's three year sojourn in Berlin, producing the Berlin Trilogy Albums 'Low', '"Heroes"' and 'Lodger', as well as writing and producing two albums with Iggy Pop, namely 'The Idiot' and a 'Lust for Life'. As virtually all of my Bowie Albums are on vinyl, I went mad the other day and bought the Berlin Trilogy + a lust for life and some other Bowie classics. These albums constitue my searches. Each search brings up Aritists, playlists, albums and individual clips (the albums also have video clips).

• Low.


• "Heroes".


• Lodger.


• Lust for Life. (Iggy Pop)


• Hunky Dory.


• The Man Who Sold The World.


• Aladdin Sane.


• Ziggy Stardust.

(h/t: Michael Fingerhut).

Links to all the posts in the series are available.

Lifestyle Search

Another in the series on search services, this on concentrates on finding videos for lifestyle choices. Its called VideoJug, and gives you advice on what to do with various problems in your life. Some of the videos are very serious, whilst others are very light hearted. Here's a list of searches, I did looking for random things (definitely not any problems I have in my life!):

• Depression.


• Dogs.


• That unwanted erection.


• Vegetarianism.


• Computers.


• Cricket.


• Plumbing.


• Hairstyles.


• Breaking wind - this search doesn't work very well.


• Being a Dad.

The videos appear very well produced to me, clearly a lot of thought has gone in to making these videos.

Links to all the posts in the series are available.

Grave Search

This is the first in a series on different type of search services, for finding information on, well, anything you like!

The first of these is Grave Search, that is searching for Graves of famous people. There are a number of different ways you can search their databases, including by location, claim to fame, by date (died or born) or just by keyword. Here's some examples:

• George Harrison, musician.


• Sir Winston Churchill, statesman.


• John Churchill, The 1st "Duke of Marlborough" (ancestor of Sir Winston), soldier.


• Kenneth Williams, comic and actor.


• Laurence Olivier , actor.


• Bing Crosby, singer and actor.


• Elizabeth I, queen.


• Mick Ronson, guitarist.


• Don Bradman, cricketer.


• Arnold Toynbee, historian.

Can't find Karl Marx on this for some reason, which is somewhat strange given both his high provide and clearly marked grave in Highgate Cemetery, but the good news is that you can find the details for the Marx Brothers (Chico, Groucho, Zeppo, Gummo and Harpo).

Links to all the posts in the series are available.

Cadburys Gorilla

This bizarre advert really worked, really revived Cadbury's fortunes:

Very easy to find on youtube. Whats interesting is how they choose the music for this - music need. More on this in my blog ... at some stage. Here's an alternative:

In many ways it works better for me, but then that's just my taste in music. Folks who matched the video to the music would have had to think about groups rather than individuals

.

Monday Blues Cure

More theme tunes this week, really easy to find on YouTube. Firstly, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

And - Mission Impossible (the orginal TV series):