Tara Calishain’s wonderful ResearchBuzz, tagged as “news about search engines, databases, and other information collections,” marked a major milestone yesterday, with 400 “issues” having appeared in nearly nine years of publication. If you’re not familiar with ResearchBuzz, you should be. Many search marketers aren’t familiar with the “other side” of the search universe, populated by people who actually spend their time sleuthing for information rather than trying to gain high rankings or improved conversion rates. Understanding the needs of searchers can help improve your own search marketing efforts.

ResearchBuzz is one of the premier information resources for searchers. Tara has a knack for tracking down new and useful sites and tools, shaking them down and offering useful tips and insights for getting the most out of them.

Tara’s also a gifted programmer, and when she spots an oversight in a resource she’s reviewing, or simply feels a need for a tool or service that doesn’t exist, she creates her own. And to celebrate ResearchBuzz’s 400th, Tara has both created some new tools and upgraded others—and best of all, is giving them away for free.

What’s new? Read on…

Although ResearchBuzz started as an email newsletter, Tara was pretty early getting into the RSS feed game. Until recently, however, her feeds were only partial text. Ever trying to please her readers, Tara is now offering full-text RSS feeds.

One of Tara’s creations, Kebberfegg, has also received a facelift. Tara writes: “Kebberfegg.com is a tool to generate keyword-based RSS feeds without having to run around to a bunch of search engines. It launched in October 2005. I have updated it now so that it generates over 55 feeds in eleven different categories. Of course it’s still free to use, and a very fast way to generate LOTS of keyword-based feeds!”

Tara has used the Custom Google Search engine to create a couple of specialized search tools. SearchOfficialBlogs.com searches over 140 different official blogs—from politicians, celebrities, musicians, companies, institutions, etc. And JustAskAnybody.com trolls for answers in 100 Ask-An-Expert and advice sites and pages.

She’s also doing some interesting virtual reality activities. “More developing and planning is going on in Second Life (virtual classes in information trapping are being mapped out), and I think I’ll be moving soon from my current location to a larger site with more prims and some serious mad scientist-ing. Visiting ResearchBuzzSL.com will take you to a slurl.com map of the current digs. More details on the way.”

So once again, kudos, Tara. Very much looking forward to the next 400 issues and beyond. And if you haven’t subscribed to the ResearchBuzz newsletter or feeds, do. it. now.

Related Topics: Search Resources | SEM Industry: Blogs & Forums

About The Author: Chris Sherman (@CJSherman) is Executive Editor of SearchEngineLand.com and President of Searchwise LLC, a Boulder Colorado based Web consulting firm. He also programs and co-chairs the Search Marketing Expo - SMX conference series. See more articles by Chris Sherman