Robbins Library Notes

In an earlier post, I wrote about some search tricks that you could use to take your Google searching to the next level.

Following along this line, a colleague of mine from India reminded me yesterday of Soople. Soople is an nifty interface that allows you to use all of the really cool functionality of Google without having to know all of the syntax and search language.

Here’s a description of Soople from the “About Soople” page:

Soople is an early English dialect, which means ‘to soften, make supple’.

That’s exactly what I envisioned for this site ; a site that softens all the fantastic advanced functions Google offers. This site is meant for all those who are not yet familiar with all the possibilities of Google and all the required syntaxes.

For instance, one can specify a search by one particular site or filetype (word, excel, powerpoint and pdf) or an imagesearch by size and type.

Furthermore there are many useful tools Google offers; search in the latest news, look up definitions or use Google as a phonebook.

And last but not least, the Calculator. This amazing tool let’s you do all kind of (very advanced) calculations. Soople has added the unit-converter, which is based on this calculator, for the conversion of all the commmon units/measures (meters<—>yards). Quite supple, if you ask me.

Have a lot of Google-fun

Soople is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Google

The Soople interface basically sits over the Google search engine. It’s the same Google we all know and love, though it looks somewhat different. But, rather than having to know all of the tricks and fancy search language, you can simply enter in your search terms in the appropriate box, click on “search,” and be merrily along your way.

I have been playing around with Soople over the last day or so, and am finding it very useful, not only for research, but also for finding book and movie reviews, music, and the like. I definitely recommend taking it out for a test spin, and using it as a tool in your research tool box.