Google Scholar beta

You can use the Preferences page to make Google Scholar work best for you, such as searching only your university's library. Tell Google to hunt within the stacks at Oxford University, for example, and an 'Oxford Full Text' Library link appears next to articles in stock at that institution. Google can add a Library link for up to three institutions at a time. You can also choose to find reports in Chinese, Spanish, German and Portuguese in addition to English. Google's Cited By link lets you jump to other referring articles; however, unlike with Windows Live Academic Search, there's no author link to let you immediately find, say, publications by one of your professors.

The Google Scholar beta also lets you display citation links to import into BibTex, EndNote, RefMan or RefWorks. Windows Live Academic Search displays only BibTex or EndNote formats. Plus, Google provides a quick way to add its Scholar search bar to your own Web site.

However, we found that Microsoft's dynamic Academic interface organises research results better than Google's interface does. Where Google Scholar displays a text list of finds next to a vast field of white space, the right side of the screen within Windows Live Academic displays an article abstract. We'd also like Google to integrate Scholar into its other products, such as the Google Reader beta and your Google home page. For instance, Google's main search page doesn't provide a link to Scholar. And unlike the Windows Academic Search beta, Google Scholar doesn't allow you to save your finds or subscribe to feeds on a research topic for updates in an RSS reader.

Overall, we found Google Scholar beta to be a more rigorous and customisable research tool than its rival, although Windows Live Academic Search better integrates its finds with the brand's other services.