NextBio: A new kind of search
When it comes to search engines I have always been fiercely loyal to google. Even when Wolfram Alpha came out with a new search engine I was underwhelmed. It definitely had its benefits but for the most part, clearer data was to be found with google. Then, out of the blue I was introduced to one of the best biology search engines out there, Nextbio. It is incredibly easy to navigate and organizes the data in a way that makes it easier to find exactly what you are looking for. Sometimes I feel like I am “searching” through the search engine and trying a few hundred different ways of saying what I want to see what keywords I want. Not so with Nextbio.
It starts out by you typing in a search of interest, say a gene or a disease. Then each search begins to bring up correlated research. Such as genes associated with the gene you are looking for, or for correlated diseases. This is essentially where the fun part begins. You can completely target what you are looking for and find out what papers have been done about it. Then click and read on the papers.
There are so many side benefits to this. It makes it easier to research and less likely that you will have to do duplicated experiments. To top it all off companies have the ability to use search terms to sponsor. So if you are looking for particular research reagent targeted for your research interests, you can easily click to see if there is a novel reagent designed to make your life easier.
If you have a few minutes you should take a chance and try it out. See if it redefines the way you research experiments.
Edit after post: Nextbio also has a wonderful Iphone application that I downloaded right away. It works just like the search application online except that you can use it anywhere. As a person who has those random thoughts in the middle of the day and then will obsessively try to figure it out before I get back to a computer, I have to say Nextbio’s application is a godsend. I can check it out right there, take some notes, and then get back to doing whatever I was doing.
