Tips and Tricks - Multimedia
ALTAVISTA MEDIA FINDER
Are you searching for a photo, audio clip, or a movie preview?
Try the AltaVista Media Finder. With over 17 million searchable
images, audio clips and video files in their online database, chances
are pretty good you'll be able to find what you're looking for.
http://image.altavista.com
Searching For Images
For example, I searched for images with the keyword "pink rose", and
found quite a few nice images. Once you get your first set of results,
you have several options to explore further:
- Click on NEXT to view more results for your keyword(s)
- Move the mouse pointer over an image to see related text
- Click on an image to go to the web page where the image was found
- Click on "About This Image" to see the image format, size, etc.
- Click on "Visually Similar" to images that are (you guessed it)
visually similar to the one shown.
This last feature is my favorite. I clicked on the Visually Similar
link for one of the pink roses and got some other nice pink flowers,
a guy with funny shorts sitting in a lounge chair, and a picture of
the South Park gang. Computers are funny.
Searching for Audio & Video
If you're after a sound byte from the Bugs Bunny show, or a video clip
from Titanic, it's out there. I found some really funny parodies at
Uncle John's RealAudio Jukebox while searching for "bugs bunny".
I liked that page so much, I'll give you the address below. (Don't
miss "Order The Egg Fu Young", a parody of a Billy Joel song.)
http://jhanch.web2010.com/rajuke.htm
SCOUR.NET
Scour.Net is a search engine and guide to multimedia on the Internet.
You can use it to find audio, video, images and animations related to
Movies, Music, Radio, Sports and Television, News and Education. The
site is organized in a way that makes it easy to find multimedia
resources on websites that are relevant to your interests. Try out
Scour.Net or their new Beta site at these addresses:
http://www.scour.net
http://beta.scour.net
MP3 SEARCH
If you're looking for MP3 music files, the Lycos search engine has a
section of their site dedicated to this hot topic. (If you missed
Lee Overstreet's guest article on MP3 last month, you can find it
in the TOURBUS Archives.) The MP3 SEARCH site lets you type in the
name of an artist or song and then presents you with a list of
sites where you can download the song.
http://mp3.lycos.com
YAHOO IMAGE SURFER
This site is similar to the Altavista Media Finder, but might suit
you better if you prefer the Yahoo approach of drilling down into
nicely organized subject-oriented hierarchies. You can find images
in categories such as Arts, Entertainment, Science, Recreation,
People and Vehicles. Try it out at:
http://ipix.yahoo.com
Just keep in mind that when it comes to multimedia on the Web,
copyright violations are rampant. You can't get into trouble by
looking or listening online, but if you plan to use any copyrighted
materials you find floating around in cyberspace on your own website,
be sure to get permission from the author or copyright owner first.
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