15 March 2009

Kosmix: A new web search tool

Today's New York Times had an article about Kosmix.com, described on blogs and news sites as a search engine that may someday rival Google.

I decided to click on the site and see what it said about ... me.

In addition to Tracing the Tribe, International Jewish Graveyard Rabbit, MyHeritage Genealogy Blog, and mentions in media, articles and images, I also learned that a Schelly is a white fish.

The Schelly or common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), is a rare and endangered species of freshwater fish, in the whitefish family. It is one of only four species of freshwater fish under the protection of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
I never knew that!

It showed sponsored ads about the Talalay process for latex foam rubber (mattresses and pillows), invented by cousins.

It also provides a list of 16 additional topics for more information:
Jewish History
Jewish Cemeteries
Genealogist
Yad Vashem
Genealogical Society
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Mogilev
Shtetl
Genetic
Genealogy

Family Tree DNA
The Tribe
Holocaust Victims
Anterograde Tracing
Yizkor
Holocaust
Survivors

Y Chromosome
A click on Mogilev (Belarus) turned up an interesting set of results: geographic information, maps, photographs, videos, articles, a list of nearby shtetls from Wikipedia, and much more information.

Clicking Jewish Cemeteries produced articles, videos, photos, commercial items (books, etc.), Q&A's from several websites.

A search on only the surname Talalay produced links to cousin Paul Talalay of Johns Hopkins University Medical School (of anti-cancer enzymes in broccoli fame), his daughter Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl), daughter Susan Talalay (sportswriter in Florida), and much more, as well as links to my articles and postings.

Equal time for Dardashti was next: Persian carpets, cousin Shai, Photos of cousins Galeet , David, Farid, Hamid/Howard (links to his music) and more. Articles on Sephardim, Mizrahim, Persian Jews. Links to Tracing the Tribe, links to Yahoo Q&As (where is the name Dardashty or Dardashti from?), music videos of cousin David, Jonathan, Galeet, books by cousin Danielle and more.

It was an interesting exercise, and I'm recommending that readers check it out.

I wonder what you'll find. Share what you've found - especially if there was something new that you've never seen before - through comments to this post.

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