Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Yottalook with New Interface

We have updated our Yottalook interface. The "References" engine has been renamed as "Web" and has been made the default engine. This change was made as what is now the "Web" engine has a broader coverage of radiology-related web content than the "Images" engine. You can still access the "Images" engine through the hyperlinked-interface both on the main page as well as the results pages.

If you click on the "Images" engine without entering a search query, it will take you to the "Images" main page. If you click on the "Images" engine after you type in the query term, you will be taken directly to the "Images" results page. The benefit of the new hyperlinked-interface is that it allows users to switch between the two engines without having to retype in the search term and quickly view the results from different engines.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Exclude Charts and Graphs on Yottalook Images

Today we added a feature to exclude charts and graphs from the Yottalook Images results. By using a certain set of terms, checking the “Charts&Graphs” box will attempt to exclude charts and graphs of various types. It is a temporary solution while we work on a more robust method of excluding certain set of images.

Yottalook with Improved User Interface

While radio buttons work well for selection of which search engine to use from the Yottalook homepage, its use and function on the results page have been less than optimal with the Reference engine always being selected by default regardless of the engine used to get to the results page. Today, we announce improved user interface that addresses this issue. Now, you will be directed to the specific results page for the search engine used. In addition, with the other engine hyperlinked on top of the search box, the user can easily switch back and forth between the Images and References engines and see the results change without having to retype in the search term(s) or pressing Enter/Search button following selection of the alternate engine.

In addition, we have launched a separate advanced search option for the Images engine. From the main page, selection of "Advanced Search" will open up different Advanced Search page depending on which engine has been selected (via radio button).

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Yottalook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Woojin created a Wikipedia entry for Yottalook today. Our focus is to educate the community about the need for vertical search engine for specific health care domain and also address some of the information needs for radiologists and trainees in clinical practice today.
Help us refine the description. I hope we can make the Wikipedia entry look more like an independ neutral review rather than an advertisment.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Yottalook On BlackBerry

Yottalook Mobile really looks nice on the new Blackberry Pearl. Here are some images for a search on "enchondroma".

You need to change the browser configuration so that the refinements and layout looks correct and are readable. Go into Option> for the browser and uncheck all items. If you just uncheck the "support style sheets" option, it may work correctly. This behaviour varies for various BlackBerry models.


Again, please give us feedback and let us know how your mobile experience is.

Yottalook Goes Mobile

A lot of users have been asking for compatibility of Yottalook with mobile devices and PDAs, so we are releasing an alpha version of Yottalook Mobile (http://mobile.yottalook.com) for user feedback and comments.

So go ahead and give us comments, report bugs or any other issues that you may have with this. Remember, when you click on a result, you are directed away from Yottalook.com and we have no control over the look of the resulting site.

Please report any sites that you feel completely fail on mobile devices. Point your PDAs and mobile devices to http://mobile.yottalook.com and enjoy.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Yottalook Anatomy - Revised Refinements

Today, we are releasing new refinements for the Yottalook Anatomy search engine (www.yottalook.com/labs/yottalook_anat.html). First, you will notice a new refinement called, "Atlas >>". Selection of this "label" will direct the user to another set of label hierarchy, which includes modality and axis plane. What's the purpose? One of the original purposes of creating a radiology-centric anatomy search engine was to serve as a source of various online atlases. We wanted to separate out the atlases from other anatomy-related sites and journal articles. Now, selection of "Atlas >>" will only link you to online atlases. For example, type in "knee" and do a search. Then, click on "Atlas >>". Once you have been directed to the next level of labels, select "AP/PA" and click on any of the returned results.

In addition, similar to the current refinements in the Yottalook References engine, you will find "Google Scholar" and "Not enough results?" labels, which will search through Google Scholar and the entire web, respectively. Also, similar to the current References engine, we have implemented a checkbox option for returning only articles in PDF format.

Yottalook Anatomy Update - Get Radiological Anatomy Content From Select Journals

Following the release of Yottalook Labs this past week, I had one of the residents test out the Yottalook Anatomy engine (www.yottalook.com/labs/yottalook_anat.html). The first anatomical structure he wanted to look for was "Artery of Adamkiewicz". After couple attempts at finding the correct spelling, we found out that the engine failed to return any results. Surprised, I broadened the search by looking up "Artery of Adamkiewicz" on Google Images and snap. I still was not satisfied with the search results. When I did a web search for the term, I got results from sites such as Wikipedia and Who Named It. As a radiologist, when I type in "Artery of Adamkiewicz", I expect to find either information about that anatomical structure and/or an image of it. This little experience has led to revising the engine. Since this past week, we have tweaked our engine to search only for anatomy-related information from select radiology journals. The reasons for limiting the number of journals covered were two fold: 1) to maximize relevancy for those in the field of radiology and 2) to test out this new algorithm prior to increasing the number of journals covered. As a result, now when you type in "Adamkiwiecz", you will get results on this structure that is (hopefully) more relevant to radiologists.

Yottametta Adds 7 More Journals

Yottametta is one of the Yottalook Labs projects (www.yottalook.com/labs/yottametta.html). This week we added following journals in its coverage: Chest and AHA journals, which include Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Circulation, Circulation Research, Hypertension, and Stroke. As of today, the Chest journal contains over 11,000 and AHA journals all together contain over 169,000 figures and tables. Not all the images are radiology-related images, but addition of these journals gives radiologists access to even more images from peer-reviewed sources from a single site. The users should understand one difference with these journals when used with Yottametta. When you click on the tab after entering the search term(s), you will notice that a new browser window opens up with results. This is not a bug but rather complying with the restrictions set by the journal sites.

Along with the new additions, we have fixed the restriction that forced the user to press the button to initiate the search. Now the search will initiate by either pressing "Enter" or by pressing the "Search" button following entering the search term(s).

Friday, January 12, 2007

Yottalook Images Search Engine Expands Coverage

Yottalook has expanded its journal coverage. When we first began our beta testing of the Yottalook Images search engine (www.yottalook.com) back in mid-December, we initially started out by searching through radiology journals only. We have been gradually increasing the number of radiology journals covered. Since about three weeks ago, we have started to include non-radiology journals as well. However, the algorithm for this is trickier as typically non-radiology journals contain many figures that are not directly relevant to the field of radiology. We decided to test out our new algorithm by searching through The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). We silently rolled out this new addition little less than 2 weeks ago. If you would like to see a demonstration of its implementation, type in "ectopic calcinosis" into our Images search engine.

After we were satisfied with the results we were getting with the NEJM, we have since increased our coverage, including journals like JAMA and Annals of Internal Medicine, among several others. To test out its implementation, go ahead and type in terms like "AIDS brain", "anthrax", and "duodenal gastrinoma". Unfortunately, not all radiological images from these various journals have been indexed by Google as of date. As a result, the search results through these journals are less than complete, but we do provide those radiology-related figures that have been indexed by Google and will provide more as they become available.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Differential Diagnosis and PDF Search

On Friday (1/5/07) we released another set of features for the Yottalook search - differential diagnosis (DDx) and PDF. The DDx option gives user capability to quickly look for differential diagnosis for the term they are searching. For example, if you search for "cystic bone lesion" with DDx checked, you will see results that discuss differential diagnosis for the finding of cystic bone lesion. Similarly you can search for differential diagnosis for a disease entity, such as "IPMT" (intraductal papillary mucinous tumor) you will see results that discuss differential diagnosis for the disease IPMT.
Lot of times I know the article I need and I prefer to look at how it was printed in the publication - i.e., PDF format. But it takes too many steps to find it on the journal websites. For this workflow, we have created the "PDF" option. When checked, the query only returns links directly to the PDF of the articles. If you or your institution subscribes to the journal in the result, you can download and save the PDF with one click.
Both these options discussed above were designed for the reference portion of the search engine. You can do the same query for image section, but you may not see the correct results.
Try these features out and give us feedback. www.Yottalook.com

Friday, January 5, 2007

Yottalook Labs Launched

Today, we launched Yottalook Labs. It is a place where we will be demonstrating various projects we are working on. New innovations are constantly being worked on at iVirtuoso, and we wanted to give the public a sneak preview of some of the projects that are currently in progress. With the launch of Yottalook Labs, we are showing two prototypes: Yottalook Anatomy and Yottametta. These are both interactive prototypes that you can test out and give feedback on.

Yottalook Anatomy is a search engine designed to expedite searching for anatomy related information on the web. Keeping those in the field of radiology in mind, we used an algorithm to give higher relevance to imaging-related anatomy content. Like the other Yottalook search engines, one can refine the results further. For example, you can type in “knee” and then filter by selecting “AP/PA” in the results page and get the labeled anteroposterior view of the knee.

Yottametta is a prototype meta image search engine. Many users have expressed desire to be able to search for images with thumbnail previews. Yottametta offers this type of user interface by utilizing various image search engines already in existence offered by various journal sites. While you will not need subscription to preview the images, some images may require login/subscription for download. For those who want to expand the search results even further, try selecting the “snap” tab.

As each project matures, we will release it on the main Yottalook page. So go ahead and check them out at the Yottalook Labs today by pressing the small “Yottalook Labs” icon on the bottom of the main Yottalook page or by visiting directly at www.yottalook.com/labs.