Tara Calishain used JavaScript to create a collection of tools that save time for journalists conducting research. In a special guest post for OJB, she explains how five of those work.

It’s been over 25 years since I wrote the Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research (and 24 years since I started my blog ResearchBuzz), but search engines and the problem of finding things on the Internet remain just as fascinating to me. Over this summer I began trying to actually solve search challenges instead of just thinking about them — and working out techniques to minimize them.

What changed? I began learning JavaScript! I spent some time in a SkillShare class in May, started a GitHub account in June, and by Labor Day I had a collection of about twenty of what I’m calling ResearchBuzz Search Gizmos.

They’re all freely available at researchbuzz.github.io. Some of them require API keys, but the keys are free as well. 

I love all my little Gizmos and could never pick an absolute favorite, but I think these would be most useful to journalists.

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