Editor’s note: This post is part of our Source the Web series here on SourceCon. It features articles on how to mine particular online data resources.
Google Drive, Dropbox, Skydrive, Evernote, and Box are tools that allow users to save and share documents on the cloud. Unfortunately, most of these tools have not developed a way for users to search other people’s files that have been set to allow for public sharing. Cloud Kite is a tool that is filling that void. The company describes themselves on their Google+ profile as a “collective encyclopedia project based on Google Drive public files and on the Cloud sharing, Cloud sourcing and Cloud solving principles.” Using Cloud Kite, users can search files uploaded to Google Drive, Dropbox, Skydrive, Evernote, and Box at the same time (note that the more services you search, the longer the search takes).
Below is a screen shot of the search results for: resume AND c++
What types of files can we potentially find that can help us as sourcers?
- Resumes
- Conference attendee lists
- Meeting minutes (complete with names)
- Shared projects developers are working on
The possibilities are endless!
Please give it a try and let me know how it works for you in the comments section below. Do you know of any other tools that will search documents shared in the cloud?