Brainyquote.com
Jul 16 '04
The Bottom Line If you are looking for quotations related to a specific word, a concept, or a particular person, BrainyQuote.com is a great place to start your search.
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Many of us surely consider Epinions dot com to be our 'favorite' website. The one that we first go to when we sign on to the net. Perhaps it is our 'home page' for our browser. Perhaps we check it before we check our e-mail server or website for new messages. But there is always another site that might be a close second or (heaven forbid!) more important to us than Epinions dot com.
In my case that website is BrainyQuote.com
BrainyQuote.com is a website owned by Xplore, Inc.. They have a whole family of websites published in the same format. BrainyAtlas, BrainyDictionary, BrainyEncyclopedia, BrainyGeography, BrainyHistory, and BrainyZip all serve a similar function. Users input a search term and a 'google-powered' search function returns hits. I would invite my reader to visit BrainyQuote.com and click any of the links available there to explore these variants of the 'Brainy' websites.
BrainyQuote.com is a site I use often. When I first started here at Epinions dot com, I made a point of commenting on most of the reviews/essays that I read. I continue that practice to this date. It is simply my way of telling the writer that I read and thought about what they said. I invite my reader to visit that extended discussion if they care to do so. Hey, I was 'young and dumb', what did I know...?
My habit of leaving a quote developed early on during my time here. Perhaps its origin was in my days of participating in various Usenet newsgroups, where an extended 'sig line' was the status quo. 'Sig lines' are commonly used in e-mail, newsgroup postings, and other types of electronic communication.
On Epinions, in my comments, I have often left URLs that point to various resources here on the site. Resources provided by the site, resources published by other members here on the site, and . . .yes, resources that I (gasp!) have published here on the site. I particularly do this for new or returning users. Those who might be unfamiliar with the site and might benefit from a little 'Hey, read this for some tips' guidance, dare I say it . . .advice.
For my friends, for experienced users/writers here, I began leaving simple quotes that somehow relate to their review in my 'sig line':
A review of a cookbook might have drawn:
"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all."
—Harriet Van Horne.
A review of a text of Latin phrases allowed me to find this quote:
"I was recently on a tour of Latin America,and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."
—Dan Quayle
Whatever I left, I try to make it fit what I have just read. I try to let the writer know I thought about what they said, that I found it interesting enough, of enough value, to return that complement to them.
( If I ever left the impression that I was a walking compendium of quotations I do apologize. I am sure few, if any, suffered that delusion. )
BrainyQuote.com has been instrumental in my finding these various quotes. The main page of the site displays links to various topics, ranging from Age through Funny and Politics to Work. These links lead to pages that feature dozens or hundreds of quotes relating to that topic. They are arranged alphabetically by author and provide a 'link' using the first five words of each quotation. I find this difficult to use because it is hard to get the 'tone' of a quote from only the first few words.
Perhaps the way I most often use the site is simply to type a word or short phrase into the search box. When executed, the search returns anywhere from one to hundreds of quotes that contain that word or phrase. It is easy to quickly scan a variety of quotes that will vary in tone and voice. It is sometimes easy to find an appropriate quote that 'matchs' the review. Sometimes it can be difficult which just makes it more of a challenge.
The main page also provides links to quotations sorted by author. Links from A to Z jump to a page with quotations of persons with last names beginning with that letter. Again in alphabetical order, individuals can be selected to view their available quotations. The person's 'type' and number of quotes is also displayed. 'Type' is a description of the person's field of influence. Poet, Statesman, Physicist, Journalist, Inventor, Athlete are just a few examples. The number of quotes range from 1 to 298 separate quotes. Each of these individual 'letter' pages also feature the 'top ten' people for quotes under that letter.
The main page of BrainyQuote.com also displays a random quote each time it is visited or refreshed and a link to a 'trivia page' where the user can guess which of three people uttered a given thought.
Banner ads are placed at the top and side of the main page and an ad at the bottom of the main page links to random books at Amazon dot com. Yes, I click them occasionally to 'support' the site.
A link at the main page also offers a link to a page that provides javascript to 'Add the "Quote of the Day" to Your Site - it's Easy!' An example of its use is available on my 'homepage', linked at my user-page.
In the past, indeed, to this date my use of these quotes from Brainyquote.com has been challenged. I have been told that I "continually (take) quotes from an Internet quote database without ever acknowledging the source (while it clearly says there that (I) should)". Charges of 'plagiarism' have abounded: "It is well known that you keep stealing quotes from a copyrighted quotes database without attributing your source . . ."
When these charges first surfaced, I took them seriously. I e-mailed a contact address at the website and discussed with them the propriety of my using the quotes as I have here on the site.
They replied...
">Tom,
>
>We are using the quotations from authors, like hundrends(sic) of other
>sites/books, under the "fair use" principal. There's no reason that you
>shouldn't do the same and you don't need to link to BrainyQuote.com for any
>reason.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jeff
Hmmm, interesting.
The Bottom Line
If you are looking for quotations related to a specific word, a concept, or a particular person, BrainyQuote.com is a great place to start your search.
As always, I thank you for your read and welcome your comments and thoughts.
...tom...
"Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."
—Ambrose Bierce
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Epinions.com ID:
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Member: ...tom...
Location: "Is this Heaven?"......"No. It's Iowa."
Reviews written: 496
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About Me:
Back-in-the-heartland...brief respite before real-world work begins. Hopefully less intensive than I imagine it will be..!!
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