Subject: WWW chemical structures database extended

From: "Wolf-Dietrich Ihlenfeldt" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 15:48:54 -0600

After an analysis of the logfile of the WWW chemical
structures database

http://schiele.organik.uni-erlangen.de/services/webmol.html

we found that over 80% of the non-demo queries where name queries -
which is very unfortunate, because the number of structure
files on the Net which actually contain a meaningful name is
rather low. Therefore, many queries to structures which
are contained in the database in anonymous form did not yield
results.

In response to the query pattern, we have now cross-indexed
the database to several catalogs of chemical manufacturers.
You can now search the WWW structures
database using CAS numbers and names taken from these catalogs.
There are still a number of pitfalls, please read the instructions
on the Web page.

Please have also a look at our other WWW services
(http://schiele.organik.uni-erlangen.de/services).
Numerous improvements were implemented in the last weeks.

-- 
Dr. Wolf-D. Ihlenfeldt
Computer Chemistry Center, University of Erlangen-Nuernberg
Naegelsbachstrasse 25, D-91052 Erlangen (Germany)
Tel (+49)-(0)9131-85-6579  Fax (+49)-(0)9131-85-6566
---
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3) Nakanu nara naku made matou hototogisu

---

From: "Rzepa, Henry" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 19:45:41 +0000

Wolf-D. Ihlenfeldt writes in the message with the subject
Re: CCL:WWW chemical structures database extended
> the number of structure

One major discussion area at the moment is "metadata",
defined succinctly as data about data.

HTML 2 contains the option to insert into the header
<META NAME="..."  CONTENT="...">

Most Web search engines now actively search for such metadata
entries to help them produce more meaninful indices. Unfortunately,
metadata is rarely used by authors.

There is in fact an active group discussing how to implement this
in a generic manner. This derives from some  OCLC proposals
called the  Dublin Core metadata elements. A short summary
has been prepared by myself to be discussed at the ACS
nomenclature committee. Its on

http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/chemime/chemeta.html

But please note its early days yet. There are some of course
who are convinced that the chances of getting even 1% of
authored Web documents to contain any metadata declarations
is overly optimistic.  I wonder whether those of you who have
authored web pages and used metadata exceed that percentage?

Henry Rzepa. +44 171 594 5774 (Office) +44 594 5804 (Fax)