Google scholar searches not working

[Jon]

I have one other user who is getting the same behavior as you (i.e. sometimes getting one hit). But when he restarts in safe mode (Shift key held down) and uses a guest account the search works. So far we haven't found what the interfering process is, so it would be great if you could figure it out. So please, reboot in safe mode first and see if that makes a difference. If it does not, please try your guest account. We can follow this up off-forum (support@sonnysoftware.com).

Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

Jon
Sonny Software

[benjaminpelissie]

GoogleScholar search is still not working on BE 12.5.2. I have exactly the same issues than granmon describes. It is really unusable.
Ben

[Jon]

I don't think unstable means what you think it means.

What is your system language? If it's not English, try changing it to that.

In future, if you have problems with things that should work, please report them to tech support. This forum is not for tech issues.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2038

Jon
Sonny Software

[benjaminpelissie]

I never wrote "unstable" anywhere, but "unusable". And thank you, but I do know what both words actually mean.

Thank you, but I don't want to change my system language for that. I shouldn't have to. Even if it worked, I wouldn't.

Sorry for having posted it in this thread, but as many others did it already (and as I didn't read the forum rules; apologies) I thought I might just give a quick update to this problem after upgrading to BE 12.5.2. Will be more careful in the future.

Ben

[Jon]

The point of changing your system language is to see if that's indeed the problem. Once you've tested you can change it back again.

And I misread your original post, sorry.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

In dealing with a Google Search problem with one of our users we discovered something very helpful. It is the language setting for Google Scholar, not the OS, that can result in bizarre search results. His Google Scholar searches were set to Serbian. When he switched to English the problems disappeared.

So my recommendation for anyone who is getting incomplete or spurious results from Google Scholar searches to try the following:

1. In Bookends Online Search, select Google Scholar as the online site and click the Google Scholar button at the bottom of the window.
2. If you have registered with GS, at the top of the window you'll see a list of options...click on More -> Settings -> Languages.
3. If English is not selected, choose it from the pop-up menu and Save.

Try searching again and see if the problem has been fixed.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

The next Bookends update will contain support for those people who changed the Google Search language setting to something other than English. At this time I've added support for the following languages:

Arabic
Catalan
Chinese
Croatian
Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Hebrew
Italian
Japanese
Portuguese
Serbian
Spanish

If there is a language you want supported that is not on this list (and that is an option in the Google Scholar settings), please let me know at support@sonnysoftware.com

Jon
Sonny Software

[benjaminpelissie]

Seems to work for me! Awesome!

[mathefff]

Is this also the results of the same problem? If so, changing Google Schoolar to English (UK) did not fix the problem for me

[Jon]

That has nothing to do with language. Do the same search in your browser -- what do you see for title? If you see the full title please contact me directly with more information.

Jon
Sonny Software

[mathefff]

Okay, I am confused. I have tried to find that reference via the website and this is what I have found...

[Jon]

support@sonnysoftware.com

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

This should be improved in the next update.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Alexander]

I am new to Bookends, switched from Endnote because of positive feedback from a friend. Bot I discovered that Bookends is unable to import from Google Scholar. I get the reference, but when I click import, the message appears "no references were imported". After reading some of the posts, I went to the browser and did the Google "I am not a Robot" routine, clicking on buses, cars, and street signs. No change. I realize now this is an old problem, and if I knew about this, I would not have purchased the program, but I did, so I would like to know if there is a solution or at least a reasonable explanation of what is going on. Thank you. Alex

[Jon]

What you describe doesn't sound like the same problem. If GS think you're a robot the search will return "No matches found". The failure to import sounds like something else. I was able to import that reference from Google Scholar. Is it possible you edited the Bookends Google Scholar import filter by mistake? If you did edit it tell me and I'll send you the factor default.

As for the general issue: Google Scholar tries to weed out robots that harvest data. No one knows the rules they use, but this affect all apps that get info from Google Scholar (there are many posts about this if you google for it). Bookends tries to minimize this by submitting requests for up to 10 hits at a time (so if you ask for 10 reference, Bookends sends 10 queries), and my limiting the number that you can download to 20 per request.

If GS bans you, you should do what you did (log on to Google Scholar from the same IP address and identify yourself as human), it may take up to 24 hours to be reinstated. And it may help to create a Google Scholar account so that in the future it recognizes your IP address (or whatever criteria it uses).

Jon
Sonny Software