A new blog post from Aaron Tay, “5 things Google Scholar does better than your library discovery service”, looking at the huge market advantages enjoyed by Google Scholar. The main points in summary:

* Intake and update: Google intakes, refreshes and updates very quickly.

* Automated detection: The Google bot spots and indexes academic articles wherever those are located.

* Relevancy ranking: It’s certainly not perfect, but is vastly better than anyone else’s.

* Clear and fast: Simple interface, a few useful widgets and filters. Additional features are accessed only via typed-in search modifiers or the well-hidden “Advanced” form.

* Cross-platform: Scholar can be tweaked to become a seamless gateway into paid subscription services.

I would also add…

* De-duplication in results. Not always perfect, not always even seen by the end user, but pretty intelligent.