Looking for something to do this weekend: why not search 100 million peer-reviewed documents?

If you are in the business of searching online databases of scientific documents, you may by now have stumbled across the curiously-named Boliven, which modestly describes itself as "The leading information portal for R&D, IP and business development professionals" and as the proud possessor of over 100 million peer-reviewed documents [oh, those poor, poor peers, mews Merpel in sympathy, since she finds it tiresome enough even to give a second opinion on a case note, never mind all that algebra and all those squiggles the scientists have to handle] to help identify technologies, clients, partners, opportunities and ideas.

In its relatively short life since its launch in 2007, Boliven (the name is a contraction of Bologna and Venice, according to Wikipedia, and not -- as the Kat had hoped -- of Bollinger and venison) has attracted over 35,000 users [that's nearly the population of Liechtenstein, notes Merpel] and hopes to overtake the tiny Principality soon.  To this end, Boliven's owners at CambridgeIP have kindly agreed to offer readers of this weblog a one-month free trial of its BolivenPRO search facility.  All you have to do is register for your free trial, using the special offer code -- KATFREETRIAL -- and then you can search for one whole month to your heart's content. The place to register is www.boliven.com/freetrials

This Kat is curious to know of the experiences of any readers who take up this offer, and is happy to publish on this weblog any interesting points they may care to make (particularly, but not exclusively, if they deal with any aspect of technology as it relates to cats). He would try it out himself, but for his fabled inability to complete any search successfully without using Google (he couldn't even find BolivenPRO on the Boiliven website ...), so any feedback published here is in your hands!

If you want to have a go, there's a somewhat daunting tutorial on managing and sharing lists here, not to mention the YouTube-torials here.