Using the Internet for Research
The key to using the Internet
for systematic research is to use a Search Engine or Search Guide.
The amount of information on the Internet can be overwhelming and finding
useful information can be difficult. Using one or a few terms alone can retrieve
thousands, or even millions of hits ... more than can be practically consulted.
There are, however, many useful tools use can use to refine your search results
down to a practical number of useful sites.
Construct a Search Strategy
If you take some time to analyse your
research topic, you will be able to input the most relevant search terms and
achieve better search results:
- Study your research topic: try to understand exactly what information you
are after.
- Narrow your topic down to managable bits: (e.g. instead of
economics it might be easier to look for: Australian economic
peformance and currency fluctuations)
- Select keywords relevant to your research topic
- Consult dictionaries if you are uncertain of the spelling of a term
- Consult encyclopaedias or general reference sites/works to gain a
background understanding of your subject
- Keep a list of search terms you use and whether they were successful or
unsucessful
Search Guides/Directories
These are lists of Internet sites grouped by
subject or category. They give you a useful overview of what is available. Yahoo! is the largest directory, covering
all topics, and lists 100's of thousands of sites.
Search Engines
These are keyword-type indexes to the information on the
Internet. They are created by computer programmes (sometimes called
crawlers) which search out and index the sites. They list millions of
individual pages. The search engine finds web pages which match your search
request and ranks them according to the frequency and prominence of your search
words on those pages. Google which
also ranks according to website popularity, and returns the most useful results,
is perhaps the most well known of these.
Searching Tips
As the index in a search engine is so large, it may often
give you too much information or include irrelevant items. Try these tips to
improve your results :
- Enter more search words to refine your query
- Use synomyns for alternative search terms (e.g. youth for
adolescents)
- Use the minus sign - directly in front of search term you do not want to
appear.
- Include a + before your most important search words and put the most
important words first. (eg +car +industry +Australia). This is useful if you
have a single character search term (e.g the figure 1 in say Star Wars
1)
- If your topic is really a phrase, put it in quotation marks, e.g. "horse
and cart". This is especially useful for personal names, e.g "Joseph Malouf".
- If your topic is related to Australia, use an Australian search engine or
restrict the search to Australian-only sites.
- If you a not getting the results you need, try using another search engine
or search guide
- If you are looking for a definition, try using the word Definition
as one of your early search terms in Google.
- Be aware of different North American or British spellings: e.g
color for colour
More info
More advanced searching methods are also available:
- Check the HELP section of individual Search Engines or Search Guides. As
well as giving more Search Tips, these will detail the particular
characteristics of the search engine you are using.
- An excellent source of information about search engines and guides is: Search Engine Showdown. It
compares the characteristics of various search engines, provides reviews and
tips on further searching methods.
Paul Convy
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©2004, ALHS
