The articles in this section are intended to help you get started with online research. Included here is information on how to use this site, together with quick start guides to help fast track your research efforts.
If you are new to this site, or new to online research, this is the place to start. More advanced users should try the tutorials sections for more information.
If your business or personal interest would benefit from increased access to information, then it is worth your time to learn how to use properly the search services on the Internet. Finding relevant timely information has always been one of the great challenges faced by Internet users. In the Internet of yore, users had to be fluent with arcane tools like Gopher, Archie, and Veronica. Long delays and slow connection speeds made the search a bit maddening. Downloading a file was often the only way to be able to assess whether it was relevant to your needs.
The birth of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the arrival of friendly web browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator), brought the information resources of the Internet within everyone's reach, complete with pictures, movies and sound. Despite the progress of technology, however, the ability to find what you need in short order remains a big problem.
Most people today have experience using some of the various search services on the Web. However, the search sophistication of most users remains very low. Statistics indicate that over 98% of Web users have visited the online directory and search site Yahoo!, while search engine Google has rapidly become a fixture in people's search habits. These engines, together with the services attached to AOL, and the Microsoft Network, constitute the most commonly used search services. They are, however, only the tip of the information iceberg.
Start your investigation of Internet research sources by learning about the different types of services. Taking a bit of a liberty with the cliche, it's fair to say that not all search services are created equal. It is important that you understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of the following categories of services: Directories, Gateways, Search Engines and Meta-Search Engines.
Directories are collections of websites that are organized by human beings. The classification system is subjective and done manually. The index created by the directory service is organized topically. Within each topic you will find a collection of sites related to that topic. A hierarchy of categories and multiple subcategories allows you to search from general to more specific topics, simply by "drilling down" through the layers of the data structure. Human classification is the key characteristic of a directory; it is also the source of the services' strengths and weaknesses. The strength comes from the fact that the sites within each topic are certain to be relevant; you're not going to find porn sites mixed in with your home improvement sites. The principal limitation of directories lies in the fact that human classification systems are slow. As a result, directories tend to have smaller collections of sites and the information is sometimes quite old.
Gateways share similarities with Directories; they are indexed by human beings. However, in addition to striving for relevance in their classification scheme, they also single out sites based on quality. Gateways, as a consequence, are often frequented by academics, researchers, and journalists. The collections tend to be small, quality-driven and often highly focused.
Search Engines, like Google and Live, work in a completely different manner. Instead of using human beings to classify sites into a fixed hierarchical classification system, search engines use software called "spiders" or "bots" (short for "robots") to literally scour the web for data and then objectively index it all. The result is an enormous database of information which you search by typing in words or phrases. The principal advantage of this system is size; some search engine databases are huge. The downside is that your search may well turn up millions of results -- many of which are not relevant to your primary topic.
Meta-Search Engines are characterized by their unique functionality. Also called multi-threaded search engines, they work by broadcasting your request to multiple search engines and retrieving the results in one window for your convenience. So, one request to Dogpile brings back results from 17 other search engines! Meta-search engines provide a very convenient place to start your searching. Nonetheless, you will still have to go to the individual engines in question to get the best results, as the meta-search engine "normalize" your request to make it palatable to various search services (who often have different criteria for submitting requests). The net effect being that the normalized request often fails to use all the search engines' features to their best benefit.
Having the right collection of sites at your disposal is like having the right tools for the job; it's hard to do the job well without the right tools. Learn what is out there. Once you find a site you like, take the time to run through the tutorials and see how the site's features can help you. If you want to improve your skills, invest in learning Boolean logic (very easy, actually!) and investigate the different search services off the Web. Good Internet research tutorials abound, but you might want to start at the Librarians' Index to the Internet, or with the hyperlinks on Search Engine Watch.
Good luck and good hunting!
Too good to be true? No way! This list of resources is good enough to cover the needs of most users in most situations. The fact is, even here at the Launchpad this set of tools covers the vast majority of our searches on a daily basis (shhhh! don't tell the hardcore users, they'll never respect us again!).