Of Needles and Haystacks: Successful Internet Searching – Part II

In Part I we considered how to frame effective questions, and looked at the way search engines worked. Next we need to consider how to evaluate your findings, and when to pays it consider seeking out alternative information resources.

Evaluating Your Findings

Evaluating your findings includes making sure you have selected appropriate sources in the first place, considering the costs, and then checking for currency, validity and reliability.

SELECTING THE APPROPRIATE SOURCE

Some of the best sites on the Internet are not indexed by the search engines. It pays to go to such Web sites and search them directly if they would be the leading source of information on a particular topic.

Many public agencies and news media Web sites do not permit access (perhaps for security reasons) to the spiders of search engines. As a result their contents often elude the search engine’s efforts as well as our own search attempts. This section of unindexed resources is referred to as the “invisible web”.

For example, if looking for news of current events such as Enron, the best source is often a newspaper site such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and so on where you can search for the topic rather wasting time with a global search engine which would overlook their offerings.

CONSIDER THE COST

In a billable environment time really is money. Your firm wants you to spend it wisely, so follow this simple rule of thumb: if you look for something on the Internet (or in any other resource for that matter) and don’t find it within ten minutes, stop searching. Your Web use may be free, but if you spend 45 minutes searching fruitlessly through irrelevant information, there is definitely an expense to the firm, and it’s not one the powers-that-be will be happy to pay. What you need may not be available or may be squirreled away somewhere you haven’t heard about.

Also there are some types of information that are so costly to collate only large consulting firms have the resources to pull all the information together, analyze it and repackage it. This is generally the case with market research reports and benchmarking materials.

It can be far more cost effective to purchase these off-the-shelf, either direct from the firms that produce such reports or from the various online services and aggregators (e.g. FirstResearch, Dialog, Profound, MarketResearch.com, MindBranch, ECNext etc.) who have purchased the right to list and sell them on behalf of the original compiler. In the later case one of the best features of a good aggregator prices can vary quite a bit as can whether you can purchase the entire report or just a page.

EVALUATE YOUR INFORMATION

There is no intellectual review required for posting to a website. Anyone can post information on the Internet and almost none of it goes through any kind of screening. You could be looking at a page of complex financial information posted by a financial expert with years of experience and a list of degrees, or it might have been posted by a failing graduate student. How do you know? Much of what’s available on the Internet is unreliable, and it’s often difficult to tell for sure. Frequently, inaccuracies aren’t through any malicious intent, either. Most often they result because some generous soul who is trying to be helpful posts something and then simply forgets to keep it current. Four years later, can you tell when it was last revised? Sometimes, however, we users trip ourselves up by assuming that information from a reliable source, especially a government entity, must be completely current because it’s in an electronic format. In fact, most government information, the Code of Federal Regulations for instance, is only as current as its print equivalent.

If you are ever tempted to rely on information from the Internet without evaluating it or verifying it against a reputable print resource, imagine passing it to a partner who gives it to a client who comes back later to let you know that it was incorrect. Always check to see how current a page is. Always look for contact information for the page author. If there’s no one you can contact with a complaint, it’s a very bad sign.

Consider the following questions:

– Who wrote the pages?
– What does the author have to say about the subject?
– Does the author have the authority to present this information?
– Does the author/publishing organization have anything to gain by presenting this information?
– When was the site created and updated?
– Where does the site’s information come from?
– Is the information consistent with other published material on the topic?
– Why it the site useful or important?
– Can the information be verified in book, periodical or other sources?

When You Should Consider Looking Elsewhere

Even expert searchers fall into the lazy habit of using the Internet exclusively when trying to find answers to their research questions. It’s so easy! It’s right there on your desktop! You almost always find something. But, the Internet is just another great tool in an already extensive array.

A good public or college library often provides information in more depth and may have resources which are easier and faster to use, not to mention more current and reputable. You might also be able to access information databases not available without huge subscription costs. Libraries often provide limited forms of access to these resources. And you can always call on highly trained research professionals for assistance.

Sometimes the Internet gets you part of the way, but ultimately a direct phone call is a better option.

Remember that electronic searching, especially Internet searching, is not always the best way to find what you seek. Take advantage of all the tools at your disposal

---

Copyright 2004, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.