|
|
|
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
|
|
