Researches on the Net are now a consolidated tool for those who have to collect information on or study a particular subject. The sites and sources you draw from for your web search should ideally come from professionals, experts, organizations, companies and other entities who have a good degree of authority on the topic in question. Since the Internet is a public platform accessible to everyone, the information you will come into contact with may not be actual, but formed by personal opinions and speculations; in this case, the material you collated would be inaccurate and useless. To find information on the subject of your research that is completely factual and accurate, you must be able to discern the credibility of the sources. Keep reading this article if you want to learn how to do web searches that allow you to get meaningful and accurate results.
Steps
Step 1. Use the appropriate search tools
The tools to use in a web search can change depending on the topic you are dealing with.
- First of all, use the main search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo; these tools guarantee you access to almost all sites published on the Internet. Furthermore, the search engines will display the results according to a ranking dictated by their relevance with respect to the keywords you use.
- Use search directories or other tools that may be provided by your company, school or university if you are searching the Net for study or work. Many companies and schools recommend the use of certain sites, or even allow connection to private databases of well-founded authority, normally inaccessible to the public.
Step 2. Use keywords relevant to the search topic
To find credible and authoritative information on the Internet about your study subject, you will need to use thoughtful combinations of keywords related to it.
- When entering keywords, try to get as specific as possible. For example, if you are looking for instructions on how to change the oil on a 2006 Honda Accord, type exactly "Honda Accord 2006 oil change instructions" rather than resorting to a more generic "oil change": you will avoid being inundated with tons of results regarding oil change for motorcycles, buses, boats and other motor vehicles.
- Use synonyms or alternative expressions to find additional sources. For example, if you are researching foreign films, also try "cinema", "international", "film", and so on, to eventually get to new sources on the topic you are examining.
Step 3. Don't stop at the first page of results
As already mentioned, the search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo sort the results based on specific algorithms, such as the popularity of the sites, which have little to do with the authority of the sources.
In some cases, you may find sites with valuable search information even after the fifth page of results
Step 4. Make sure the site is a credible and reliable source
If what you need is factual information, you want to be sure that what you are finding has been provided by professionals and experts qualified for that particular field or subject.
- Read the "About Us" section ("About Us" if you are on an English site) to find out more about the authors or the organization that published the data.
- Pay attention to the domains in the URLs of the sites to determine their nature. If the site ends with the domains ".edu", ".gov", or ".org", it means that the information published is supervised, respectively, by a school, a government agency or a non-profit organization, and that, in most part of the cases, they are reliable.
Step 5. Use the latest information
Information ages, and with it sources. The data you found, therefore, may be outdated and out of date. For example, if you are researching the most popular software at the moment, only consider articles published in the last few weeks and forget about articles dated from the previous year.
Step 6. Check each site for grammatical errors and broken links
Sites that aim to be credible and trustworthy pay particular attention to the language form and want each link to take you where it should. Sites with flaky spelling and corrupted links, on the other hand, could be fakes that copy from other sources and are therefore to be discarded.
Step 7. Remember to mention - or keep a list - of the sites used for your research
This will come in handy if you need to search for a site to tap into new information, or if the research commissioners want a website attached to the final document.
Copy exactly the URL where the source you used is located
Advice
- When you find a site that is a source of valuable and useful information for your research, add it to your Favorites or Bookmarks in your browser, so that you can find it later in case of need.
- Refine your search by using the "Search" button ("Search" on sites in English) on the specialized sites you have found. For example, if you are researching how to get kids used to potty training and moving to blogs run by stay-at-home mothers, then type "potty accustom" into the "Search" field of one of these sites. You'll avoid sifting through millions of posts you don't care about.
Warnings
- Never use sites that contain large doses of advertising or that obsessively promote a product for your research. Some sites receive money to promote and sell a specific product and may therefore provide biased information to increase sales of that product.
- If you are using your computer for research, make sure it is protected by a good antivirus. Since you will end up browsing sites you are not familiar with, an antivirus can protect your computer from viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs that you could expose it to.
