Planning your Information Search By The Want2Find.Info Team
The Internet can be used to gather information on a huge variety of topics, and in most cases will return thousands of web pages, most of which may not be relevant.In order to make your search for information more successful it may be a good idea to sketch out a search plan.
Planning your search for information should cover the following areas;
1) Be specific in what you are searching for 2) Clearly define what you want the outcome of your search to be 3) Decide on the search tools you will use 4) Decide on the method of collating your research
Here are some questions that may help you develop your own search plan
Be Specific What are the key words or phrases that describe the information I am looking for – list words, phrases and synonyms Do I need to look in encyclopedias, dictionaries or specialist publications first to find the words or phrases that describe my topic How much do I know about this topic already – are there specific gaps in my knowledge, or am I just looking for a broad overview of the topic
Clearly Define Outcome What do I need to know – is it a specific answer, or product/service that I am looking for or do I need 1,000 words to write a report What (or how much) do I need to find before I stop - searching the web can be like going down a rabbit hole, know when to stop and take stock of the information you have found
Search Tools What is the best search engine for this search - Is my search academic, or to find out about a commercial product or service, or just a general search for information. This link will give you a list of search engines, by category, to help you find the right tool http://www.pandia.com/powersearch/
TIP:Very specific query, use a Search Engine – Broader, more general query, use a Web Directory
Research Tools How am I going to collate and save the information that my search uncovers? There are lots of software products available to help capture
and store information found on the Internet.The main features of a good research tool are:
Save complete web pages Save text and images Save content from other applications (Word, PDF) Annotate content Highlight important text
One of the best tools I have found is Surfulator (http://www.surfulater.com) as it is much more than a web research tool – it is also a complete PIM (Personal Information Manager).Here are some more web research tools that you may want to look at:
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