The Internet is an amazing resource for young scholars. Through it, you can access a variety of resources such as online journals, blogs, newspapers, government-sponsored websites, organizations and more! However, it is important to expand your horizons beyond Google and to truly harness the power of the Internet. How can you achieve this goal? Try experimenting with the vast array of online search tools in this section such as basic search engines, metasearch engines, web guides, and news aggregators.
Once again, as you engage in this work, be sure to document the keywords and combinations that you use in each search engine. If, as a result of searching three different databases you only uncover a handful of resources, then you may need to redefine the topic and expand your list of keywords. On the other hand, if your search yields thousands of potential resources, you may need to narrow your list of keywords and reduce the scope of your research.
Once again, as you engage in this work, be sure to document the keywords and combinations that you use in each search engine. If, as a result of searching three different databases you only uncover a handful of resources, then you may need to redefine the topic and expand your list of keywords. On the other hand, if your search yields thousands of potential resources, you may need to narrow your list of keywords and reduce the scope of your research.
Search Engines
All search engines are not created equal! Move beyond Google and experiment with these search engines:
Yahoo! Search | Duck Duck Go | Ask.com | Bing
You may also discover interesting content through Technorati, a search engine specifically for blogs and social media. It is great way to learn more about your overall topic or to discover prominent people (e.g., researchers, scientists, politicians, etc.) who actively publish work in the field of interest.
In addition to traditional search engines, you can harness the power of metasearch engines. A metasearch engine "transmits your search simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of web pages" (University of California Berkeley, 2008). Here are some well-known metasearch engines: Dogpile | Yippy | Mamma
Love Google? Take the time to learn more about this search engine and how to refine your online searches. Read the Google Search Strategies guide and experiment with your key words. You will ultimately be rewarded with more targeted results that align with your research topic. Interested in learning more about the differences between Google, Yahoo! Search, and Exalead? Check out the University of California Berkeley's Recommended Search Engines & Comparison Table.
Yahoo! Search | Duck Duck Go | Ask.com | Bing
You may also discover interesting content through Technorati, a search engine specifically for blogs and social media. It is great way to learn more about your overall topic or to discover prominent people (e.g., researchers, scientists, politicians, etc.) who actively publish work in the field of interest.
In addition to traditional search engines, you can harness the power of metasearch engines. A metasearch engine "transmits your search simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of web pages" (University of California Berkeley, 2008). Here are some well-known metasearch engines: Dogpile | Yippy | Mamma
Love Google? Take the time to learn more about this search engine and how to refine your online searches. Read the Google Search Strategies guide and experiment with your key words. You will ultimately be rewarded with more targeted results that align with your research topic. Interested in learning more about the differences between Google, Yahoo! Search, and Exalead? Check out the University of California Berkeley's Recommended Search Engines & Comparison Table.
Web Guides
You may also wish to check out web guides:
- ipl2: Information You can Trust. This site combines the power of two highly respected resources -- Internet Public Library and the Librarians' Internet Index; it is currently hosted by iSchool at Drexel University. Internet Public Library is a collection of over 40,000 Internet resources, hand picked, organized and described by librarians and library students. Librarians' Index to the Internet is a directory of Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries.
- Scout Report Archives. "Scout Report Archives is from the editors of the Scout Report at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Librarians and educators have selected more than 10,000 Web sites for their value to the education community" (2012).
News Aggregators
Focused on a timely topic that is being addressed in the news? You may wish to search through some of these resources for up-to-date news:
- Popurls. Popurls is the "dashboard for the latest web-buzz, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular sites on the internet" (2012). You can quickly and easily scan headlines across several news sites (e.g., Digg, New York Times, The Onion, and Wired).
- Google News. Google News "aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader's personalized interests" (2012). You can search by the top news stories or select areas of focus (e.g., World, Elections, Technology, etc.). Google also offers you the opportunity to customize the settings and to service to stories of interest to you.
- Bing News. With Microsoft's Bing News service, you can "find up-to-the-minute coverage of the world events that matter most to you. Thousands of news sources, RSS feeds, and blogs are at your fingertips (2012).
- Instapaper. With this nifty little tool, you can save web articles with a "Read Later" button. The articles are then assembled into a more manageable and digestible news sheet. You can also share links to the compiled sheet.