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Article:
Finding it Online: Internet Research Made Simpler by: Philippa Gamse This article was originally published in Insights - the journal of the Northeast Human Resources Association. Introduction The Web can be an incredible tool for professional development - for finding resources and information, latest practices, for participating in discussions with colleagues and independent experts, and for mentoring opportunities. But the rapid pace of change online makes the amount of available information quite bewildering. This article offers some suggestions for good research techniques, and for evaluating the credibility of the results. Researching on the Web Various tools exist to help you to find information on the Web: 1. catalog-style directories, which are maintained by human editors who index Web pages and reference them under categories that are offered to you on the screen, such as 'business', 'social sciences', or 'computers'. The best known example of this type of Web site is currently Yahoo!, at: http://www.yahoo.com These directories are useful if you are looking for information under a broad heading, such as 'distance learning', or 'resume services'. If you are interested in an area covered by one of the categories, this is a great way to begin finding sites on the Web. And each page that you visit may in turn refer you to other relevant sites. However, directories will only return search results based on the title and brief descriptions of each site, and they will often only take you to the home page of any site. Therefore they tend to be less effective tools for in-depth content queries. 2. 'spider-based' search engines, are fed by automated 'spider' programs that constantly patrol the Web, indexing URL's and individual pages. Unlike the directories, they index every significant word of every page, allowing you to enter much more detailed searches. The first few lines, or a description of each page are shown on the screen, together with its URL, and if you want to go to that site, you just click on the underlined link. There are a number of these sites too. My personal favorite is Alta Vista - it's the fastest, seems to index the most Web sites, and allows the most complex searches. Alta Vista's Web address is: http://www.altavista.com These sites vary widely in the number of pages they index, and the complexity of search criteria they allow. It is well worth trying the same query using several different engines, and comparing the results. Often, you may find that you get too much information from your search. It is important to think very clearly about exactly what you are looking for, and to put in specific search criteria that will really narrow down the results. For instance, entering 'distance learning' to Alta Vista returns '254
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