Research, Internet 

We're living in the Information Age these days, with mounds of data available on the Internet. The problem is finding the information you need when it's buried somewhere in among all that data. Tracking down facts and figures on the Internet can be time-consuming and frustrating, and It can be especially difficult if you're only used to working with major search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing and aren't acquainted with advanced search techniques.

The other thing that makes Internet research stressful is the fact that you're almost always working against a deadline and under pressure to produce results quickly. Whether it's for a school project, doing market research for a new product, tracking real estate prices or looking up court decisions for a legal case, carrying out your research faster and more efficiently helps relieve some of that stress.

So where do you turn for help? There are various tools and techniques available to make Internet research easier and they can be loosely grouped under the term “online research methods” or “ORMs”. ORMs encompass the whole process of searching through the multitude of websites on the Internet and locating, extracting, and saving the data you need.

The primary components of ORMs are:

Advanced search techniques

Methods to help you verify a website's reliability

Knowledge of the different information sources available on the web

Web scraping tools

Data transformation and storage applications

Utilizing each of those components can make it much easier to produce the needle (or needles) you're looking for in the Internet haystack. In the end, Internet research is a job and like any other job the more guidance and the more tools at your disposal, the easier the job becomes. That's the goal of this book – to show you examples of techniques and tools that can help you find and collect the information you need. 

CONTENTS:

Introduction...............................................................................5
Learn the Terminology.............................................................7
Searching the Internet.............................................................9
General information............................................................9
Getting started.....................................................................10
Advanced Search options.................................................. 17
Specialty search engines....................................................18
Online surveys......................................................................24
Social media searches.........................................................26
RSS Feeds..............................................................................26
Make sure your sources are reliable....................................29
Citing your sources.................................................................31
Internet research tools...........................................................32
Note-taking/Database tools...............................................32
Annotation/Highlighting tools...........................................33
Data analysis tools..............................................................33
Multipurpose tools..............................................................34
Social media search tools..................................................34
Web scrapers.......................................................................35
Miscellaneous tools............................................................38
Classes on Internet Research techniques...........................39
Working as an Internet research specialist.........................40
Clients, Research Procedures and reporting.................45
The Business Side of Internet Research.........................48
Sample Internet Research Questions.............................50
Researching Client Questions Step-by-step...................51
Security Aspects of Internet Research.................................58
Legal and ethical Aspects of Internet Research..................60
Working Offline........................................................................61
Other books by the author.....................................................62
Appendix A- Google Search Commands...............................63
Appendix B- Internet Research Certification........................64
Appendix C- The Internet and the Web................................65
Appendix D- Terminology.......................................................68
Appendix E- Research Websites by Category......................75
Notes.........................................................................................78
 

Note: Includes references and appendix.