NetResearch: Finding Information Online By Daniel J. Barrett, Ph.D. 1st Edition February 1997 1-56592-245-X, Order Number: 245X 200 pages, $24.95

NetResearch: Finding Information Online

Preface / Chapter 1: Instant gratification...and beyond

From the Preface

This book teaches lasting skills

Many of today's "Introduction to the Internet" books discuss Net searching, particularly on the World Wide Web, in a strange way. Like cookbooks, they provide step-by-step instructions for locating particular Web pages. Some books, in fact, are just big lists of Web sites: so-called Yellow Pages of the Internet. The problem with this approach is that the Internet changes rapidly. A year later, or even by the time the book goes to press, many Web pages have moved or disappeared, and the book becomes out of date--about as useful as an old telephone directory.

This book, however, is built to last. It's not just a big list of Web pages (though we do include one as an appendix to help you get started). Instead, it teaches general strategies and search techniques that will continue to work even while the Net changes around us. Can't find one of the Web pages listed in another book? No problem. We'll show you where (and how) to look next.

In short, this is how the experts do it. Not by memorizing lists that go out of date, but by gaining intuition.

This book has several parts

Chapters 1 - 4 introduce searching on the Internet. They answer the questions: What is searching? How is the Internet organized? Where do I begin my search? People already familiar with the Web, email, Usenet, and FTP may skip Chapter 2, but all readers should at least look over Chapters 1, 3 and 4, even if they have already done a fair amount of searching on the Net.

Chapters 5 - 9 are the "meat" of the book, describing dozens of methods for power searching on the Net. These chapters are intended not only to teach particular techniques, but also to help you think like a searcher. Each chapter focuses on finding a different kind of practical information.

Chapters 10 and 11 discuss topics related to searching: how to remember where things are located on the Net, how to find them when they move, and how to contribute your own.

Every chapter ends with a quiz to test your mastery of the material. For instance, you'll be challenged to locate information on a particular topic or to discover somebody's electronic mail address. Some questions will have one right answer, but others will have several depending on how you search.

Chapter 1: Instant gratification... and beyond

The Internet is filled with information.

The Internet is one of the world's largest sources of publicly-available information. Thanks to the growth of the World Wide Web, millions of electronic resources around the globe are at our fingertips. To help us deal with this incredible amount of data, a new skill has arisen: Internet searching. Given any topic--mutual funds, plane schedules, beer, harpsichords, or whatever--anyone with an Internet-capable computer account can search the Net for information on that topic.

Searching, however, is not the same thing as finding. The Internet is like a huge blob of facts, opinions, stories, conversations, arguments, artwork, mistakes, trivia, and one-of-a-kind knowledge. There's little organization or consistency. And yet, it's possible to navigate the Net effectively and reap great rewards.

This chapter provides a quick introduction to Internet searching: both its benefits and its difficulties.

You can search the Internet.

Assuming you have an Internet-capable computer account, let's jump-start this book with a quick example. (If you don't have an account yet, just follow along.)

Run your Web browser (see the sidebar "Connecting to the Web" if you need help with this) and connect to Yahoo, a popular site on the Internet. Yahoo is a special kind of Web site called a search engine. If you type a few words onto the Web page, Yahoo attempts to locate other Web pages related to your words.

We'll connect to Yahoo by providing its Web address--called its "URL" (Uniform Resource Locator)--to the browser. This is generally accomplished using the browser's Open, Open URL, or Get URL command. When prompted for a URL, type http://www.yahoo.com.

If all goes well, you'll soon see Yahoo's main Web page.

Hmmm..., what shall we search for? Let's look for information on one of the world's greatest searchers: Sherlock Holmes. In the space provided by Yahoo, type the words Sherlock Holmes and press the on-screen Search button.

A moment later, Yahoo should respond with dozens of "pointers" to further information about Sherlock Holmes: tributes, lists of stories, Holmes t-shirts, Holmes museums, the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (his creator), and more. These pointers, called links, lead to other Web pages. To follow a link, select it with your mouse, and its associated Web page will appear, containing information and more links. You can then follow those links to still more Web pages, and so on, and so on. Follow some links and see where they take you.

Welcome to the World Wide Web. As you can see, it wasn't very hard to locate tons of information about Sherlock Holmes. There must be more to searching, however...or else this would be a very short book.

Unfortunately, some searches fail.

One reason our Sherlock Holmes search succeeded so easily is that our goal was very general. Any information on Sherlock Holmes was good enough. Suppose you had a more specific goal: the name of a Sherlock Holmes story you read a long time ago. All you remember is that the victims were killed by a poisonous snake. So you might try asking Yahoo to look for "Sherlock Holmes and the poisonous snake".

This time, unfortunately, Yahoo responds "No matching Yahoo sites." In other words, Yahoo didn't find anything that matches your goal. The search has failed.

Does this mean there's no information on the whole Internet about Sherlock Holmes and poisonous snakes? No, all it means is that Yahoo couldn't find what you requested. Maybe your request could be stated differently: for instance, by typing poison instead of poisonous. Or perhaps Yahoo is the wrong place to look.

Searches can fail for other reasons too. Suppose you need to know the definition of a word, so you decide to find a dictionary on the Net. You tell Yahoo to look for dictionary. In return, you get hundreds of links: a Japanese-Danish dictionary, a dictionary of famous quotations, the "Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, a genealogy dictionary, an English-Romanian dictionary of proverbs, a rhyming dictionary, a nutrient dictionary from a vitamin manufacturer, a dictionary of railway terminology, ...! There might be a traditional dictionary buried in this pile of data, but who has time to look? Sometimes, too much information is just as bad as too little.

In general, a variety of problems can occur while searching on the Net:

You could search for a long time but find nothing. It's possible that the information isn't available on the Internet, but it's also possible that you aren't looking in the right place or asking in the best way.

You could find so much information that you can't possibly weed through it to find what you need. (A simple search can easily locate over 100,000 vaguely relevant Web pages.)

You could encounter a slow network connection...at a time when you need answers quickly.

The computer that holds the information you need could be down for repairs.

You could find what you need, take note of the location, but later discover that it has vanished. (The Net changes rapidly.)

In other words, searching can sometimes be quite a challenge. Despite what media pundits may say about the information treasures of the Internet, some work may be required to locate what you need online.

This book is designed to teach you to be an effective Internet navigator, seeking out information, locating it rapidly, and avoiding pitfalls.

(Incidentally, the Sherlock Holmes story mentioned above is The Adventure of the Speckled Band.)

Searching the Internet is an art.

Do you know somebody--perhaps a friend or coworker--who always finds great stuff online? Have you ever wondered how he or she does it? Chances are, the answer is a combination of experience, insight, and perseverance. (And probably a little luck.) It takes a certain outlook to become a successful Net searcher, and throughout this book, you'll find some important themes that reflect this attitude.

I call these themes the Internet Searcher's Rules for the Road.

1. Carefully choose a starting place. Like the old saying says, sometimes "you can't get there from here." Different starting points may lead to different results.

2. Don't assume failure too quickly. When a search program responds "nothing found," don't give up. Try a few variations on your search. If these don't produce results either, you can still try other starting places, programs, and search techniques.

3. Don't assume success too quickly. Even when you locate what you need, there might be another source of information available that is better. Don't be too loyal to one Web site or one search technique. Keep an open mind. Experiment.

4. Think about your route. Even if you reached your goal, there might have been a faster way to get there. Pay attention when a search strategy provides quick results: the same strategy might be usable in other situations.

5. Know your tools. Read the manual. Use the online help. Try out all the commands and options. Make sure your search software is the latest version, or at least a recent one.

6. Intuition is your best search tool. The Internet changes rapidly, and so does the software we use to access it. Knowledge, on the other hand, accumulates. As you learn from experience, you'll get progressively better at tackling new situations.

Net experts use these principles to locate what they need in the ever-changing online world. And when you've finished this book, so will you.

Accuracy isn't guaranteed online.

The Net can be a terrific source of information... or misinformation. Just because something appears on a Web page doesn't make it true. Material on the Internet is written by thousands of individuals with differing opinions, motivations, and levels of expertise. Since much of the material has not gone through any editorial process, you're bound to encounter errors, omissions, and biases online... even lies.

How can you tell if an online resource is believable? This is a difficult task, similar to judging material you receive by postal mail, read in the back of magazines, or see on television "infomercials." Your best bet is to identify the source of the information, though this may be difficult. Your experience with the source will then determine how much trust you have in that information.

The URL (address) of a Web page can provide some assurance that its information is legitimate. If the Web page resides on a computer belonging to a relevant, official organization, this is a good sign. For example, a table of postal mail rates is likely to be accurate if found on www.usps.gov, the Web site for the United States Postal Service. (Chapter 6 will explain how to examine a URL and identify the computer containing the Web page, and from there, the sponsoring organization.) Web sites for major newspapers and magazines have the same credibility as their in-print counterparts, and well-known companies generally try to keep their Web sites accurate, though they may still use advertising hype. On the other hand, an advertisement for unproven health products, on a Web site you've never heard of before, that asks you to send money to a post office box, should be treated with extreme skepticism.

Some of the major issues of accuracy online are:

Mistakes. Typographical errors, factual errors, accidental omissions, incorrect URLs, careless statements, and ambiguity can occur in any material online. If you discover any of the above, be sure to inform the author or the maintainer of the material. Usually their email address is found near the information: on the same Web page, on the main page of the Web site, in the headers of a Usenet article, or in the return address of an email message. Some Web sites even have fill-in-the-blanks forms for reporting errors.

Outdated information. Material online is not always kept up to date. When events happen in the world, Web page creators may be slow, forget, or neglect to update their pages correspondingly. Updated information may become available online in a different location from the original, with no indication that this is so. In addition, articles written years ago still float around the Net, sometimes with the date of authorship missing, so it's not easy to tell the material is old. Even Web page links become obsolete as locations change.

There's no easy way to ensure that the material you find is up to date, other than contacting the author or maintainer and asking. (As with errors and omissions, notify the author or maintainer if you find outdated information.)

Opinions stated as facts. Some kinds of online information are obviously opinions, such as product reviews and political beliefs. Other opinions can easily be dressed up to look like facts. Consider investment advice, for example. A Web site may contain factual charts and graphs illustrating the rise and fall of the stock market, but if it states that a particular stock will go up in the future, this is speculation and therefore opinion.

In general, most of what you'll read on the Net will be opinions, so remember the old rule caveat emptor ("buyer beware"). Anybody can say just about anything they want online, and it's up to you to judge the validity of the source.

Bias and conflict of interest. When examining information online, consider the source. For example, suppose you encounter a Web page comparing the long-distance rates of AT&T, MCI, and Sprint. You might treat this page with differing levels of skepticism depending on its source. If the page appeared on Consumer Reports magazine's Web site, you might view the comparison with high confidence. If it appeared on the Web site of (say) AT&T, or of a fourth long-distance company who claimed its rates were lower than those compared, you might be more concerned about bias. If you found the comparison on a random user's home page, you might not know what to think.

Paid sponsorship is also an important factor in judging material. Some Web sites pretend to provide unbiased recommendations of products or services, when really they recommend anybody who pays them a fee. For example, suppose you encounter a Web page that recommends attorneys in your geographic area. Does it list all the attorneys, or only those who have paid to be listed? As another example, suppose you locate a Web page about abortion. You might view it differently if it's sponsored by the Christian Coalition or by Planned Parenthood.

Fraud. Although most people on the Internet behave honestly, there are always troublemakers in any crowd. Be aware that phony businesses, illegal money-making schemes, deceptive advertisements, and hoaxes are sometimes found online. The Web lets anybody put flashy, promotional literature onto the Net at very low cost, so don't be misled by the look of a Web page. Be skeptical of claims that seem too good to be true.

Nevertheless, the Net remains a great resource on countless topics. Don't be put off by this cautionary information. You just have to take some online "facts" with a grain of salt.

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