THE INTERNET AS
A RESEARCH TOOL

These notes have been adapted from a Guide written for
journalists by Thomson Foundation consultant Martin Huckerby
http://www.thomsonfoundation.co.uk/online/hack01.htm

To understand the Internet and to use it successfully, you need to use it often. Many operations are very simple, so long as you do them regularly - otherwise it is easy to forget how to do things. Secondly, the Internet is ever-changing, so if you don't use it
frequently, you soon find your knowledge is out of date.

Surfing is fun, but it can waste vast amounts of time. When you first try out the Internet, it makes sense to explore, to wander through a host of sites, to get an idea of what is out there. But once you are using the Internet regularly, don't get distracted.

One area where you may not need to be so precise is when you get the results of a search. Scan these fast. It's hard to do a search without getting lots of irrelevant information. Even if you miss something important on a quick scan, the chances are that you'll pick it up through a link from another site.

THE BASICS:
Learn how to use search tools:
There are essentially two different approaches:
- using lists (a classification or directory system)
- or links (searching not just for sites, but for individual documents which could have the   information you want).

Yahoo likens a directory to a book’s table of contents, and a search engine to a book’s index.

Plan a search