Here's a general list of steps I use to find out stuff about any topic. These can be changed to suit your needs, whether you want to see if a service is a scam or to find facts and/or myths about something. "Tabbed browsing" works nicely with this process.
- Open up my browser to a Web search site.
- Open a text file (new or used), and write the current time and date with a subject on one line.
- Open one to three links discussing the good things about the topic in question. Copy and paste the links into my text file.
- Open one to three links discussing the bad things about the topic in question. (If the topic is fairly new or is genuinely excellent, you may find few to no reported problems about the sites.) Copy and paste these links into my text file.
- Count the number of references given (professionals, studies, etc.) for each of the links. If there's time, find out if each of the references have their own websites. Copy and paste the reference information (including the links) to my text file.
From here, I have a very good idea about the topic. Step 5 tells me which of the sites have proof of their information, which I consider then to be more truthful than sites that do not list references.
Once the positives and the negatives have been identified, I can make a more informed decision to ensure I'm getting what I need.
I'm a beginner who only know google. I type e.g. "Napoleon Bonaparte" in the search bar. Then I get as first result Wikipedia which I don't like because the articles may be written by anyone and his/her dog (for subjects I know about, it often looks as if it were the dog). The next 20 results are a big mess of links to movie reviews, books I can buy on Amazon, and references to a restaurant in Tokyo named 'Napoleon'. It drives me NUTS! I need something that looks like a plain ordinary paper lexicon.
ReplyDeleteI fear I know what you're talking about. It takes some clever use of words to effectively narrow down search results to what you're looking for.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, if you wanted to know something specifically about Napoleon Bonaparte based on what was or wasn't listed, you can include that in the search terms. Because the terms 'Napoleon' and 'Bonaparte' are always located together in any semi-reputable document, include that term in quotes to filter out pages that never specify the two parts together.
So one could change the search terms in this (I presume) rhetorical inquiry to:
"napoleon bonaparte" history
You may also find along the way that this Napoleon fellow was French, so that could modify your search query to:
"napoleon bonaparte" french history
Once you get the terms fine-tuned, the results displayed will match what you're looking for.
Google is very common and accessible, which works for it and against it. While more information (in terms of billions of web pages) is made available to people, probability states that more pages indexed means more pages of flotsam showing up in results. Narrowing down your parameters can be intensive and time-consuming, relatively speaking, but often (in my experience) less so than weeding through the information given away so freely.
(I am in agreement about Wikipedia. It's often a good starting place for understanding the basics about a topic. However, it's vital to review at least a couple of other sites to compare and filter conflicting information.)
I rewrote this one and shortened it up. It's not as long winded now.
ReplyDelete