The internet is one of the best places for us to turn to when we are seeking information. Even in the middle of the night at 2 a.m. you can hop on the internet quite easily to get some well needed information about a variety of topics that you are currently interested it. Try doing that at your local library.

Internet research is quickly becoming the method of choice for gathering information. It is full of valuable content, is constantly being updated, and gives you access to experts across the globe. At the same time, it’s a challenge when trying to pinpoint specific information when the internet is growing at an astounding rate every day.

Still, chances are you’ve used the internet extensively to do research for school or work, for buying a new product, planning a vacation, or for reading the news. Sometimes you use it to better understand a medical condition you might have or for looking up some information you might have seen on TV or on your social networks. Regardless, there are ways you can research the internet effectively to find information. Here are five tips you can use to get the most out of internet research.

1. Use Wikipedia as a starting point

Wikipedia is one of the first places you should go to when you are researching the internet on a topic that you are unfamiliar with. It’s a great resource for gaining a broader perspective about your topic. You can also see what some of the related topics are. Sometimes it’s the related topics that you aren’t familiar with which will point you in the right direction. Of course, Wikipedia isn’t perfect. Sure, there might be some inaccuracies and biased entries, but being about to grasp the bigger picture about your topic of choice is the best way to get started. Try to narrow down your topic to specific areas and it will go a long ways.

For those researching the internet for business or academic use, you can use citations listed in Wikipedia articles as a starting point for finding information that you could use for your reports or journals. Be sure to check the accuracy of those cited resources and try to find information that is up to date. Credibility will be one of your main concerns when trying to do research for school or work. Purdue as a great resource for using the internet for academic research.

Once you’ve been able to pinpoint specific subjects in Wikipedia that you want to touch on or have focused questions, go to your search engine of choice to start searching for clues. Often, you will be able to collect enough information in your first few searches that you will be able to ask more specific and get more targeted information. If your research covers a broader, more complex topic, you’ll need to collect important information much more effectively, a technique which is described in further detail below.

If your research requires data to back up your findings, consider using Google Scholar to find academic research with hard numbers that you can use. Factbrowser is another great resource for finding statistics that you can use to help support your research if evidence is something you need.

2. Know how to formulate a query

Search engines like Google constantly improve to respond to more complex queries which humans rather use. Still, there are techniques that you can use now to improve your search experience. The words that you choose in your query can significantly affect the search results that you will see. For example, you can search for “software that makes me more productive” and “productivity software” and you will get different results despite the overall human meaning being the same. You can use variations in your search queries to your advantage when you have trouble finding helpful websites.

There are other techniques that you can use to make your queries more effective. TechRepublic has a good article on tips for better query formation

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3. Stay Productive

Staying productive will get your research done faster and with more satisfaction. There are a variety of techniques that you can use and corresponding browser extensions that adopt these methodologies. Whether it’s using the Pomodoro technique, Getting Things Done (GTD), or other productivity techniques, it will be important to stick with your method of choice to have any measurable results.

One of the best things you can do now is limit the amount of tabs that you use in your browser. Opening many tabs decreases your ability to manage information and will make your research more difficult. Browsers were never really designed to be a depository of information where you keep multiple webpages open because you want to save them later for further reading. It is a lot easier to use software to accomplish that. Offload your research findings so you can stay focused on collecting information.

There are many methods you can use to collect webpages for further reading. You can use bookmarks on your browser, read-it-later type extensions such as Pocket, or note-taking software to clip webpages. Onedepth is a great way to automatically collect websites.

Once you have all of your needed webpages in one place, you can begin to start reading and absorbing information.

No matter what you do, don’t skip on taking breaks. It helps a lot to refresh your mind when you are doing heavy research and if you’ve done your best to collect webpages for your research, you won’t have any problems leaving the computer for a short while.

4. Collect your thoughts

You will need a good system to record your thoughts and ideas. It could be as simple as a notebook on your desk or a notepad application on your desktop. There are a number of online software applications that assist with note-taking. Onedepth has a memo feature which does the job well.

Being able to take good notes will go a long way and help you remember the most important things which will make decisions much easier. It also helps prevent you from forgetting your train of thought when you have interruptions.

5. Share

Lastly, share. You’ve done the research. Spread the knowledge. Use your social networks to add value to the lives of others. Chances are someone in your network might be in need of your findings. You might even get a response from a surprising expert you never knew existed within your own network. Let’s make the world a better place.

Image credit: Giuseppe Milo, Dennis Hamilton