Using the web as a research tool

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

March 26, 2009 [3774 views]

These notes form the basis for a lecture today to MSc students at Kingston University encouraging them to think about how the web changes the way we do research.

Recent changes in the online world

• Dominance of Google http://eduardblacquiere.com/uk-search-engine-market-research/
• Crowdsourcing knowledge http://www.wikipedia.com
• High cost of journals http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publishing/
• Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/

Understand the way search engines work

• Before Google http://www.websearchworkshop.co.uk/altavista_history.php
• Backrub, reputation and PageRank http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-12-28-n47.html
• The SEO arms race, linkfarms and blackhat techniques http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
• Adwords and Wall Street
• Quality scores http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/10-ways-to-increase-your-adwords-quality-score-a-mini-case-study/
• Trusted sources: http://www.seobook.com/archives/000661.shtml

10 techniques for better online searching

1. Set your preferences to 100 results
2. Phase your question well
3. Rephrase your question better
4. Learn to use negatives
5. Use advanced search to find recent results
6. Search sites you trust
7. Use Google Scholar sometimes
8. Create your own trusted engine
9. Stay focussed on your research question
10. Publish your results for public scrutiny

10 techniques for getting your site higher in the rankings (an aside)

1. Write excellent content that is worth linking to
2. Make sure that your site is well organised for visitors and spiders
3. Use a proper hierarchical style structure for your content (h1, h2, paragraphs etc)
4. Use a URL that contains keywords that your readers use to find content
5. Check the demand using google’s keyword tools
6. Make sure that the title of your article uses keywords and is interesting
7. Use social marketing techniques to generate some links to your article
8. Use metatags to describe your content (keywords, description etc)
9. Create interesting links (internally and to other sites) for your reader
10. Avoid using any tricks (cloaking, keyword stuffing, paid links) that might get you banned

Involving the audience

1. Join a community of people you trust
2. Phase your questions well
3. Answer other people’s questions
4. Thank people
5. Examples from LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/answers

Designing and running online questionnaires

1. Use a well designed questionnaire engine http://www.zoomerang.com
2. Consider whether you are eliciting feedback or trying to obtain statistically significant results
3. Ask as few questions as possible
4. Make sure that questions are straightforward to answer
5. Open ended questions will often provide more insights than closed questions
6. Selections and ratings are often poorly completed
7. Consider whether questions need to be compulsory
8. Consider whether personal information is being collected
9. Buy test subjects or use a list you already have
10. Avoid making claims based on small poorly selected sample sizes
11. Learn some statistics http://www.badscience.net/category/statistics/

Competitor research techniques

1. Identify competitors
2. Measure demand in your market http://www.google.com/keywords
3. Measure competitor rankings http://www.seomoz.org
4. Explore advertising competition http://www.spyfu.com
5. Find out technical information http://www.netcraft.com

Questions to think about

1. Has Google become too dominant in the way we find information?
2. How does Google affect the quality of research and innovation in our industry or other industries?
3. How will crowdsourcing affect research in the future?
4. How does reputation affect research visibility?

Things you should do after this lecture

1. Follow the links in the notes above and make notes on what you discover
2. Improve your own searching
3. Join LinkedIn and other communities that can help you in the future
4. Experiment with survey tools
5. Start a blog to document your research, improve your thinking and involve the audience
6. Consider your own answers to the questions above
7. Provide feedback or comments on this lecture

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