ABSTRACT
The Web provides access to billions of documents, and millions are being added every day. Users are only interested in, and can only cope with processing; an infinitesimally small proportion of the total, say 20 to 100 documents, at any one time. Frequently you may only be interested in a particular document, or establishing a matter of fact. As a source of information, the Web is going to increase in importance, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Consequently, knowledge relating to search engines, how to query them efficiently, what their respective merits are, etc., is a long-term investment. Although such knowledge will have to be refined as the Web and engines change, the basics are likely to remain the same. Unless you intend to become an internet specialist, your approach should be a simple one: in and out - fast. Mastering the Web is all about getting to those documents and facts that you are interested in as quickly as possible, and about locating quality resources in a particular field. Part III deals more with the latter. Here I focus on how to maximize returns using search engines. Although the examples I shall employ relate to sociological themes, they apply across the academic and non-academic spectrum.
Mastering search strategies will take a bit of time, an hour and a half for basic searches, and another hour, on top, for advanced searches, for absolute beginners. Follow the text while experimenting with slightly different queries. in the longer run, the payback will be reckoned in terms of time spent reading the resources located rather than on locating them. If you add time wasted on inefficient searching techniques over an undergraduate course, or a decade, the figure for regular internet users will be significant.
