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Effective
Internet Search: Research
by Judith Gill
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Wasted time and energy - missed opportunities
Self-taught users miss out on so many Internet experiences
because they do not know the full scope of available
choices.
- Paul Gil, The Frustrations of Not
Understanding the Internet, 2004 [1]
There are literally billions
of pages of documents on the Internet. And, over three hundred
freely-available search engines, each with their own methods
for collecting, cataloging, and retrieving information.
Yet, most people simply
flounder about, using trial and error to locate content.
Moreover, because they don't search well, they can't take full
advantage of the Internet, profiting from the amazing quantity
and quality of information sources.
Implications for you:
If you have enough time, energy and persistence, you may
eventually find the information you want. Or, you can invest
some time now to improve your search skills, reaping future
payoffs in locating your content quickly and efficiently.
Further, you won't miss the tremendous opportunities and
discoveries awaiting you on the Internet.
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Coping with an information explosion!
It is clear
that we are all drowning in a sea of information. The
challenge is to learn to swim in that sea, rather than drown
in it.
- University of California, Berkeley
School of Information Management and Systems, October
2000 [2]
"All of a sudden,
almost every aspect of life around the world is being recorded
and stored in some information format," says University
of California, Berkeley researcher Peter Lyman [3]. In only three years, the amount of new
information generated and cataloged globally in 2002 has more
than doubled, according to his latest study. With the
amount of stored information growing at a rate of about 30
percent a year, if you feel overwhelmed by this now, the bad
news is there's no end in sight.
Implications for you:
In future, it won't get any easier to locate the information
you want.
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Cost of not finding information
Handling too much
information, as well as not being able to find information
when it is needed, constitutes a significant cost to today's
enterprises.
- Susan Feldman, Vice President for Content
Technologies, IDC, April 2003 [4]
Feldman's recent study,
"The High Cost of Not Finding Information," explores
and quantifies the impact and costs of not finding
information. Among its conclusions, an organization with 1000
knowledge workers can annually lose up to:
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$2.5 million in time
spent searching;
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$5 million in
intellectual rework;
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$15 million in lost
opportunity costs [5].
Implications for you: It
is very costly to both you and your organization if you can't
locate the specific information you require when you need it.
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Strategic value of information
It's not just the
quantity of information that is growing. The information is
becoming more strategic to a company.
- Gil Press, Director of Corporate Information, EMC
Corporation [6]
Regardless of your purpose or
what you do in life, be it student, professional, business
person, knowledge worker, IT specialist, etc., the real
challenge is to organize, sort, manage and make sense of all
this new data, if you are to maximize its value.
Implications for you: Information
provides strategic value to individuals and organizations —
but you have to be able to find it first.
Searching well matters
Search engines are really the gateway to the Internet;
they're the front door.
- iProspect CEO Frederick Marckini, April 2004 [7]
Studies have consistently shown that the vast majority of
people seek information through search engines. Searching well
does matter — and the costs for not doing so are high.
References & Links
- Paul Gil, Internet
101: The Frustrations of Not Understanding the Internet,
About.com, 2004:
netforbeginners.about.com/cs/internet101/a/internet101.htm
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University of
California, Berkeley School of Information Management and
Systems, How Much Information?, Peter Lyman and Hal. R.
Varian, October 18, 2000:
www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info
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University of
California, Berkeley School of Information Management and
Systems, How Much Information? 2003, Peter Lyman and Hal. R.
Varian, October 27, 2003:
www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/
- IDC, The High Cost
of Not Finding Information, Chris Sherman and Susan Feldman,
April 2003:
www.idc.com/getdoc.jhtml?containerId=29127
- Qualysys Global,
EQMS Cost Benefit, 2003:
www.qualsys.co.uk/eqms_cost.htm
- Byte and Switch,
Info Overload! Billions of Bytes Born, Dave Raffo, October
28, 2003:
www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=42612
- MediaPost, MediaDailyNews, Females More Likely to Fly
Search Coop, Finds Part Two of iProspect Survey, Kate Kaye,
April 20, 2004:
www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=247485
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