Researching on the internet – The best tips!

How to find what you really want on the deep web.

Most internet search engines are currently designed to return what they consider are relevant web sites for keyword search. Unfortunately the algorithms they use to return the results are seriously flawed. The search engines have decided that the most relevant web sites are those that other websites have linked to. Therefore, they consider popular websites the most relevant web sites. A lot of the time this means that major corporations dominate the search engine results pages, or serps as they are known.

Of course often the most popular websites are relevant to keyword search. If you want to find a local plumber and you type in the name of your town and plumber, you are likely to find a relevant result. However, you also might as well look in the Yellow Pages or consult the online Yellow Pages for this kind of internet search. Large internet search engines such as Google or Bing are hardly needed.

But what if you wanted to find out about the MMR vaccine, or more importantly, side effects from the MMR vaccine? Suppose you wanted information that isn’t the domain of the large corporations. Well, if you type in MMR or MMR side effects into the most popular search engine, Google, you will find the first page is loaded with results from newspapers and health department websites. None have an in-depth analysis of some of the more controversial issues. They are mostly snippets informing the public that the latest research indicates all is well. This is information that has been feed to them by big pharmaceutical companies who have a large financial interest in feeding this information to the public. This perception may or may not be true. But one thing is for certain, and that is that currently, you will not find a website run by parents who believe that their children have been damaged by the MMR vaccine on the first page of Google when using the search terms described.

It is likely when you are searching for information on the MMR that you already know what the doctor information leaflets say. What you are most likely looking for is more in-depth information so that you can take a balanced view and make up your own mind. After all, this is what real research is all about. However Google’s algorithm is weighted to return websites in search results which are considered as authority sources; and this often means newspapers or government websites which attract lots of back links.

So if conducting keyword searches in Google is not giving you the all the information you want, how do you go about the finding information? Well you could click on the right hand side and look at the Google Ad words. The advertisements here are often placed by companies that cannot get listed in the first pages results. Also, you can try what is known as long tail keyword searches. If we are to continue with the MMR example, using the phrase “MMR parent’s experiences” will produce different results. Also try reversing the keyword order; but even then you may find the results dominated by large organisations with the occasional parent site referenced.

Also consider using other less well known search engines in addition to your usual preferred search engine to gather extra information. Here are some to think about:

http://turbo10.com/
http://www.dogpile.com/
http://www.izito.com/
http://www.hakia.com/
http://www.stumpedia.com/

In addition consider searching for blog posts rather than using established media for your search. 99% percent of website content will not show up in standard searches conducted in the traditional way.. So it is time to get creative when searching the web to find real and valuable content.

Please contact the owner of this site if you have your own search recommendations so this can be included.