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Many of today's Web users think the Internet is THE place to go for research and information, but is it really?
Time and again, Just The Facts, Inc. receives inquiries from frustrated and agitated callers wondering why they are unable to retrieve desired information from the Internet. There are many reasons why... this article will address some of these issues.
First, the reader has to recognize that the Internet was never intended for the type of information retrieval and research that it is being used for today. Originally, it was used by government agencies and colleges as a method of communicating and sharing information... really more of a depository exchange.
If the web had been designed for research it would have been created very differently. A key factor is that it really is not a database, it has no distinct "order" to its nature.
Web search engines are for the most part, indexes, not functional databases. In contrast, information databases are designed in an ordered fashion and can be searched very deliberately, based on one's retrieval objectives.
Furthermore, as the Internet continues to grow at its exponential pace, the ability of search engines
to keep up will decline at an increasingly rapid rate. Even today's MOST COMPLETE "web search engines", cover only about 16% of the available information, if that.
In a July 8th, 1999 article in USA Today, it was cited that the most utilized search engines had the following coverage:
* Northern Light 16.0%
* AltaVista 15.5%
* Snap 15.5%
* HotBot 11.3%
* Search.msn 8.5%
* Infoseek 8.0%
* Google 7.8%
* Yahoo 7.4%
* Excite 5.6%
* Lycos 2.5%
* Euroseek 2.2%
The implications of these statistics are that Web surfers are going to have to re-evaluate their search strategies, if better results are to be achieved.
This means that searchers are going to need to spend more time and energy using combinations of search engines or meta-engines (those that combine several search engines together) in order to have a "hope" of getting the desired information.
A key aspect many Internet users do not fully realize is how even the best search engine, (such as those above), cannot possibly get behind websites' nooks and crannies to index all the information THAT IS ON a particular site.
It should be clear from what we've stated that there may in fact be information on the topic the reader is seeking... but because search engines' spiders can't get to it, there are many pages... probably millions, that are not indexed and therefore unavailable for viewing.
Two good illustrations of this would be the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Because these are primarily fee-based information providers, only a small portion of their archives are going to be accessible to the search engines' spiders. As a result, a search in AltaVista or Google or Lycos, probably won't turn up the desired results. It's the old adage, "you get what you pay for".
In general, the web surfing public doesn't understand that there is very little overlap between search engines. The reader has very likely already experienced having to search in multiple engines and obtained dramatically different results... not too surprising, based on what we've been discussing.
Over time, the searcher may also come to recognize that they will need to be selective regarding which engine will be used for a particular search. Google may be good for one focus, but AltaVista best for another. The key point is, the searcher may find AN answer during their quest for finding information, but it is not necessarily the complete or the RIGHT answer. It should be noted that there is no "controlling influence" over the quality of information on the Internet, so searchers' BEWARE...
And as a result, it is going to take searchers
a lot of time to find what they want. OR, the alternative is to find someone highly skilled in searching that can retrieve the desired information. The bottom line is how important is the data, and what is needing to be accomplished? If critical business decisions are being made based on the information, then the investment in conducting comprehensive research through a broad range of sources is imperative.
Then there is the issue of the individual surfer's skill sets and abilities... searching for information is AN ART. Two different persons can conduct the identical search, on the very same topic, and obtain ENTIRELY different results. This is where an "unbiased perspective" is so critical. The key question becomes, how important is it to have the best quality information... to have someone thinking "outside" the box and conducting "high-potential" searching with the freshest approach?
Another factor the reader needs to understand very early-on, in order to avoid great frustration, is that there is a VERY HIGH PROBABILITY that the desired information is NOT even on the Internet. This means gaining access to private, fee-based databases, or enlisting the services of a research firm that already has knowledge and access to these specialized information providers.
In the final analysis, "time is money"... time is an important commodity; if the reader is spending too much of their precious time searching the Internet or other sources, it means two things can happen. First, they are taking time away from other important issues they should be dealing with in their business, and second, for all the time being spent... what are they missing which could be "mission critical"?
Bruce Tincknell,
Managing Director,
Just The Facts, Inc.
