Page:Untangling the Web.pdf/15

 Why Do I Need Help?

There are no Internet research experts.

There are people who make a living using the Internet for research and who know more than others about what is on the Internet, how to find what they want on the Internet, and how to do this with relative efficiency. But no one knows what is truly "out there" for two fundamental reasons:


 * The Internet changes constantly. By that I mean daily, hourly, minute-to-minute, incessantly.
 * It's too darned big! If we can't accurately size the Internet (which we can't), you can be sure we don't know what is available via this resource with any degree of accuracy or completeness.

This doesn't mean you can't ever hope to find anything on the Internet. You often can find what you're looking for (and usually a lot more) with comparative ease, but no one should be deluded into believing he has a good grasp of the entire world of information available on the Internet. Realistically, the best search engines index only a fraction of all webpages and keyword searching is at best an art that routinely misses relevant sites while loading you down with dross. Are you discouraged? Don't be…novices often have more luck finding something arcane than seasoned researchers because of the power of creative thinking and serendipity. I've learned never to underrate luck and intuition when doing Internet research, but I think the two most important tools for successful Internet research are:

Never assume others are already aware of some website, tool, or technique you find particularly useful. The sheer quantity of data, information, and knowledge associated with the Internet is so enormous that no one can know more than a fraction of what's on it. While we're talking size, let me mention an important distinction. The Internet and the web are not one and the same, though the web is what most people think of when you say "Internet." Rh