Hello, my name is Sandra and I am proud to be a Professional Virtual Assistant! I have worked in the Virtual Assisting Industry as an independent VA and through a Virtual Staffing Agency (VSA). I have done Sales and Customer Service for a VSA and I have been a client with a VA Team of my own. I've seen it from every angle! I have developed a passion not only for this industry but also for mentoring and training women who want to have successful VA Businesses.
Internet Research - More Than Just a Google Search
Internet Research is one of the most popular tasks that clients outsource. It makes perfect sense - there is a ton of information available but digging through the plethora of junk to find the few golden nuggets can be time consuming and overwhelming. Most people just do a search on Google and then throw up their hands in frustration because they can’t find relevant and accurate information. They key is to go beyond - beyond just a basic Google search and beyond Google itself.
Learning to search Google
You would think that searching “How to Search Google” would yield some great resources from Google itself but it just ain’t so. The best guide to searching Google that I’ve found is Nancy Blachman’s Google Guide. I especially like her Cheat Sheet.
If you want to offer Internet Research to your clients then you need to study this site and then practice, practice, practice. And then go beyond Google to…
The Invisible Web
We are so used to a Google dominated World Wide Web that we sometimes forget that there are other places to search for information on the Internet - on the invisible web. There are Search Engines that focus exclusively on the invisible web. There are Museum Databases, online books and publications, financial information, government publications and more. Most are free but some have are subscription services. Check out this article on the Online Education Database site to get the full scoop!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just downloaded the mp3 version of Mark Twain’s, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court from The Oniline Books Page. I think I’ll go for a walk and get lost in the story!
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If you have any questions or suggestions, just click on Contact Me above and send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for visiting!
For some great information about the scope of the deep web problem Internous.com offers the ISEN solution or Internet Search Environment Number. The video explains a great deal in 5 minutes and is visually appealing. The blog explains more. see http://www.internous.com http://blog.isen.org
Hi Matthew,
This looks very interesting, thanks for sharing it.
Sandra
The deep web is more authoritative as well. Most data resides in vetted or peer-reviewed databases. Searching domain specific deep web portals is one way to rapidly retrieve quality information.
Try these sites:
http://www.mednar.com - medical
http://www.biznar.com - business
http://www.worldwidescience.org - science
http://www.science.gov - science
http://www.scitopia.org - science
http://www.nutrition.gov - health
A lot of deep web portals support topic clustering as well.
Hi Terry, Thanks for the resources and thanks for stopping by!
Sandra