Quest, the Series: How to Plan Your Online Research – Simple Answer (Part 2)

This post addresses the first category of online research … the simple search for a simple answer.

We all use Google® for simple searches. We use it every day, sometimes all day. It seems as natural as breathing.

Even so, there may be ways you can improve your results. Taking a little more time on the front end often results in saving time on the browsing end.

Example: You want to find conferences focusing on downstream. That is a simple search …

Google® the search string downstream conference


TIP #1: Word order can be important.

For example …
Googling petrochem conferences yields almost 11 million results.
Googling conferences petrochem, on the other hand, yields just 170,000 results. This means less browsing time for relevant results.

TIP #2: Consider adding a date to your search string.

For example …
Googling conferences petrochem 2019 yields about 50,000 results. When you are focused on upcoming events that you might want to attend, this search string saves you even more time.

In a nutshell, what you are trying to do is to get the simple answer you need with as little browsing time as possible. By spending a few seconds on your search strategy, you decrease the amount of time required to slog through the results.