Skill Highlight: Research
The second post in my series highlighting each of the skills that I bring to my job as a virtual office administrator is about research! This will be a short and sweet post detailing a few best practices for general research that I use when looking for information online.
Start Broad, Then Narrow Down
This is a helpful tip when I’m trying to find information on something specific but I don’t know exactly where to start. Sometimes I don’t know the name or phrase that I’m looking for, but I’ve learned that if I use a descriptive-enough search term to start, that will lead to a result that’s more specific. I keep refining my search using this method until I find what I’m looking for. Following links in articles and blog posts, or in the description sections of YouTube videos is another great way to narrow down the search and find extra information.
Skip the AI Overview
“Google” has become synonymous with “search,” and for a long time, it was a fairly reliable starting point. Google’s AI Overview feature…not so much. I really enjoyed this opinion piece from TechRadar that calls the AI Overview “confidently wrong” which I think is a pretty accurate description. The article mentions the now-infamous “pizza glue” answer from about a year ago, and while the AI Overview has improved since then, I still view it as a generally untrustworthy source when researching. I always want to be sure that the information I’m looking for is as accurate as possible, and using original sources is the best way to ensure that.
Check the Date
Using up-to-date information is an important aspect of research. I’ve gotten into the habit of checking for a publish date every time I read a news article or blog post. I don’t necessarily discount an older source as unreliable since it depends on what my research topic is, but I do keep the date in mind when reading. Knowing when an article was published adds additional context which might be relevant (and if not relevant, at least interesting).
Final Thoughts
In one sense, using the internet as a tool for research has become a lot easier than it used to be, but it’s also become much more complicated since there’s a lot of incorrect information out there, which requires verification. It’s not an easy task, but I think it’s an important one, and I am more than willing to put in the extra effort it takes to find and verify information.
So if you need some extra help researching a topic, I can help! In addition to research, I’ll give you the results in an easy-to-read summary with relevant links so that you know where I’ve sourced my information. I promise there will be no “put glue on your pizza to stop the cheese from sliding off” search results from me.
What do you think about online research in our current age of technology and AI? Let me know in the comments!
