Many clients are under the misconception that they can save time and money by doing Internet research for the engineering aspects of their cases themselves. They use the same search procedures for their job that they use at home - they start with the obvious. They type in a search word and then wade thorough the voluminous amounts of data that pour into their computer. Furthermore, they usually are not able to interpret the technical aspects of the data they do manage to uncover.
Most people tend to search the "popular", or surface, Web. They usually are not aware of the "deep" Web, the hidden part of the Web, containing a huge volume of content that is inaccessible to conventional search engines and consequently, to most users. The deep web can contain up to 500 times more documents and resources than is available through the conventional or "popular" web.
Most times, people use aggressively hyped search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. Usually these popular sites have their name pop up as one of the top twenty search engines; however, the information you need might not be accessible at these sites, but might be found further down the list or even be unlisted. Few people are aware of specialized search engines that can target your search and give you access to the "deep" web.
They do not know how to use Metacrawlers, which are 'super' search engines that conduct searches of several search engines using keywords. Metacrawler queries the other search engines, organizes the results into a uniform format, ranks them by relevance and returns them to the user. This means that metacrawler is more likely to obtain accurate results for your search query. You are able to use not just one service, but also all of them at once. Of course, once you do receive all the data, you have to be able to interpret it and use it.
Clients do not realize that the Internet research services offered by a company such as The Warren Group can give them more bang for the buck. Our research department provides this service every day. Their collective experience in searching the web leads to faster turnaround, which in turns leads to savings for the client.
Our researchers have many sites book-marked that are specialty sites for engineering specific research. They also have access to subscription services that provide specialty material. In addition, our researchers look at both the favorable and unfavorable information. Our objective interpretation of the data can determine the information's relevance to an issue.
So, next time you are tempted to "find it myself," remember, the Net can be a pit into which you pour your time and energy with little to show for all your efforts. Give The Warren Group a call and we will save you from the perils of Internet research.