After reading, writing and arithmetic I think Google searching is of supreme importance. A major obstacle to doing anything is knowing how to do it. Google search tell you about the world and how to do things in it.
I am not so good at Google search but I am getting better. I am probably better than most but very far below those who are the best. Google searching (for users) is and art and a science. Many young people are naturals at it. Some times I get all tripped up on trying too hard to use advanced techniques. Then I search side-by-side with an inexperienced person and they tell me , no no just type in this word not the site: stuff. And by golly they are right (at that point, I am glad I had NOT said I was an expert!).
But of course I still believe it is best to study the advanced techniques. Being good at Google search will serve you well for the rest of your life. You will have a competitive edge in school, at work, and in life.
I use simple searches most of the time. I think it's more important to find the keywords I need to pull the data, rather than create a more specific search.
ReplyDeleteOne reason that it hasn't been important to me is because I find that the information I need and the level I need is often addressed in Wikipedia.
If I need more information, it will usually be in a book.
If it's in a journal article I may or may not be able to reach it. If I can, I'm likely to find it online. If it's locked up in journal copyrights, with their insane prices per article I find that I am much better served to search for a book written after that date, which will usually have the same information.
Sometimes the information is in a webpage. Good web page information isn't as common as I'd like. I find that often there is one "real" source page and then dozens of pages which "rip off" the information from the original site, usually verbatim.
I love wikipedia too and am amazed by it coverage. But try this search:
Deletegoogle[ site:wikipedia.org anthropology religion ]
here I direct google search to look in the wikipedia site and it does a great job. Then I can scroll down the list and pick out the results I want to read. I think this is better than going directly to wikipedia to enter the search terms.
I also agree that book are a great place to look. But consider this search:
DeleteGoogle[site:amazon.com anthropology religion]
( to go to the list, highligh the search text, right click and select Google search.
Again the results list is fantastic.
Also consider this search:
Deletesite:.edu anthropology and religion
That also produces a wonderful list of results.
compare that above with the simple search:
Deleteanthropology and religion
Consider this search in youtube:
Deletesite:youtube.com anthropology religion
the results are very nice.
From my reading, I found that Berkeley has a lot on the anthropology of religion, so I searched there and found this wonderful list of results.
Deletesite:berkeley.edu anthropology religion
Consider this serach to get at the PDFs at Berkeley:
Deletesite:berkeley.edu anthropology religion ext:pdf