Time Saving Research Tips

It seems that as information on the internet becomes increasingly more complex and abundant, researchers become increasingly more impatient. I am guilty of this myself. If I click on a link and have to wait more than 3 seconds, I suspect something is wrong. If downloading a video takes more than 10 seconds, it must not be worth my time.

Instant gratification has become the order of the day and the internet generation has learned to stand for nothing less. However, the truth is that some pages take a while to load and some very worthwhile videos are slow to retrieve. Does this mean they are not worth our time? No. It simply means we have to wait. (and the crowd GASPS in awe at the thought...)

Now, the point of this post is not to disparage over lost seconds waiting for slow-loading sites. It is to point out that there are other ways to save time while researching. Genie Tyburski, of The Virtual Chase, has published a list of "Tips for Conducting Internet Research". This is not a list of links or search techniques. It is simply a list of time savers for those of us in a constant rush.

I had completely forgotten about using Ctrl + W to close a pop-up window instead of searching the screen for the elusive "close x". How many times have I lost the start point of my research when I could have easily preserved it by right-clicking links to open them in new windows? I know these seem like small time-savers, but we are so worried about the extra second it may take to open a web page, I thought these might help save us a bit of time (and sanity!).

Feel free to comment with your own time-saving techniques. I would love to hear them!