How do you find web content?
Search is changing. In the early days, we used portals. Then we moved on to search engines. Today, we have numerous social channels enabling us to create, share and find content. How do you find the content you care about on the web today? Do you ever search for it, or do you find it from friends on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.?
Clarification added November 23, 2009:
My sense is that today, we use Google for specific individual queries and other tools for finding sources of content relevant to our current interests.
Good Answers (5)
Craig W.
Owner & Project Manager at Auxiliary Design Co.
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Blogging (1)
I rarely Google anything anymore. It just seems like the search results don't feel credible somehow. I would much rather search a topic on a social bookmarking site like Delicious, where other real people have essentially "quality checked" a site.
I also end up following a lot of links from Twitter, but it seems like you never really know what you're going to get. You do know that someone thinks the link is interesting, but you're never 100% sure where the link will take you.
Links:
I find content in a variety of ways. For specific information or answers to questions, I of course use google--and often find myself turning to wikipedia as a jumping off point.
For random content, I use a variety of social networks, primarily linkedin (obviously) and facebook. People feature things every day, and it's a good way to keep up with trends and the interests of people inside and outside of my field.
For more niche content, I look primarily to blogs. For example, I am an animator / designer / illustrator, so I look at www.drawn.ca and www.cartoonbrew.com almost daily. These blogs feature artists, media, other blogs, and industry news, which I in turn (very often) share on facebook.
For news, I primarily read nytimes.com and listen to npr's various podcasts.
I tend to find most of the information I find useful from high-quality aggregators. These will be RSS feeds that pull from a select few blogs and digg-like websites (but not digg.com) where the most active submitters and commenters are generally the cream of the crop in their respective fields.
I find little to no value in the content generated by my social networks on Facebook and Twitter, and see those as mainly just a way to keep in touch with friends.
And if I need specific information or a more in-depth view into a topic, Google is always there.
All of the above. Search engines as well as various social networks (including Twitter). For social networks, one example might be the fact that you're posting a question to the network, a la Hunch, or LinkedIn. For content circling around recommendations, review sites. Information, think wikipedia or IMDB. I think they each have very different flavors, from highly editorial to fact finding.
Mark S.
Healthcare Marketing Strategist, President of Smith & Jones
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I use Google for specific one-time searches.
Google alerts fed to my RSS reader for ongoing searches.
RSS feeds to monitor those sources (blogs, editorial sources, aggregators) that have pointed to content I have valued in the past.
Twitter searches to monitor what's being discussed, and pointed to on Twitter.
YouTube RSS feed to monitor the subjects that I am interested in watching Video about.
Of course, I still receive emails with links to content I find useful, although I am trying to move as much of this to RSS as possible to keep my email box focused on one on one communications.
And I am experimenting with Google Wave.
Clarification added November 29, 2009:
Forgot to include Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Flickr. Use these, too. And Bing.
Clarification added November 29, 2009:
Now that I think about it, I also use sites like TripAdvisor, TripIt, Yelp, Where, Nearme, ILike (for concerts), and a bunch of other sources. As more and more apps and site are launched that offer search for content I am interested in, this is where I search. The goal is always the most relevant, most specific results. Increasingly, Google and the mainstream generalist search portals are too broad to meet my needs.
More Answers (32)
I am obviously conflicted, but I'm very confident you'll find web content organized by topic here:
http://alltop.com/all
Guy Kawasaki
Dave M.
Professional trade show booth traffic builder and party entertainer. Corporate and private sector events.
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One word:
Google...
Rafi T.
•Academic Head - Post Production at Reliance Animation- BIG AIMS (ADA Group)
Google it. Every day I do. A kind of tricky if your search tag is a dictionary word. But I like to fish in that kind of a sea.
Jami M.
ScanSource, Inc., Director of Interactive Marketing
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I am still a googler. But if it is marketing, design or social media related I will use twitter, delicious and stumbleupon. I will say that delicious.com has really changed my habits and I encourage everyone to use it to keep your info tagged and easy to find.
Links:
My preference is GOOGLE - I have been giving BING its shot but with GMAIL and additional APPS of which I need to reaquaint with actually keeps the GOOGLE search engine at the top of my desktop
Wallace J.
Multimedia Producer, i3D Programmer, Acrobat 3D PDF, Android App, Virtual World & iTV Design, Kindle, Nook & Sony eBooks
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Google. If I can't find the content I create it myself. Or create it for Brand clients.
Links:
Lara M.
Small Business Marketing Consultant | Branding Consultant | Keynote Speaker
As a blog author I'm constantly looking for new and fresh information. Googling can be effective (and certainly useful for many, many things), but it's hard to disseminate new content from old. Instead, I rely on my reader which has the RSS feeds for my favourite blogs and sites as well as Twitter.
I rely 50/50 on Twitter & talking face to face with peers.
When I want articles for my website, I get a quick look at www.articlebase.com . Free content ready to redistribute. In case I don't have time to write myself, when searching a little bit I always find interesting stories.
As for my personnal needs, iGoogle with tons of widgets : facebook widget, twitter widget, google reader, gmail, hotmail and evens news alerts on specific keyword.
Links:
I use a number of ways to find information
1) Twitter - don't just follow people, save a search for a term or phrase as well, either in Seesmic or similar or pull the RSS into your feedreader. Also ask questions and get really quick responses - relies on you having enough followers
2) blogs of those I find most helpful, I regularly add and cull from my list
3) Google alerts, again for key terms and phrases
4) Delicious, save pages yourself but also follow those who are saving similar things
5) Stumble Upon, serves up suggestions but I haven't found this hugely successful YET
6) Ning, join groups
7) LinkedIn Q&A, great for seeking quick answers
I use Google for most things. However, if I am looking for something that is happening right now which people would be talking about, I tend to search Twitter first.
Firas A.
CEO ♦ Finance & FMCG Professional ♦ Real Estate Brokerage ♦ All In One ♦ One For All
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Google and LinkedIn
I have found many useful data, links to articles, and to webs here in LI “Q&A and Group Discussions” and Google is the giant...Good Luck
Make Ur Day A Gooood Oneeee
F.A.A.
Google is the one I'll use most often, simply because it's generic.
But your clarification is right. As we get more familiar with searching, we get more familiar with other sources of information.
Sometimes Google can end up being time consuming, especially if you are looking for more specific information in a vertical.
To add on to Carol's list, you might be looking at
- tripadvisor for hotels, restaurants or activities.
- flickr for photos
- youtube, vimeo for video
- facebook for WOM / friends advice
- linkedin for more business related discussions and advice
- twitter is great to find out what people say about a brand or product in general.
- medical sites or baby center for kids health.
and the list goes on...
When those verticals end up being too narrow for the results I am looking for, I'll end up widening back to google's verticals (images, news, blogs, etc..)
And as far as keeping track of the research, blogs and info I know will be of use later, Diigo is an incredible tool that allows you to not just bookmark, but highlight and leave sticky notes, and literally start discussions online with peers, overlaid on the original website itself. Because of that, Diigo becomes a good tool for normal search in itself.
Finally, for "proactive" search, I use a mix of google alerts, corporate twitter feeds, newsletters and RSS.
An unique user generated content source would be comments on youtube and other social media sites ;)., The comments on these sites mostly would be content rich & user generated.
You can use content agreegator sites like alltop.com . You can set up customized alerts using tools like trackle.com
Links:
Sahar A.
Diversity& Inclusion|Leadership training|Social Media Marketing|Social Media Training|Public Speaker|Culture Competence
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Christopher:
I am not sure if I am getting your question right
I use RSS alerts, Google alerts. Google reader. and social bookmarking like stumbleupon or squido
I also use the search.twitter.com
Hi,
I would say first and foremost Google, I guess old habits die hard. However, more and more I rely on RSS feeds and Google Alerts. They can all be organised into one place (i.e. Google Reader) so it is very convenient. I guess Google Reader has now become my morning paper.
I also follow Twitter on a fairly regular basis, not necessarily just my network, but I have a great iPhone App called Ad-ology. This gives me great advertising and marketing information, would recommend to anyone with an iPhone.
Regards
Harvey
I would recommend icerocket.com if you want to know what people are talking about in the blogosphere.
If you want to write good thought out articles you can go to articlesbase or any article directory for some good info to copy/paste.
To Firas,
I am the same as you in using both Google and LinkedIn. The last month I have found some very fascinating discussions here in terms of social media and online marketing and it has helped me tremendously.
Google is my "go to" though when I a searching for web content. 99% of the time I am searching for an answer, someone has already asked it and the answer lies when the search results appear.
Google if I know what I'm looking for, social news websites or blogs if I just want to keep up-to-date on topics I'm interested in.
Links:
Question is - whats the intelligent way to discover what you are looking for on internet?
Social Networking sites are playing bigger role than what plain www.google.com is playing-this is my personal perspective.
The "pull" model is changing to "push" model.. i use "google alerts", "twitter", "del.icio.us- social bookmarking site" and subscribed to a few rss feeds to find what i want on internet....
The whole lot of junk what google.com throws is reducing to very personalized junk..e.g. try http://www.google.com/finance than try finding more details of your favorite stock just by searching on www.google.com
still using google for almost all searching.
I think your sense is spot on but I would say that only for a small portion of all internet users. I find that most of my clients are still in the dark as to how to actually use Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Michael L.
Owner, FreedomFire Communications and Telecommunications Consultant {2,000+ Connections}
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You touched on social channels enabling creation, sharing, and "finding" content.
SBI recently created something they call C2 (Content 2.0) where you have contanet created by visitors in a social interaction approach ..... with targeted boundries to ensure releavance to your website. Link provided for more information.
Links:
I Google when I have a specific question that I need a direct answer to. For broader questions or anything else industry/interest related, I find my content content through Twitter.
