webdude - 1:57 pm on Feb 9, 2004 (gmt 0)

Hawkgirl

I, like you, had to write a paper this weekend for some classes I am taking. I had no problems finding any information on the subject at hand. All the material I needed was on the first page of the SERPs. I found it quite satisfying when using the G.

This does bring up the point of how I search, though. I use very narrow search criteria where I am looking for specific phrases. This seems to help me quite a bit. If I see a reference for a quote from another source, I will search for the specific source and the quote, and usually always end up on the site that would be considered the authority for the subject.

I don't know of the searching habits of the general population, but I have always searched this way and have had no problems.

As a side note to all this, the university I am attending had a non-credited informational night that focused on researching for writing essays and papers. One part of the presentation was how to use search engines. Google was part of the discussion and they covered all types of ways to search using booleans, phrases, etc. It seems that the non-SEO people are getting educated in how to use the G, at least from an academic point of view.