There is a place for "searchless searching" in your overall search strategy. You can build a library (a set of bookmarks or Favorites) of links to sites (and, sometimes, individual documents that are regularly updated) that you find as the result of a search, or have recommended to you, or that you happen upon because they are linked to other sites that you have found.
These Web sites, called key sites, are typically ones that you can, and do, refer to frequently.
They may be single-purpose sites, like the
page of downloadable tax forms on the Internal Revenue Service site or
the
International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association site, or a link site like
Refdesk.com with categorized links to many different dictionaries, calculators, and other reference resources.
Helpful KeySites
A key site is not just an interesting site that you might want to see again sometime. It is a site that meets these conditions:
- It contains reliable information.
- It contains current information and is updated to remain current.
- It meets a need for information you need to obtain quickly and on an ongoing basis.
Key sites are valuable because you've already found them! If you find yourself regularly searching for a particular site on a particular topic, consider making it one of your key sites.
Click the
developing-your-site-list link to consider key sites you may have found and still need to find.
Developing Your Site List