Research Skills

Internet Research For Journalists and Researchers – A Visualisation

Colin Meek — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:55:55 +0000

Here’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. There’s a lot of confusion about exactly why a lot of web content is ‘hidden’ from view and why ordinary search engines are not only hopeless at reaching ‘hidden web’ content they are doing an increasingly poor job of accessing breaking news or ‘Real Time [...]

Google Images as a research tool: Tutorial 2

Colin Meek — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:17:06 +0000

In Tutorial 1 I looked at ways you harness the potential of Google Images. In this Tutorial we go to the next level by combining those simple and advanced techniques with Google’s reverse image tool: ‘search by image.’

A lot of confusion exists about what ‘search-by-image’ [...]

Google Images as a research tool: Tutorial 1

Colin Meek — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:15:01 +0000

Lots of Google products are under-used or misunderstood but the research tool that causes the most confusion is Google Images. Most people think it helps you find images by keyword – that’s a given. But it does a lot more and if you master a few simple strategies you can exploit [...]

Welcome to the new researchskills website

Colin Meek — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:27:34 +0000

Over the past 5 years I’ve trained several hundred journalists, researchers, policy analysts and other professional during scheduled open or in-house courses. Here’s a quick Q&A about the new site.

Q: I’ve been on one of your courses – how can I use researchskills?
A: You can access updated course material and other information [...]

Making the most of RSS: readers reviewed

Colin Meek — Fri, 13 May 2011 09:41:27 +0000

By Colin Meek (@colinmeek) and Judith Townend (@JTownend)

Reports of the “death of RSS” are not only greatly exaggerated – they are simply wrong. Not only is RSS part of the fabric of the internet, tapping that resource through RSS Readers is [...]

Top five advanced research tools for Twitter

Colin Meek — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:15:38 +0000

By Colin Meek (@colinmeek) and Judith Townend (@JTownend)

In our recent three part series we tested the best tools for researching Twitter. If you are engaged in serious research on topical issues you can’t ignore Twitter. And, if you can’t ignore [...]

Twitter advanced research techniques 3: tracking #hashtags and archiving tweets

Colin Meek — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:04:11 +0000

By Colin Meek (@colinmeek) and Judith Townend (@JTownend)

Our third post in the Insite series on Twitter research looks at how to follow Twitter trends marked with #hashtags. If you’re reading this you have probably already clocked how useful #hashtags are, [...]

Twitter advanced research techniques 2: finding the right people

Colin Meek — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:50:36 +0000

By Colin Meek (@colinmeek) and Judith Townend (@JTownend)

This second post in our series on Twitter research tackles tools and tips for finding the right people and networks. We also look at some of the most high profile Twitter services that [...]

Twitter advanced research techniques 1: searching twitter

Colin Meek — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:52:38 +0000

By Colin Meek (@colinmeek) and Judith Townend (@JTownend)

If you are engaged in serious research on topical issues you can’t ignore Twitter. And, if you can’t ignore Twitter, then you need to grasp the best ways to tap the resource. Understanding how Twitter [...]

Advanced Internet Research – next scheduled one-day course

Colin Meek — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:22:03 +0000

Colin’s next one-day intensive course in Advanced Internet Research will be in Central London on March 16th.