Easy Communication:

The Internet eases of communication to the researchers; because it serves as a guidance and original source of information. It is very easy to access and at the same time saves time thereby allowing an individual to manager his/her resources better and effectively. Additionally, the Internet is very convenient because an individual can easily carry out a research work at home with much comfort and convenience. The internet is a valuable search tool and has been informative for academic research, as it helps significantly to improve research skills, and makes learning visual and easy to follow.

Comparatively Inexpensive and Quick Dispersion of Information:

The Internet creates a comparatively inexpensive avenue for releasing information and articles. Subsequently, several organizations and individuals can now circulate information to millions of users. In due course, researchers could assess and make use of this circulated information and articles for their work, thereby giving them a broader idea and knowledge in their work.

Wealth of Information:

Furthermore, the Internet is a wealth of information and very advantageous in various reasons; students delve into the Internet to gather lots of very useful academic information for research purposes; and the information contained on the Internet can be useful for academic research. It is a potential research tool and opens up a new and comprehensive source of information.

Sending E-mail Messages and Receiving Feedback's:

With the help of the Internet the user could send e-mails to colleagues, friends, co-workers etc, either to get more information from them or pass on the acquired information to them. In view of this the Internet could be regarded as a powerful content publishing tool because there are some application software embedded in the Internet that enable such transmission and transfer of information from one user to another. Consequently, these applications will allow and assist the researcher to develop content for the World Wide Web by simply saving as an HTML file.


Disadvantages:
One of the disadvantages of the Internet is that it provides a huge amount of information thereby causing information overload. In due course, one can easily get confused with this infinite amount of titles, texts and abstracts. And because of the overwhelming information available on the Internet, one must be cautious about information obtained.

Another disadvantage of the Internet is virus threat. In this regard, Virus is a program that interrupts the normal functioning of the computer systems. Computers that are attached to internet are more likely to be attacked by virus. In due course, this attack could result to hard disk crashing, thereby causing a big disaster on the computer. 

Another disadvantage of the Internet for academic research is that, it is not arranged according to system and no index format. Information on the Internet is not organized; for example too many web pages for any single directory services and fees are often charged for access to specialized information. 

1. Contact a librarian before getting stuck sifting through piles of online information: A 2016 Project Information Literacy found that only 9 percent of respondents cited librarians as a go-to learning source, while 88 percent said they relied mainly on search engines. Many university library websites have a librarian chat feature and other ways to remotely contact a librarian. Reaching out at the beginning of a project to clarify the topic, research questions, methodologies and best potential sources will make the research process and project better.

2. Consider that when in doubt, it's wiser to over-cite sources than risk plagiarism: Many learning management systems employ plagiarism detection features that flag suspicious language for the instructor to further investigate. As a faculty member, I'm always happier to tell a student that a citation isn't needed for a common fact, rather than wondering if I'm reading the student's own words or those of someone else. Online students can use free plagiarism checkers such as PlagScan or Grammarly to ensure an assignment complies.

3. Use Google and Wikipedia at the beginning of a research process, not the end: The first few pages of search engine results are generally the most popular and commercial information sources, which aren't necessarily the most scholarly or authoritative. It's best to think of Wikipedia as a table of contents of popular sources about an idea rather than the single most definitive source. The links at the bottom of a Wikipedia entry are useful jumping-off points.

4. Don't think that the Web is your only source of information: Online students can access premium databases that are not available to the public such as ProQuest, EBSCO, JSTOR, Naxos and Elsevier. These databases contain electronic access to published journals, magazines, newspapers, books, reports, documents, dissertations, image collections, films, videos, curated archives and audio recordings. The difference between searching these collections and the entire web is that these sources are peer-reviewed and under copyright, and do not contain commercial results.

5. Understand the professor's expectations for citation format: Before using a scholarly reference citation tool such as CiteULike, Zotero, or BibDesk, understand that a professor's requirements may differ from the default settings in these tools.

6. Understand why professors still assign research projects: Research isn't busy work or an outdated vestige of higher education. Research and the information literacy needed to produce it remain sought-after job skills. Online students must be able to accurately search and source scholarly information, evaluate it, contextualize it; think, speak, and write critically about it; and synthesize it to inform opinions and drive good decisions. Graduates who have honed these abilities will quickly rise as the most valued in the workplace. If these skills aren't being developed, then the online student is missing something. 

Want to use Google search more efficiently and get the search results you want quickly? Here are 20 Google search tips and tricks to maximize your search efficiency:

1. Use the tabs

The first tip is to use the tabs in Google search. On the top of every search are a number of tabs. Usually you’ll see Web, Image, News, and More. Using these tabs, you can help define what kind of search you need to do. If you need images, use the Image tab. If you are looking for a recent news article, use the News tab. It’s rudimentary and most people use the tabs already. If you are not, then it’s highly recommended to get associated with them. They can cut search times dramatically if utilized properly.

2. Use quotes

When searching for something specific, try using quotes to minimize the guesswork for Google search. When you put your search parameters in quotes, it tells the search engine to search for the whole phrase.

3. Use Google Search Modifiers

Google's search algorithm is remarkably adept at returning the information you are looking for—even when you aren't exactly sure yourself. But for those times when you know precisely what you need, you can refine your search results with these tips:

Exclude terms with a minus (-) symbol: Want to exclude certain terms from your search results? Use the minus symbol to exclude all the terms you don't want, i.e. best apps -android for results that omit roundups of top Android apps.

Use quotations to search for the exact order: Searching "Danny Devito hair" will only bring back results that include all those words, in that order. However a search for Danny Devito Hair (without quotations) will bring back a different set of results, which have all those words, but not necessarily in the order you searched for.

Search inside a single website: If you want results from within only one site, use site: followed directly by the site URL you wish to use. You must include the site's domain, i.e. Google Photos tips site:pcmag.com and not Google Photos tips site:pcmag.

Search titles only: Use the search intitle: to look for words in the webpage title. For example grasshoppers intitle:gross will only return sites about grasshoppers that have "gross" in the title. Conversely, allintitle: will only return links with multiple words in the title, i.e. allintitle: cow meat yummy.

Search URLs only: Similar to the intitle: function, you can search only in the URL using inurl: or allinurl:.

Search text only: intext: or allintext: allows you to only search in the text of a site, as opposed to the title and URL, which the search algorithm usually takes into consideration.

For a comprehensive set of search modifiers and qualifiers, you can check out this handy guide.

4. Search for Related Websites in Google

We all have favorite websites that we like to frequent, but sometimes change is a good thing. If you're looking for ideas on where to go next, Google has you covered. Just use the related: qualifier to show related results. This can be used with any word or phrase, but it works best if used with a website. Searching related:amazon.com brings up results including Walmart and Overstock. Searching related:google.com shows Yahoo and Bing. 

5. Find a page that links to another page

This Google search tip is a little obscure. Instead of searching for a specific page, you’re searching for a page that links to a specific page.

Think about it this way. If you want to see who cited a New York Times article on their site, you would use this trick to find all the sites that link to it. The syntax is below: 

That will return all pages that link to the New York Times official website. The URL on the right side can be practically anything.

Be aware, though, that the more specific it is, the fewer results you’ll get. We know not a lot of people will likely use this Google search trick, but it could be very useful for some.

6. Use important words only

The way Google search works is to take what you search for and match it with keywords in online content.

When you search for too many words, it may limit your results. That means it may actually take you longer to find what you’re looking for. Thus, it is apropos to use only the important words when searching for something. Let’s see an example:

Doing this can help Google find what you need without all the clutter. So remember, keep it simple and use important words only.

7. Gradually add search terms

There will come a time when Google search doesn’t shovel out the results you expect. In this instance, keeping it simple may not be the best option.

As Google itself suggests, the best method is to start with something simple then gradually get more complicated. See the example below:

This will gradually refine the search to bring you fewer, more targeted terms. The reason you don’t go straight from the first try to the third try is because you may miss what you’re looking for by skipping the second step.

Millions of websites phrase the same information in a number of different ways; using this technique lets you search as many of them as possible to find the best info. 

Google search is a very powerful search tool. Using the tips outlined above, you can find anything and everything you could ever need on the World Wide Web. Whether it’s avoiding Wikipedia for a school essay project, finding the latest stock prices, or even finding song lyrics, there is a way to make Google search work for you.