Here is an internet research tool that is very valuable but does not come to mind when discussing search tools. Northern Light Search portal is a handy tool to find information efficiently. Figure 1 presents the index page of the research portal.
Figure 1: Index Page Of Northern Light Search
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By default, the index page is composed of the following sections:
- Quick Search
- My Favorite Research
- Most Popular Search Terms
- Most Popular Articles
- Most Mentioned Venture Funded Companies
- Most Mentioned Business Issues
For the purposes of this blog, the “Quick Search” function was used with the keywords, “foreign direct investment”. The results are presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Results For Keywords, “foreign direct investment”
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Once the results are provided, they are different options that users can benefit from such as:
- Save this Search - Save a query for future reference or use.
- Edit this Search - Modify a query to add or remove keywords or operates.
- Sort by Date - Sort results by publication date.
- MI Analyst - MI Analyst combines the power of Northern Light’s best-in-class free-text searching with advanced text analytics developed specifically for Market Intelligence applications.
- Toggle Your Search - Select where you would like your results to come from. (i.e., blogs, national news sources, regional news sources, white papers)
- Analyze Your Search - Identify relevant results by Northern Light text analysis application.
Figure 3 illustrates the “Toogled National and Global Search” for “foreign direct investment”.
Figure 3: “Toogled National and Global Search” for “foreign direct investment”
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What is interesting about the Northern Light tool is the search interface page. The page is divided into two parts: I) General Search & II) Expert Search
I) General Search
Figure 4 presents a look at the search interface for the General Search function.
Figure 4: General Search Interface On Northern Light
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The General function not only allows you to search the web but specifically:
- Online publications
- Websites if you enter a web address in the URL field
- News, blogs and white papers
II) Expert Search
The Expert Search permits access to online sources for subject-specific information found by internet research experts. There are 10 subject-specific directories that are offered on the page. A sample of the directories can be seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Expert Search Interface On Northern Light
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To benefit from the full compliment of options, an username and password can be obtained for free.
Northern Light Search is available at www.nlsearch.com
Learn about additional internet research tools in Intelegia’s seminar, “Effective Online Research Strategies“.
