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Best List of Deep Web Research Tools 2021

According to experts, traditional search engines such as Yahoo and Google only capture roughly 1% of the information available on the Internet. The rest of the data is considered to be hidden in the deep web, also known as the invisible web. So, where can you find the rest of this data? This list contains 100 tips and tools to assist you in making the most of your Internet searches.

Semantic Search Tools and Databases

Semantic web research tools are different from syntactic web search tools in that the search engine looks for literal matches of the query words or variants of them without understanding the overall meaning of the query.

Boxxet ― About news, blogs, videos, photos, armor, and much more topics.

DBpedia ― DBpedia is a platform for data, tools, and services.

DuckDuckGo ― It is a feature-rich semantic search engine that provides numerous reasons to abandon Google. Searches are classified as classic, information, shopping, or their own spin-off from Google.

Meta-Search Engines

A Metasearch engine has an advantage over a single search engine since it can obtain more results with the same amount of effort. It also saves users from having to manually type in searches from several engines to find materials. Check out the resources for the best metasearch engines.

Carrot2 ― Carrot2 is an open-source engine for cluster analysis search results. It can group search results from various sources and generate a small collection of documents.

Ceek.jp ― Ceek is the Japanese language unified metasearch engine. There is a robot-style news search that pulls only text-based headlines and articles from various sources.

(via 10 Easy Ways to Manage your Business Email Inbox)

The Email was intended to make communication quicker and easier but sometimes it’s more of a hindrance than a help. We now spend too long at work checking emails, trying to find old emails, searching through relevant chains for the information you need or trying to delete old mail. It seems emails are put as a priority above too many other business activities.

Remember email is a tool to help not a priority. Here are ten tips to improve email management.

Process Once a Day

In some businesses, you have to check email several times a day just to stay in the loop but you should only process them once a day. Try marking your calendar and setting your availability to busy to prevent interruptions.

Set aside a dedicate time in your daily life to process your emails. Prioritise the most important ones and then let the others go. Make a system that works for you, making sure you still acknowledge time-sensitive emails. Don’t let your email account run your life.

Prioritize

The 80/20 rule is a great way of dealing with emails. “The 80/20 rule is the idea that twenty percent of inputs are responsible for eighty percent of outputs, meaning you should prioritize the twenty percent high-value emails which will lead to maximum output,” advises leading email marketing manager Angela Bradley, from the Australian Reviewer.

These prioritized emails should be replied to immediately, if not at least get back in less than three days. For the other eighty percent, you can allow yourself to take more time to reply if you do feel the need to engage with them.

You Don’t Have to Reply to Everything

Don’t feel obliged to reply to every email, no reply can often say as much as writing out an email. If you spend your day replying to emails just to acknowledge you’ve received them it will take you away from the things that actually need doing. Only reply if the cost of replying doesn’t outweigh the benefits then it’s not worth worrying about. Especially when so many emails are sent out to more people than necessary or are impulsive and often not relevant to your work.

For those, you feel obliged to respond to create a folder for the lesser important emails that require responses. Set aside a day once every three days in a week to respond to these emails, it will take away the pressure to reply immediately and quell the fear of ignoring someone.

You Don’t Have to Answer Everything Urgent

This may sound a little counterintuitive, but a lot of seemingly urgent emails resolve themselves without your assistance. Any urgent email about something going missing or not being able to get hold of a person are often resolved by themselves, wait an hour and see if you get a follow-up email. The follow-up email will declare if the situation has escalated or has been resolved.

This method also trains people to be more self-reliant and to have realistic expectations about how connected their colleagues can be to their inbox. This idea does require some common sense depending on which industry you work in, if you work in customer service and deal first hand with customers this will work differently.

Use a Template

There is probably a trend to the things you respond to. Use a template if you find you are repeating yourself on a daily basis. Customize the template to fit the needs of the email and it could save you vital work hours.

Using editing tools like Academ Advisor and Grammarix will save time on having to proofread and edit articles.

These sites can help you reconnect with family members, old friends, or classmates, as well as learn important information about people you love to know more about. They can be used to do background checks, criminal history searches, public records searches, and social media searches.

Consider how time-consuming it would be to locate your long-lost cousin's current address. Or conduct a non-digital, in-person background check on someone you just met and are unsure if they are telling the truth about their identification. It would take days or weeks to gather information on your own. You could've come up empty-handed. So you'll need some search engines to know and understand all that you can about that person.

Browse these 6 best people search sites to find anyone featured below from a large pool of people search engines to help you make a quick search.

List of 6 Best Sites to Find Anyone Online

1- TruthFinder

Truthfinder is an advanced people search site to find anyone online that makes it quick and easy to look for public data online. You can find criminal or traffic records, contact information, work or schooling history, social media accounts, and more! Truthfinder is a better alternative to Pipl because it gathers data from Federal, State, and County data sources to conduct background checks. This means you get your information from local authorities, organizations, government agencies, private companies, and other sources.

How does it work?

Truthfinder is very simple to use. When you visit the website, you are greeted with a large, prominent search bar from which you can instantly search for people by entering their first name, last name, city, state. During our testing, the site produced a comprehensive and visually appealing report. The results were completely accurate, as expected. Furthermore, Truthfinder has a mobile app so that you can do everything with your smartphone.

Pros:

Detailed reports

Easy to use

Transparent data collection

Cons:

Paid subscription

Visit website

2- FastPeopleSearch

Fast people's search is a data aggregator that displays people's names, emails, phone numbers, addresses lookup, and other personal information. To access the most comprehensive and up-to-date public records registry, perform a reverse phone lookup, email search, or address search.

It can access public records and share them on its website because this information is technically available to the public. Fast people search gathers data from a variety of sources. They rely on publicly available sources such as government records, similar databases and registrations, phone book listings, and so on. You can also find out who is calling by using a reserve phone that displays current results.

How does it work?

The procedure is quite simple. First, you must conduct a name, phone, or address search. You'll be given some free information. A full report must be paid for. Enter the person's name and location to find them by name. The last name is required, but the full name and place help to narrow the search area. Once you've filled in the blanks, hit the search button. To perform a reverse phone lookup, click the Phone icon and enter the unknown phone number in the search box. Then press the search button.

Pros:

Free Reverse Phone Lookup

Free Reverse Address Lookup

Search by Name

Cons:

Some people are concerned that their personal information is easily accessible to everyone.

Visit Website

10 Best People Search Engines for Finding People in 2021

People finder websites, or People Search Engines just like a social media application, are meant to connect you with others. You can know them before, or they might be someone new to you. However, the primary purpose of a people searches website is to find out if you need to get in contact with the person or not.

For example, you require a roommate to share the rent, and you need to know about the person before you allow them space. Now, if you do not have enough knowledge of that individual, then maybe things will mess up for you, too. But with the help of a people search engine, one thing that you will make sure of is that the person is trustworthy.

So, the question arises how these sites are different from the usual social media applications? People searching sites will help you find social profiles and let you know if the person has any criminal or arrest records. In other words, these search engines can help you find anything about the person of your desire so that you can contact someone hard to find. Moving on, we will look at some of the best people search sites. So, let's begin.

List of Best People Search Engines

1. BeenVerified

The first people search website which is on our list is BeenVerified. One of the websites best known for its simplicity and features. It stands out because of its easy-to-tackle tabs and the expected results shown to the users. BeenVerified can help you in searching the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and locations.

BeenVerified sets apart because of the extra details such as social media accounts, professional background, address history, pictures, friends, and general information. However, such information is for free on the website. But if you want a full report on someone's background, like criminal records, court records, and more, you will have to get a membership ($39.99 for one month).

Features

Combines social graph and public record

Authentic information

Offers criminal record

Affordable service

App available for smartphones

US-centric

2. Spokeo

Spokeo, a US-only people lookup website, works well searching details from white page listings, public records, and social networks. People are explored using a name, email address, phone details, or location. It happens because Spokeo has claimed to use deep web technology to get results that usually search engines miss out on.

The results are driven from more than 60 social networks, online profiles, dating site profiles, but it works only in the US. So, it can be used outside the US, but its results are US-based. It simply means that you will not find any of your friends if they don't live in the US. However, if any of your relatives live there, you will find them.

The service also has a paid subscription, starting at $4.95/month.

Features

Best for connecting with people

US-based searches

Basic results for free

Easy to use

3. PeopleFinder

PeopleFinder has indexed millions of data available publicly into its system, which helps in finding an individual. Furthermore, it uses Intelius' backend service for details of that particular person. It is a great platform to reconnect with the people with whom we have lost contact.

The best part of PeopleFinder is the free address of the person you are searching for. However, many other search engines fail to provide that. Also, on submission of only $2.95, you can search for the complete report of that person, which includes financial information, relatives, phone numbers, court records, and much more.

Features

Best for free users

Recent address available for primary users

Quite affordable

Intelius-backed service

Check criminal and social records

Join CIRS™ Certification Online Research Training Program Grow your business or career by learning in-demand online search and research skills.

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(via These Google search tips will make finding stuff online way easier)

Google has become such an integral part of all our lives that we now use the verb “google” to refer to the action of using the search engine. By simply typing a few keywords, you can find anything from the closest grocery store to the latest breaking news.

But sometimes, the magic of Google fails to give us the results we are searching for. You try several different word combinations and go deep into the search results but still can’t find what you need.

But there may be a solution to this! Did you know that Google provides different options to refine your search to find exactly what you want from thousands of matches?

TNW Conference is back, baby!

A profession of a Virtual Assistant (VA) is no longer perceived as a typical secretarial work occupation outsourced to a helping hand. Employing a Virtual Assistant today demands the abilities and knowledge needed for each specific profession assigned tasks, in almost every discipline – But most important for employers are certain skills taken from a mix of soft skills, and hard skills. These are identified in the next few paras.

More difficult these days are to find VA’s with a satisfactory level of soft skills. Specially where cost concerns lead employers to outsourced human resources, quality levels of soft skills diminish proportionately — On the other hand, Hard skills are quantifiable and teachable, and easier to validate.

The most concentrated need for soft skills is best developed organically. Generally, attributes such as adaptability, empathy, persistence, problem-solving, conflict resolution, collaboration, interpersonal skills, and critical thinking are the qualities hard to validate in resumes. Only in-depth interviews and references may vet somewhat but as they say, the “Proof is in the pudding”.

Holistically speaking, it is just the right hybrid of soft skills and hard skills that makes VA’s versatile and employable  – A well-suited hybrid skills serve clients, or employers’ best in adaptability to their assigned tasks, and custom needs.

In the chart, see how the most suitable skill elements from the hybrid skills set are highlighted around it. These are the four most sought-after skills by employers today, forming a Quadrant of Most Desirable Skills of 2021 for employability of VA’s.

The quadrant combines hard skills, such as performing effective and efficient “Online Search” along with knowledge of known “Research Methods” –  Add soft skills of “Critical Thinking” and knack for effective “Writing and Communication” and you have a perfectly employable VA.

Every single task delegated to a VA requires some sort of Online Research skills these days. Online Research skills are fundamentally our ability to find answers to a question or discover solutions to a problem while using the Internet as a primary tool for research.

Research varies according to needs and purpose, stretching from information validation and quick fact-finding to data collection and in performing in-depth research. However, Online Research skills may not be sufficient alone –  unless VA’s are skilled to organize and transform information into a meaningful presentation for decision-makers and analysts, they most certainly will fall short of their expected deliverables. Overcoming a barrier to information transformation and transition to a compelling presentation of facts VA’s needs knowledge of Traditional Research Methods – Research methods are  taught in formal education including those covering art disciplines and science subjects –  Some of the research methods work directly with Internet-generated information. Examples include data collection from virtual communities, focus groups, social experiments, and observations, thus covering the qualitative aspect of the research problem. Similarly, a quantitative research method brings in the primary data using online survey methods and quick polls – It is however more common for VA’s to seek secondary data from the Internet due to its abundance and ease of discoverability – A secondary information source varies in its digitized form and formats; these include, news, articles, blogs, social media, and social groups, forums, and all flavors of e-publications.

Closing the gap further between hard and soft skills, VA’s must have a natural problem-solving ability with critical thinking – VA’s should understand, and address situational complexities based on all available data and information collected. Typically, critical thinking soft skills help VA’s build structure for logical solutions in the decision-making process. It involves a methodical approach to filtering, processing, organizing, and connecting the dots in information flows to reach conclusion.

Nothing in research delivers results without good communication skills in both verbal and non-verbal means. In presenting a well-researched work VA’s must be active listeners, attentive observers, eloquent speakers, and effective report writers.

In Conclusion

The potential role of a virtual assistant can take on many different forms, and it all depends on what kind of work is entrusted to them. No matter the nature of work, because research skills are so crucial to employers, it is looked at as one of the most sought-after assets in hiring virtual assistants. Researching for information from the Internet has now become a specialized skill that must be learned for employability. Yet without applying traditional research methods, one may leave a gap between research reliability and actionability –  and at times, entire research work may become counterproductive due to lack of it. A set of soft skills that exactly compliments hard skills of research in VA’s include their ability for critical thinking and problem-solving, and strong skills in communication and writing. A quadrant of these most employable skills that appear in hybrid skills-set is summarized in four bullet points.

Online Research Skills

Research Methods

Critical Thinking, and

Communication and Writing

About the author: Mr. Manzoor is the CEO and founder of “Association of Internet Research Specialists” (AOFIRS). He is also the author of several books and educational publications on the subject of “Internet Research”. He actively contributes to the course development of “Certified Internet Research Specialist” (CIRS) and teaches online courses and training programs at the association. Email to reach the author is [email protected].