Keyword Research of India
When researching a country – whether for travel or a research paper – there are various keyword searches on the Internet that will provide well known, as well as little known, information. When investigating the country of India, for example, I use a methodic series of keyword searches to delve into the niches that others might not be aware. The purpose of using different keyword searches is to gain knowledge that standard textbook or partial research will not provide. In addition, if I am a prospective traveler, I want information that my travel agency might not include in their standard itinerary and information pages.
Most Internet aficionados have their own common search engines, which can include Google.com, Yahoo.com, AlltheWeb.com, Dogpile.com, etc. Personally, I stay with Google unless I am having a particularly difficult time finding something.
I start with my country of interest: India. When doing a keyword search of India, several thousand sites are presented for review. I tend to disregard the “generic” searches such as Yahoo.com, About.com, and Mytravel.com, (you’ll find others through your web surfing) because they are mass created and are sometimes not loaded with information about the countries the claim to represent. Since I’m looking to do a quick, concise, and informative search, I do not want my time wasted by clicking on web pages that are not friendly, i.e. a waste of time. Note that I search for India and not Indian to differentiate between Native Americans and India as a country.
Most web sites returned in searches (at least for India) are English-language sites. There are some that will not be in English. Once you open the page, look for a link that will allow you to open an English language version of the page. While you might be looking for an icon of the American flag, you are most likely to find a British flag. If you can find one, click on it – in most cases, it will open an English version of the site. Sometimes that doesn’t happen; before moving from the site because it isn’t in English, use your back button to return to the initial search results page. After the title of the web site, there may be a Translate This Site hyperlink, which may work. I’ve found that in most instances, the pages are not translated efficiently, but on the chance that it is, you might find some useful information.
The first web site I choose to investigate is Time of India, a website in English that appears to be the home page of a newspaper, complete with classified advertising. It may not be the first site I choose to use for my research, but it certainly will come in handy at some point.
Following down my list of web site selections, I come to the web site named, Welcome to India – A Land for All Seasons – Visit & Explore India. While this at first appears to be a tourist enticement site, there is a Festivals 2006 calendar listing. The festivals are not discussed at length, so I will still have to look them up because I am not familiar with them.1,2 To research the festivals, you’ll also want to create a keyword search of the festival name itself, and then to the information you’ve learned about them. Example: India Festivals returns the site entitled Indian Festivals,Festivals of India.3 Reading the page, I find the celebration of Mahashivaratri; a keyword search of Mahashivaratri returns a site titled Mahashivaratri,4 which describes the ceremony in depth.
Next, I peruse the various articles generated from my search and start looking at the site hosted by the Government of India.5 One of the tabs includes Health & Medical; there are hyperlinks to over 100 hospitals, research councils, organizations, and more – including the World Health Organization. Under the Culture tab, there are over 50 hyperlinks for cultural and artistic listings.
Returning to my original search of India, I scroll through the sites and find India Image, with offers national information such as the anthem, flag, song, etc. Again, these may be trivial elements to my research paper, but knowing a little bit more than about my topic and knowing where and how to find it and when to use it, may give me that extra edge.
Personally, I look for sites sponsored by the county of India, and click through several pages of results, watching for tourism, travel, and embassies, using those of interest or use for my research. I return to my search page and use keywords India Travel, followed by India Tourism. Note that some sites come up consistently no matter what you type in because of the way they have been created. The only purpose of the site is to get web surfers to click on them, because domain holders get paid every time you click on their site, whether or not it has any useful information.
I also use keywords India Weather. Several weather sites come up; I trust the India: Weather Underground. In my case, it’s only a preference, as I research several countries at a time in some instances, and I like to maintain as much continuity as possible. I next use keywords India Tourist Attractions, which will bring up well known and little known attractions, along with what could be some knowledge about an area. Once I view a page and find an attraction that interests me, I return to my search engine and enter the name of the attraction. For instance, keyword Indian Tourist Attractions returns Agra Fort India. Reading this site, I learn some interesting basic information, but when I search keyword Agra Fort India, I find the home page of the Taj Hub with close to 50 different hyperlinks down the side of the page. Other searches for Agra Fort India also bring results of background and information on the location, the address, the hours of operation, etc. Depending on the level of my interest, I may choose to take a small tangent to learn more.
I next search for keywords India Airports and India Airlines. Several different sites will provide information regarding travel, flights, the Airport Authorities, etc. The Delhi Airport has several links, including travel agencies, shopping, etc.6
Once my generic, standard searches are through, I search keywords India Prostitution. Resulting articles and web sites relate not only interesting, but controversial and contradictory information. In searching three articles (out of hundreds), I note that one site states that prostitution is illegal but tolerated; the other explains in detail the unpleasant information that at least 15 percent of prostitutes in India started before the age of 15 and were turned out by husbands or family members. Another web site entitled, Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation(India) Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution,7 is even more informative.
I tend to explore this issue in depth, to find other little known facts about the sex trade industry because, as the author of a research paper, I plan to present comparisons and contrasts of cultures, and the information gleaned from these sites will prove helpful. From here, I search keyword India Sex Trade and find much more information.
The next keyword search is India Jews, which offers results about Jews in India – a topic some writers might consider irrelevant. Most people think of different religions in India, but not many consider Judaism. There are several links of great interest, including Kosher Inspection Service and Jewish Communities of the World. Clicking on the Jewish Communities of the World, I link to the Harush Communications8site. There is also a Jewish Virtual Library Tour of India link and articles entitled, Who Are the Jews of India?
My next keyword search is India Gay. I have found that this will weed out tolerance/intolerance of the Government of most countries, as well as traveler warnings or tendencies of hate crime in the country; all of which should be included in any research paper written in the 21st century.
Some of the sites found during this search may be of adult content or personal-type pages. I am writing on the assumption that the searcher is old enough to filter out these sites or simply overlook them while searching for legitimate sites. Mistakes will be made and many legitimate researches have found web page we were not expecting, but the task is to simply move on to the rest of the search. One sites states: Homosexuality is illegal in India and can carry a 10-year sentence.
Taking this one step further, I search keyword India Gay Law and find Rh374, which states, There is no explicit mention of homosexuality or homophilia in any of the statute books of India. A person cannot be prosecuted for being a homosexual or homophilic. But the sexual act of sodomy is a criminal offense. The major provisions of criminalization of same-sex acts is found in the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860.9 Again, this suggests that more research is needed to explore the very depths of the culture.
Keywords India Drug Laws results are readily available and important to understand regarding the visa and incarceration potential. If this provides information that was not uncovered in the Tourism or Travel searches, the information found in on a visa information site10 will offer bits of information such as, “âÂ?¦Get a visa for longer than you think you’ll need as it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to extend one once you are here. Even the Indian embassies in countries neighboring India may be reluctant to issue another visa if you recently left India.”
Regarding drug laws, “âÂ?¦ For the traveler coming to India to recreate the freewheeling days of the Sixties, a few words of warning. Indian drug laws have undergone considerable change. There is now a mandatory 10-year sentence for possession of even small amounts of drugs. More than a few foreigners languish in Indian jails on drug charges.”
Lastly, I search keywords India little known; I generally receive little known bits of information or history that can be interspersed within my paper. Once my keyword searches have been performed and my paper is written, I search for India Photos if I haven’t done so already; in other instances, I’ll search for [name of country] web cams, but India had very few that I could find quickly. There is a wonderful site online that has photos of various countries; I prefer trekearth.com10 whenever I need photos.
This entire search can take anywhere from two hours for an experienced researcher to four hours or more for someone less familiar with the Internet, web sites, or someone who doesn’t understand which information is geared to consumers, in contrast to information provided as fact. It also depends how deeply you’ve chosen to search. If you search areas of personal interest, such as India Religions, India Languages, India Education, etc., your search can take a bit longer.
Take as much time researching as you do writing your paper, and you will have travel adventure in eight hours. You’ll have a new appreciation and understanding of the country, and you’ll find yourself tuning in to other subjects or countries to research in the future.
