Internet is a part of our growing lives. We use it for a myriad of purposes including locating your favorite restaurant to planning a holiday to purchasing an iPod to keeping in touch with friends to knowing about the world. Application of internet in education is also not new. Several schools have pretty rich websites where students can download homework or ask questions. Nearly all of us are aware of several online learning tools available all over the internet to boost our study performance.

Another curious aspect of internet is the information overload. Millions of websites with innumerable pages throw an awful lot of information infront of us. Sifting through all this can take a lot of time and sap the enthusiasm. What is important is that we know what we should be doing to make the most effective use of internet as a study tool. Here are some tips:

1. Have clear goals

Always know what you are looking for when you get down to do an internet search. Have clear questions and, if need be, write them down. This way you will now where to look for and when to stop.

2. Develop effective internet search habits

A rule of thumb could be to open all links in the first two pages of Google search results. You can very easily do it by using the tabbed browsing feature of Mozilla and IE. Look for the information on those sites and close the ones which do not meet your requirements. The goal is to finally end up with 2-4 sites which will have all the info that you need.

3. Avoid distractions

A lot of websites survive on advertising. Now, online ads can be a very useful tool for the site owners as well as for you when you plan to search for or buy something but when you are looking for information, ads generally distract more than they help. Avoid getting caught up in flashy ads and losing valuable time.

4. Know about good sources of information

For example, Wikipedia can solve a lot of your queries in quicktime. MIT open courseware can provide you with a great deal of study material right a your desktop. Similarly, Dictionary.com can solve a lot of English related queries. Make a list of some important sources of information you can instantly rely on.

5. Track your time

Always keep track of time when you set out to search for something on the internet esp, to help as a study aid. There is a very real risk that you may end up spending a lot of time while not gainign enough. Be aware of the ticking clock.

6. Effectively use bookmarks

When you hit upon a good source, bookmark it. Organize your bookmarks the way you feel works best for you but do it. After a while, when you have some 150 bookmarks, it becomes extremely difficult to locate that great site on cell biology you stumbled upon 6 months back.

7. Learn from others

There is a forum today for everything under the sun. Locate for forums on your subject of enquiry and chances are that you might hit upon a forum which is well maintained and very active. Ask your question in the forum. Chances are that someone might know a lot about your question and will be in a position to give a very good answer.

By no means is this an exhaustive list. However, it is enough to get you started effectively on the internet as an avid learner. Add and subtract to this list as your experience grows and you find better ways to save time and find information fast on the internet.