Internet Search & Information Retrieval Expert — Advanced Degree / Strong Experience Required
Budget / Salary$750–1,500
TypeFreelance project
LocationRemote
Posted10 hours ago
We are seeking a strongly credentialed Internet research and information-retrieval specialist to conduct a comprehensive analysis of publicly available Internet content concerning a discontinued consumer product/brand that was widely marketed approximately 25–35 years ago.
The objective is to determine the volume and nature of current online discussion concerning the historical brand and product.
Scope of Work
The research will focus on two primary questions:
Extent of continuing Internet discussion and recognition.
Identify and quantify publicly available Internet and social-media references concerning the historical brand/product, including consumer recollections, discussions, nostalgia, product descriptions, images, advertising references, and interest in or requests for the product.
Product-category associations.
Analyze the collected references to determine the product category with which Internet users associate the historical brand and the frequency, if any, with which those discussions reference or associate the brand with a separate specified product category.
The research should cover a broad range of publicly available sources, potentially including major search engines, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, Quora, blogs, discussion forums, nostalgia sites, Internet archives and other relevant online sources.
The researcher should develop and document a thorough search methodology, including search terms and Boolean strings, platforms and search engines searched, date ranges, inclusion/exclusion criteria, treatment of duplicate results, and methodology for categorizing results.
Where feasible, the analysis should provide quantitative findings, including the total number of relevant references identified and the number and percentage falling within the applicable product categories.
Deliverables
The final deliverables should include:
A written report describing the search methodology and findings.
Quantitative results and categorization of the references identified.
A comprehensive Excel or similar source log identifying each relevant result, source/platform, URL, date located, date of content where available, search query through which it was identified, and product-category classification.
Supporting links, screenshots or other source documentation where appropriate.
Qualifications
Candidates should have:
A Master’s degree or doctorate preferred in computer science, information science, data science, information retrieval, search technology, Internet/web analytics, digital forensics, or a closely related technical field.
A substantial academic and/or professional experience demonstrating expertise in Internet searching, information retrieval, search-engine methodology, web research, online data collection, or social-media data analysis.
Demonstrated experience conducting broad, systematic searches across multiple Internet platforms and sources.
Experience collecting, organizing, deduplicating, classifying and quantitatively analyzing substantial numbers of Internet search results.
Strong analytical and report-writing skills.
Experience with advanced Boolean searching, search-engine research, social-media research, web scraping, Python-based data collection, Internet archives, or other methods for systematically identifying and analyzing large numbers of online references is particularly desirable.
Published research, university teaching/research experience, or other significant professional credentials in information retrieval, Internet research or related technical fields are a plus but not a deal breaker.
To Apply
Please provide your experience or CV, highest academic degree, relevant research examples of comparable Internet-search, information-retrieval or large-scale web-research projects.
Please also briefly describe how you would approach a project requiring a broad Internet search to identify and categorize online references to a particular historical consumer brand.
The identity of the product and the specific comparison category will be provided to selected candidates.
The objective is to determine the volume and nature of current online discussion concerning the historical brand and product.
Scope of Work
The research will focus on two primary questions:
Extent of continuing Internet discussion and recognition.
Identify and quantify publicly available Internet and social-media references concerning the historical brand/product, including consumer recollections, discussions, nostalgia, product descriptions, images, advertising references, and interest in or requests for the product.
Product-category associations.
Analyze the collected references to determine the product category with which Internet users associate the historical brand and the frequency, if any, with which those discussions reference or associate the brand with a separate specified product category.
The research should cover a broad range of publicly available sources, potentially including major search engines, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, Quora, blogs, discussion forums, nostalgia sites, Internet archives and other relevant online sources.
The researcher should develop and document a thorough search methodology, including search terms and Boolean strings, platforms and search engines searched, date ranges, inclusion/exclusion criteria, treatment of duplicate results, and methodology for categorizing results.
Where feasible, the analysis should provide quantitative findings, including the total number of relevant references identified and the number and percentage falling within the applicable product categories.
Deliverables
The final deliverables should include:
A written report describing the search methodology and findings.
Quantitative results and categorization of the references identified.
A comprehensive Excel or similar source log identifying each relevant result, source/platform, URL, date located, date of content where available, search query through which it was identified, and product-category classification.
Supporting links, screenshots or other source documentation where appropriate.
Qualifications
Candidates should have:
A Master’s degree or doctorate preferred in computer science, information science, data science, information retrieval, search technology, Internet/web analytics, digital forensics, or a closely related technical field.
A substantial academic and/or professional experience demonstrating expertise in Internet searching, information retrieval, search-engine methodology, web research, online data collection, or social-media data analysis.
Demonstrated experience conducting broad, systematic searches across multiple Internet platforms and sources.
Experience collecting, organizing, deduplicating, classifying and quantitatively analyzing substantial numbers of Internet search results.
Strong analytical and report-writing skills.
Experience with advanced Boolean searching, search-engine research, social-media research, web scraping, Python-based data collection, Internet archives, or other methods for systematically identifying and analyzing large numbers of online references is particularly desirable.
Published research, university teaching/research experience, or other significant professional credentials in information retrieval, Internet research or related technical fields are a plus but not a deal breaker.
To Apply
Please provide your experience or CV, highest academic degree, relevant research examples of comparable Internet-search, information-retrieval or large-scale web-research projects.
Please also briefly describe how you would approach a project requiring a broad Internet search to identify and categorize online references to a particular historical consumer brand.
The identity of the product and the specific comparison category will be provided to selected candidates.
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