The technology of Internet search as a part of biographic investigation

The article examines the role and specificity of Internet search as a part of biographic investigation. The reasons of possible problems occuring during search are explored. With this purpose, the types of user's biographical information necessities were analyzed. The specific biographical information necessities were found and the type of search associated with them — “indirect search” was described. The requirements for Internet search technology which supports and simplifies indirect search are formulated. An example of such technology which does not use any special software and is based on a set of rules is described and analyzed. The requirements for special search support software were formulated as the result of analysis of faults of this technology. The technology of effective biographical search based on such software, free of analyzed faults and supporting storage and access to search results was described. This technology is meant for a wide range of users which are not professional historians or biographers. This is important today because of increasing public interest in family history.