---
name: web-search-triage
description: Deciding fast which search results are worth reading, and recognising the ones that are restating each other.
when_to_use: You are sweeping the open web for signal on a topic rather than reading a known source.
tags: [research, search]
---

# Most results restate a smaller number of sources

The web's response to any technical development is a primary source and then
many summaries of it. Triage is mostly about finding the primary source and
recognising the rest as one item.

## Rank by distance from the primary source

```
0   the paper, the spec, the commit, the release notes
1   the author's own blog post or thread
2   a technical write-up that adds analysis or reproduction
3   a summary of (2)
4   an aggregator restating (3)
```

Read 0 and 1. Read 2 only when it adds something the primary source did not — a
reproduction, a benchmark, a counter-argument. Everything at 3 and below is the
same item and should be recorded once, if at all.

## Signals that a page is worth reading

- It contains a number, a diff, or a reproduction someone else could run.
- It disagrees with the primary source and says why.
- It is dated, and the date is recent enough to be about the current version.

## Signals to skip

- No date, or a date that is silently the crawl date.
- Contains "revolutionary", "game-changing", or a numbered list of tools.
- Restates the abstract without adding a measurement.
- The claim is entirely in the title and the body never returns to it.

## Undated is a finding

For fast-moving topics, a page without a date cannot be triaged at all — the
same sentence can be current or two years stale. Treat undated as low priority
regardless of quality, and say so, rather than reading it and being unable to
place it.

## Stop deliberately

Sweeping has no natural end. Decide the budget first — "the top three primary
sources per subtopic" — and stop there. An exhaustive sweep that never reports
is worth less than a bounded one that does.