Get a visual. Sometimes getting a visual representation of something you know nothing about is the quickest way to obtain a broad overview of a subject. One very cool example of this is FlickrMaps. Let’s say you want to know what a city landscape looks like, who lives there, and what they care about, such their sports teams and schools. Maybe you want to know what it would be like to drive there and what you could expect to find if you spent a week there. Let’s also say you only want to spend five minutes looking for an answer.
FlickrMaps is a fast search and the visual returns are easy to absorb quickly. Contributers to Flickr Maps indicate where they took their pictures. This makes the search better than in Google Images. Try searching for Charlottesville, Va in the “taken in” field then narrow your search in the “search for” field by keywords such as “architecture”, “urban” or even a color such as “blue.” The result is a mosaic that tells a story quicker than words.