Microsoft Academic (MA) is another great educational resource we add to our list of academic search engines. Unlike mainstream search engines that are keyword-based, MA uses a different search algorithm, it uses what is known as semantic inference to identify your intent and consequently provide you with relevant search results.
Here is how MA articulates this difference: "In a keyword-based search
engine, suggestions are a convenient feature, but in a semantic search
engine like MA they play the important role of an intelligent assistant.
Imagine this assistant engaging in a dialogue with you in order to
understand your needs better and help you accomplish your search goal
more efficiently. By understanding how papers refer to various entities,
MA has learned commonly used acronyms and allowed them in query
expressions. For the best search results, please wait for MA's
suggestions and click them to perform your search".
The strength of MA as a semantic search engine lies in the wealth of related information
it provides regarding your search query. As such, when you conduct a
query on MA around a particular topic, MA provides you, besides direct
results pertaining to your query, with other equally important
information related to your topic such as 'most relevant authors,
institutions, publication outlets, and research areas'. As a research
student, MA will definitely help you expand your knowledge about your
area of research by familiarizing you with important information about
your field of study including: seminal works, canonical literature, key
authors, journal titles, conference names, and many more. You can also
use MA in conjunction with Google Scholar to further diverse your search
capabilities and access information that you can not find elsewhere.