It is just easier for someone to have something published without someone else looking at if first. The first step in researching any topic is to decide precisely what kind of information you are looking for. If you are unfamiliar with that topic, how would you know. The format of this site made it easy for my attention to stray from the main idea of the text. All of this information can be found in the matter of a few minutes and with the click of a few buttons.
Students can use a search engine of their choice to research a topic.
Be careful, one disadvantage is that search engines very seldom give you just what you want, you still have to weed out a lot of stuff. This is only true in certain instances, it is nowhere as general to using the Internet as you imply. At one sitting, an individual can obtain any and all needed information for a specific topic. Second, I have many times been unable to find what I needed. Books and journals are usually read from front to back in order to gain a complete understanding of what the author is trying to say.