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<a href="https://metaosint.github.io/" class="button"><strong>Home</strong></a>
<a href="https://metaosint.github.io/chart/" class="button"><strong>MO Chart</strong></a>
<a href="https://metaosint.github.io/table/" class="button"><strong>Full Results Table</strong></a>
<a href="https://metaosint.github.io/faq/" class="button2"><strong>FAQ</strong></a>
<a href="https://metaosint.github.io/thanks/" class="button"><strong>Acknowledgments</strong></a>
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<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif"><strong>What are the best ways to use MO?</strong></p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">Depends on your goals. If you are unfamiliar with any resources in a certain category, it's best to begin with the <a href="https://metaosint.github.io/chart/">interactive chart</a>, to see if a small cluster of resources have been cited most often. From there, you may find it easiest to navigate within the <a href="https://metaosint.github.io/table/">results table</a> to inspect the less-cited sources (the smallest bubbles). Searching for a specific tool or type of resource? It may be best to start with the table and use keyboard search shortcuts (Ctrl + F or Command + F on Mac) for navigation. A few common example scenarios include:</p>
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<li>"I'm looking for a subject's presence on social media.": Probably best to start with the Identity / Person Search category bubble, then the Name or Username sub-category bubbles to identify potential usernames. If you already know a username, you could start directly with the Identity / Person Search > Username bubble or navigate directly to that sub-category in the table. For detailed ways to investigate certain social media sources, use the resources that fall within the Social Media category bubble.</li>
<li>"What resources exist for investigating Telegram (or ___ social media site, forum, or chat/messaging platform)?": Either a) click into the Social Media category bubble in the chart, or b) if you know the name or general type of source/site, it's likely best to navigate directly to the results table and use keyboard search shortcuts to search for the desired source/site.</li>
<li>"What resources exist for investigating a bitcoin wallet address?": Use E-Commerce & Cryptocurrency > Cryptocurrency & Blockchain</li>
<li>"I suspect that I'm reading disinformation / misinformation. My go-to fact-checking source was inconclusive. Do other resources exist?": Yes, many! (28 according to just the source lists evaluated by MO) Use News & News Verification > News Verification / Disinformation sub-category via the chart or directly within the table.</li>
<li>"Is it possible to gather intelligence with a shipping/tracking number?": Yes, try the Business & Corporate Search / Records category. (Hint: only one resource was cited multiple times within this sub-category.)</li>
<li>"I'm looking for intelligence from non-English sources.": A good place to start could be Web Search Engines > Non-U.S. Alternately, some of the resources in the Social Media category were grouped by main country of use in the input source lists.</li>
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<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif"><strong>Is MO automatically updated?</strong></p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">Not at this time. We do not have plans to routinely update the input data. Many of the source lists that fed MO are not consistently updated, so the results seen here likely would not vary drastically even with an update in the short term.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">Most of MO's source data comes from lists last updated between 2019 and 2021. All source data was accessed between April and May 2021.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif"><strong>I know of a great OSINT source but don't see it listed? Why is that, and can it be added?</strong></p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">See the next response for a quick description of the MO methodology. There are no plans to add additional sources unless they fall within this scope. However, there is a chance a source could have been missed simply during data processing. If you suspect a source should be included here, free to get in touch via <a href="https://github.com/MetaOSINT/MetaOSINT.github.io">Twitter</a> or <a href="mailto:[email protected]">email</a> and we can check to see if that was the case.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif"><strong>How did you determine which resources to include in MO?</strong></p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">Didn't want to bore you with methodology, but since you asked...</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">If you’re looking closely, you won’t see every resource from the <a href="https://metaosint.github.io/table/">evaluated OSINT lists</a> included in the chart, or even the full results table. This is intentional - we didn’t set out to build a definitive list of OSINT resource, or to replicate others’ great work compiling these resources to begin with.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">MetaOSINT’s goal was to articulate the OSINT tools & resources <strong>with the greatest number of shared citations</strong> across the 28 evaluated source lists. A particular tool or resource will only be included in the results table if it was cited at least twice among the source lists. A number of resources in the table will show a count of "1" - this means that they were cited multiple times (at least twice, maybe more) across the source lists, but within each specific sub-category, they were only cited once. This likely means that (based purely on citation frequency) the resource may have more limited use for a specific need (the sub-category), but does have additional value by nature of being cited for a different purpose as well (cited another sub-category).</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">Whew! Thanks for bearing with me. Finally, purely for visuals' sake, only the resources <strong>cited multiple times within a given sub-category</strong> made it into the interactive chart.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif"><strong>Speaking of categories, how were those labels determined?</strong></p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">Through a similar process! We likewise did not set out to reinvent the wheel and determine our own OSINT category labeling. Like the resources themselves, we evaluated overlap among the resources' highest-level and in some cases secondary category labels - these were provided by most of the input source lists and in part contributed to which source lists were included here.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">In doing this, we sought to use the labeling conventions most commonly seen across the source lists. There was a significant amount of overlap in labeling conventions (although this was one of the most manual tasks of the project). There is likely an amount of redunancy in the category label - for example, many Social Media searches are by their nature Person Searches too. But given social media's prominence as an OSINT source, it is typically reserved its own cateogry on OSINT resource lists. We sought to mimic this structure commonly present among the input source lists.</p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif"><strong>Thanks for MetaOSINT, it's great. Could I buy you a coffee?</strong></p>
<p style="color:#8b786f;font-size:18px;font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif">I'm good, but thanks! Glad you found MO useful - instead, we're very grateful if you consider 'paying it forward', perhaps with a small contribution to MO's <a href="https://us.movember.com/mospace/14534080">favorite charity</a>.</p>
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