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Definitely Online research!
Simply because all the contents that you could get off-line are digitised. And if you intend the primary research, then reaching out to a section of population / sample is easier with online researches.
Only sector where online or simulated research would not work satisfactorily is when dealing with physical research (like pharma R&D or clinical trials etc)
I think a researcher needs both of them, the traditional and online/database search. The difference is only depth that you can go with each. It depends on the research subject. Although, the online search is more controllable and organized and quick, many materials and references are still not computerized so far.
Both of them are needed, but for me I think you would always start with the internet research. You get what you can from the internet, also you find some books' names, and you go to continue with the traditional research. Also, using both will make your research better.
Good Answer, also the duration it takes you to perform an online research compared to a traditional research is not even comparable.
I agree with all the answes, however, in the case of public health, some research has to be done off line in order to better assess the validity of the outcome. When you are looking for human subject data, some digitalized resources may need to be compared or updated with current primary sources that are not digitalized yet but can only be collected outside of todays digital world.
Online researching is faster but some subjects need the traditional researching.
I preffer online search as it has many advantegous over tradtional one. the most important is time.