While Telegraph reporters and editors are scrambling to complete our coverage of Julia Earl’s Wednesday trip to Tulsa, Okla., to interview for the superintendent of schools job, I thought it might be of some interest to explain how we got to this point.

That is, how did we initially learn that the Nashua superintendent was one of four finalists for the Tulsa job, a story that we broke on the front page of Monday’s Telegraph.

Did we get a tip from someone in Tulsa?

Did we get a tip from someone closer to home in Nashua.

Did we have a reporter stationed some 1,600 miles away in Tulsa?

The answer?

Google.

That’s right. Google.

That answer speaks volumes to a much broader issue of how the Internet has changed the field of journalistic research – along with pretty much everything else in our lives.

In years gone by, we would have been totally dependent on someone sharing that information with us, maybe a Tulsa reporter figuring the hometown newspaper might have an interest in the story. And that still does happen from time to time.

But today, we also have Google alerts – a method by which Google will send you an e-mail every time your designated word or phrase shows up in one of the articles in its database. In this case, the word that triggered my e-mail alert was simply "Nashua."

So when KOTV of Tulsa posted a brief story on its Web site Sunday that contained the phrase "Dr. Julia Earl currently heads up Nashua Public Schools in New Hampshire ..." a Google e-mail alert to that effect showed up in my inbox that afternoon at 3:57 p.m.

Some nine hours later, education reporter Michael Brindley’s front-page story carrying the lead headline "Earl a finalist for Okla. top job" was up and running on our press in preparation for delivery to you the next morning.

In case you were wondering ...

And don't forget to check out our coverage of Earl's trip in Thursday's Telegraph and www.nashuatelegraph.com.