[iagovar]

Research papers are typically about very specific topics. It would be strange to end up reading one on the Internet unless you already know the field keywords and use google scholar or any other science-oriented browser.

[jacobolus]

Indeed, google scholar and similar citation graphs are amazing. It makes tracking down vaguely relevant papers much easier than in the past. I can skim a few dozen papers one day, and then more closely inspect the handful that seem most relevant or interesting.

I wish that google scholar showed bidirectional links though. I suspect they might have concluded that the list of citations included in a particular paper is part of the content of the paper (not just metadata) so that showing it might infringe copyright.