Sunday, November 9, 2008

Google Tip: How to getter better information from the Net

Okay, so you're looking for some information for a school project, but having a hard time verifying the information you find. Here's how to tailor your search a bit better...

Use the 'site' command during your search. This will allow you to get information from, let's say, only reputable domains like .org, .gov, and .edu (both of these have been vetted somewhat, and the .edu domain can only belong to educational institutions, hence making the data a bit better). Here's how it works:

You want to search for information about fishing in the Arctic for a school report on economic growth. So you type in 'fishing', 'arctic' in the google search bar. That would return the following results: 8.6 million results, mostly about fishing 'getaways', resorts, etc. Now try this:

fishing arctic site:.edu <---- enter this in the search bar... notice the site: command

That gets us about 48,000 results, most of which are scientific in nature, and all of which are from an educational institution. Neat, huh?'

Okay, now try to find some reliable info on the current situation in Iraq, as reported by the government... (that's .gov) Happy hunting!

1 comment:

Sethna said...

Wait, you mean that the officialgovernmentwebsite.com that I've been getting all my information from has been fraudulent?!