You can use Google to search for essays and images, but before you start Googling, here are some things you should know:
Are the best resources at the top of the results list?
No. Often times the first several items in a results set are advertisements and provide links to websites that pay for their placement at the top of the results set. You can usually differentiate these links from the regular results set because they often appear in a shaded box and "Ads related to" will appear in small type in that box. Sponsored links also often appear in the right-hand column of the page.
So, are the results immediately below the sponsored links the best results?
It's difficult to say, but perhaps not. Placement in a Google results set is determined by a complicated formula. Among the web site features that are incorporated into that formula are the number of web pages linking to a particular site and the titles and keywords used to design a web page. Web designers can manipulate those titles and keywords in an effort to optimize their site's placement in a results list.
How can I find the items that are most relevant for my assignments?
Consider limiting your Google search to news items or video clip if you're interested in reading news accounts of events or seeing how they were depicted in the media.
So how do I know which results are the best, most reliable resources?
You need to evaluate them critically. When reviewing a page, consider the following:
Credibility - Who is responsible for the website? Do they have any particular agenda, or exhibit biases? Does the site link to other, scholarly sources of information or is the page littered with advertisements? You can find clues to a website's origin by examining the URL's suffix. Domain name suffixes can help you determine the credibility of a site. For example .edu is a website associated with an educational institution, .gov is a website associated with a government agency and .org is a website associated with a non-profit agency.
Authority - Is the author of the electronic resource named and is contact information provided? Is that person a scholar who has published extensively on the topic you are researching? If the website does not provide the author's credentials, you can search Google Scholar or the library's proprietary databases to determine whether the individual has published in scholarly journals. Does the author document their sources and provide links to additional sources of credible information?
Currency and Coverage - Does the website indicate when it was last updated and do particular articles note publication dates? Are the links in working order, an indication that the site is maintained? Does the website provide you with free access to the information on the site, or do you have to sign in or pay a fee to access additional content?
Audience and Purpose - Who was the electronic resource designed for? Does it appear to be aimed at middle or high schoolers? Is it a personal website Examine the site to see if it aims to put forth a particular viewpoint or argument.
If you Google smarter, you'll retrieve better, more relevant results.
Google with care
You can improve your search results by taking the time to carefully craft your search string. Using quotations to search for items as a phrase can help fine tune your results set. Look at the different results you retrieve when you search for "Stand Your Ground Law" in quotations compared with searching for Stand Your Ground without quotations.
Be specific
If you do a Google search for Stand Your Ground Law (without quotations) you'll come up with more than 92 million results. Spend some time thinking about what about this show you're interested in and find appropriate words to add to your search. . A Google search for "Stand Your Ground Law" and "Trayvon Martin" and "George Zimmerman" and "black youth" retrieves fewer than 200,000 results, many of which are from respected newspapers, magazines, popular culture blogs and websites.
Google provides a list of tips and tricks that you can use to fine tune your searches, such as specifying the website you want to search or eliminating particular words and phrases from you search.
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