Use this checklist to focus your web search strategy:
1. Frame your research question.
2. Determine what key concepts are unique to your search, using a precise vocabulary.
3. Choose a search engine from the list in the box at the top of the page. One useful one is Alta Vista.
4. Type in discriminating search keywords in the space provided in the Search box. For example, if you want to find lyrics of Christmas carols, type Christmas carol lyrics (not just Christmas)--better still, type Christmas lyrics--to exclude any pages about Carol! If you are looking for a particular phrase, include it within quotation marks: \"Christmas carols\". Now click on the Search button.
6. Scroll through some of the results--they are listed in order of the most \"hits,\" which means that your search string appears most often in the first entries you find.
7. Consider the source of each site by checking the suffix on each URL. Understanding the \"domain\" of the site will help you determine its validity:
.org - Organization
- Such sites will present the particular bias of the organization.
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.gov - Government
- Such sites present government-sponsored information.
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.edu - Degree-granting educational institution (university)
- Generally reliable; keep in mind that often personal pages or course pages on university sites are revised between terms, so the URL of a page might change when a course is completed or revised. It is worth checking authorship and context on university pages: an instructor writing about his/her area of expertise would most likely construct a more authentic and valuable resource than someone creating a web page simply to fulfill the requirements for an assignment in a technology course.
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.com - Commercial site
- Although such sites may wish to sell or promote products, services, etc., they may also include free components worth visiting.
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- A suffix that denotes a province or state, followed by a country, such as <...ab.ca> (Alberta, Canada) denotes a group, such as a service provider, business, or interest group, with provincial or state connections. This list of Internet country codes
can help you determine where a site originates.
- If the address is , then this will be a personal home page. Geocities and Angelfire are two examples of companies that provide free website hosting services for personal pages. When you access a personal page, or a site listed under a domain such as Geocities or Angelfire, understand that the site\'s content will be as reliable as its author is.
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