Did you know that Google has an Advanced Search?
With the advanced search, you can:
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Not all websites are good resources. There is a lot of "web garbage," some of which may even appear to be valuable at first.
Remember--ANYONE can create a web page. This is why it is important to to distiguish reliable information from bad information or misinformation on the web.
It takes time to evaluate a website and decide whether or not it is a good resource. If you need help evaluating a website, you can talk to your professor or a librarian.
You can also consult the CRAAP Test LibGuide. This LibGuide will help you learn what to look for when evaluating a website. You may find it helpful to learn the CRAAP Test before you begin searching for websites.
Although designed for evaluating websites, the CRAAP Test teaches you how to critically analyze information sources. It can also be applied to other types of resources, including books, articles, and media resources.
Some websites are great resources for finding quick information on a general topic. Consider Wikipedia.
While Wikipedia is not a source you would want to cite (since anyone can change the information on the pages), it can help you become more familiar with a topic quickly. It provides a broad overview of topics while telling you where the information comes from in the form of citations at the bottom of the page.
You can even follow the citation trail to find more resources that may be of help to you in your research.
Google Scholar (2010) provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.
You can also try Microsoft Academic Search.
There are many different ways to search and browse scholarly resources. It also gives data on the number of citations a resource has, which can help you determine if the resource is widely recognized in a particular field of research.