Research Guides: How to Use Google More Effectively: Getting Started

Google

You've grown up with the internet and you know how to type things into a bar to get information. That's all there is to Google, right? Wrong. There is so much more to learn. This guide aims give you tips and tricks that will help you to become a more savvy searcher and save you time when researching.

"Google" by Simon [CC0] from Pixabay.

Understanding the URL

It might seem silly to you to look at a URL for information other than where to find a web page, however, these are filled with useful tidbits about the webpage, and overall website, itself.

So, what type of information can you get from reading a URL? You can find out what type of website it is, who made it, who the intended audience is, and what its purpose is.

In order to accurately read a URL, you must first understand what the pieces of it are. All URLs have a domain name and an extension. A domain name is, in most instances, the name of the website itself. The extension tells you what type of organization the website is linked to. Put together this would look like https://www.domainname.extension.

Now, let's look at a few real websites and break down their URLs.

https://www.harvard.edu/
The domain name for this website is Harvard and the extension is .edu. This means that the site belongs to an educational institution. Typically, the information available through .edu sites should be considered trustworthy, however, you must keep in mind that .edu is used by all educational institutions from kindergarten through higher education.
http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~willetjo/
This example is also from Harvard, but we must look at it a bit closer. The domain name is actually "gseacademic.harvard," which means that this is a sub-page of harvard.edu. After the ".edu" we see a file path (~willetjo). The "~" tells us that this is a personal page, not one published by the institution itself. This means you must look at the information further to determine its credibility. In this instance, we are looking at a professor's personal website. It is outdated (last updated on May 31, 2005), the links are not active, and the image links are all broken. Also, if you type "gseacademic.harvard.edu" into your search bar you are redirected to an updated website https://www.gse.harvard.edu/, which tells you that the information on this page is not necessarily up to date either.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu
The domain name of this website is "CDC", and the extension is ".gov". The ".gov" means that this is a government website, and as such, information published on here can typically be considered trustworthy. This particular URL also has a file path (flu) included. This tells us that we will be going to the section of the Centers for Disease Control, a US government organization, website related to the flu.
http://www.health.gov.au/
The domain name of this website is "health" and the extension is".gov." Unlike the previous examples, this URL also has a country code ".au" at the end. This means that this particular website is a governmental website on health from Australia. Or, more precisely, it belongs to the Australian Department of Health. For a complete list of country codes please see the "Country Codes" tab to the left.

Common Website Extensions

The extension of a website is the text immediately following the . after the domain name (http://www.domaninname.extension).

.com	Commercial websites (such as amazon.com). Many of these types of websites are selling you some type of product.
.edu	Educational institutions. These are used by schools from Kindergarten through doctoral degrees. In addition to the information about the school, you will also find pages written by students, faculty, and staff.
.gov	Local, state, or federal government websites (such as www.irs.gov). The government produces a great amount of information, but viewpoints are often changing for a variety of reasons. Be sure to check the posting date for currency of the information.
.org	Nonprofit organizations (such as www.redcross.org). Be sure to look at the organization and their mission/viewpoints. Just because an organization is nonprofit does not mean that they are non-biased.