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Philosophy165 Religions of the World

Searching the Internet

When searching Google, try these strategies for better results:

  • Use "quotation marks" for phrase searching (for example, "sacred texts")
  • Use specific keywords instead of questions (for example, Hinduism and "sacred texts")
  • Search a specific domain (for example, Hinduism site:.gov)

While searching a specific domain can be helpful, remember that the domain does not determine the credibility of the information. It only tells you what kind of website it is.

To help determine credibility, start by looking at who's behind the information. 

  • Who wrote it?
  • What kind of expertise do they have?
  • What is the purpose of the information? (To inform or share research? To entertain? To influence or provide an opinion or analysis? To sell a product or service?)
  • How does it help you with your research?

Google's AI Overview

When you do a Google search, Google will sometimes provide an AI Overview at the top of the search results. This is a summary of multiple search results and is comprised of numerous individual sources.

The AI Overview by itself is not a source and should not be cited as such.

To evaluate information found in a Google AI Overview, click on the link icon within the overview to expand the information. It will show you a list of the individual sources that were summarized to create the AI Overview. 

Evaluate each source carefully for credibility and usefulness. Generative AI (used to create AI summaries) has been known "hallucinate" - or provide incorrect or nonexistent content in response to a query. Hallucinated content can include made-up "facts," citations, code, and more.

A Note About Wikipedia

While Wikipedia is not an authoritative source to cite on its own, it can be a good tool to lead you to better, more authoritative sources. Look at the references listed, evaluate those for credibility, and determine if they meet your needs. You can often find primary sources (like newspaper articles), government documents, books, even scholarly sources.