Sustainability: Finding Websites

Once you have tried Library sources first, you may wish to use Google for background information on your research topic. This information shows how to make your Google search more effective.

• Use quotations for phrase searching (for example, "early childhood education")
• -site:.com added to your search will eliminate all .com sites in search results
• site:.edu (or site:.gov) will only search within the designated domain

If you choose an internet search tool like Google, remember that the results that appear at the top of a Google search aren't always the most relevant. Results can appear at the top because:

• The owner of the site has paid for that priority (often as an ad).
• The site has been accessed frequently.
• It's showing you content similar to what you usually interact with or click on. (This is called a filter bubble.)
• Numerous other unknown reasons based on Google's algorithms.

Remember to evaluate all information carefully (even scholarly sources) before you decide to use it for your paper! The yellow Evaluating Sources tab explains how to use the SIFT Method to evaluate information.