Searching the Internet
Academic Search Engines
- Google Scholar
- Allows you to search scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. May provide information on how often the material has been cited by other authors.
General search engines
- A search engine, directory and portal.
- Yahoo
- A search engine, directory and portal.
- Ask
- Uses Natural Language Processing. Search by asking questions.
General Tips
Advanced Searching
- To get better results use the Advanced Search function
- Only Google lets you access the Advanced Search from its main search box, for all others run a general search and then selected 'Advanced' function
- When using Google Scholar's Advanced Search, you can limit by author name, publication title, year published and subject areas
- In Live Search Academic, there is no Advanced Search but you can quickly sort results by relevance, date-oldest/newest, author, journal and conference
Limit Searching
- Limit results by adding quotations to your search or by selecting 'exact phrase'
- Another way to limit results is by domain name (end of URL address)
- Most trusted sites are those published by governments and educational institutions. Be careful with organizations since anyone can call themselves an organization
Common Domain Endings
- Canadian Federal Government = gc.ca
- Ontario Government = gov.on.ca
- United States Government = gov
- Organization = org
- Educational Institute (US) = edu
Tutorials
- Evaluating Web sites
- University of Guelph's tutorial will help you use the web effectively
for online research and answer questions such as:
- When is searching the Internet the best choice?
- How do subject guides, search engines and metasearch engines differ?
- How do I search effectively?
- Is this website any good?
- Research 101
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- Basic research skills