What are some internet search techniques to get more reliable results and outcomes?
- Burst your filter bubble. Algorithms feed you information you've shown a preference for. Actively seek credible information from multiple sides of issues.
- Try searching in places not influenced by previous searches, for example:
- Modify your search with extensions to limit your results to typically more academic domains like this:
- site:.edu
- site:.gov
- site: .mil
- site:.org
- to see this technique in action, view and compare the results of these two Google searches:
- Build a list of keywords
- keep looking for synonyms
- thesaurus
- descriptions of items of search results
- hashtags
- subject headings
- descriptors
- keywords
- suggested searches by Google
- see also terms at the foot of Wikipedia articles
- Use practices to be thorough when web searching / browsing, remember
- The top result on Google is often not the best. Scan results and skim the snippets beneath the links.
- A website may appear credible and not be. Use more than a superficial examination to decide:
- leave the site itself to learn more about it (lateral reading)
- use the command-F keyboard shortcut to search within an article for a name, group, or word
- right-click on a link to open in a new tab
