BI 234 (Wood): Web sources

One of the best features of Google's Advanced Search is the ability to limit your search to the areas of the web where the information may be more reliable, such as education sites or government sites. The shortcut for this is to add site:edu or site:gov to your regular Google search. Plenty of .com and .org resources are reliable, like news organizations and think-tanks that produce research and data. Using site:edu or site:gov is particularly useful when your Google search results in a lot of links to websites that are trying to sell you something or that seem of low quality.

For example, if you conduct an ordinary Google search for nutritional supplements, most of your top results will be commercial (.com) sites trying to sell you vitamins.  If you search for nutritional supplements site:gov , the top results (except for the sponsored ads) will be sites such as the National Institute of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which are not trying to sell you a product.*  If you search for nutritional supplements site:edu, your top results will be from universities providing research on nutritional supplements. 

*Some government websites have experienced the removal of content by the Trump administration, including information about climate, environment, gender, diversity, gun violence and healthcare.  Researchers are always advised to verify information by checking multiple sources. Contact a librarian for assistance evaluating content found on government or other websites and locating archived data. 

The Merck Manual is a good starting place for medical information. This link will take you to the professional version of the Merck Manual online.

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