URL domains can be clues to a site's reliability and ownership. Common URL domains include:
You can limit your search results to sites with a specific domain by using the "site:" search shortcut. "Site searching" examples:
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You must carefully EVALUATE if the website is...
Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are not databases! They are part of the "surface web," which indexes, or has access to, less than 10% of what's available online. There is so much more to the world wide web than Google!
Take a look at the chart and information below and you'll see some pretty big differences!
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Image source: "Db vs Google"McKillop Library is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Databases, on the other hand, are essential to the researcher (that's you!) because they are designed to deliver intelligently organized results. Databases are part of the "deep web." Information is stored, not just linked to, in databases by the use of subject headings that an author or editor has given to a set of documents. You can search by keywords as well, but tapping into or figuring out the controlled vocabulary or subject terms that the database uses to organize the information it holds can be very helpful. Databases are about access and you can think of them as storehouses of information that colleges and companies subscribe to.