Researching the Web Wisely

For every project that I have ever done in school and paper written I have always used the Internet for information and sources to prove my claim and gather evidence. However, this chapter talks about how the web can be a good source of information but at the same time anything can be put on the Internet, which makes some information false or bias. It talked a lot about the search engines Google and Yahoo. Personally I prefer Google because I am more familiar with it and have always used it. When it mentioned keywords when searching for your topic I think that this was kind of broad because in the past you sometimes have to be very specific with what you are looking for. Google will bring up what they think you want but a lot of times it is not exactly what you are looking for unless you use specific keywords. When it was talking about search directories I thought it was very interesting because I have never heard of them or used them for anything before. It is a cool way to start off with a broad topic and then move on to one that is more specific just by clicking on certain categories. It suggested a search engine called Dogpile which I looked at and found it to be very helpful. Once you find a website that relates to your topic it is very important that you can evaluate it and make sure it has reliable information. If the website it .edu, .org, .gov, or .ca you know that most of the time if there are sources cited that information can me trustworthy. Also, if they are from a print source or expert authors, the website is usually reliable. It also gives you a list of how to tell if a website might not be trustworthy. After reading this chapter I feel more confident in search for website and making sure they are a site I can get true information from.