Having trouble finding useful information on the web? Try some of these tips.

Tip 1. Choose Your Search Terms Carefully

Search engines like Google have indexed every word on billions of web pages.

When you choose your search terms:

• Be specific: use words which define the topic narrowly.
• Try phrase searching: specify that you only want pages on which your search terms appear side by side. In Google, you do this by putting double quotation marks around the words, e.g. "child protection in queensland"

Tip 2. Limit Your Search to a Particular Internet Domain

Specify that you only want pages from educational or government websites. In Google, you do this by using the Advanced Search, and finding the box labelled Search within a site or domain.

These are some of the domain names that you can use:

• .edu.au - for Australian educational websites
• .gov.au - for Australian government websites
• .org.au - for Australian organisation websites (e.g. NGOs)
• .edu - for United States educational websites
• .gov - for United States government websites
• .org - for United States and international organisation websites (e.g. NGOs)
• .ac.uk - for United Kingdom academic websites
• .gov.uk - for United Kingdom government websites
• .org.uk - for United Kingdom organisation websites (e.g. NGOs)

Tip 3. Use a Gateway (Subject Directory)

Gateways (also called subject directories) are databases of selected, high-quality websites. The gateways are usually organised in some sort of subject hierarchy so that you can browse to find useful websites in your area.

Here are some useful gateways:

• Intute (no longer updated)
• ipl2: Internet Public Library
• dmoz: Open Directory Project

Tip 4. Organisation Websites

Websites of organisations can often contain useful links to other web resources.

Think of a key organisation in your area. It might be a government agency, a nongovernmental organisation, a scholarly society, a research institute or a professional or business association. Find their website and see if it will guide you to other useful websites.

Tip 5. Specialised Search Engines

Everyone knows Google, but there are other more specialised search engines available. They may give more useful results in some situations. Many of them are offshoots of Google.

• Google Scholar
  Electronic journals and other academic content. Much of this material is available only to subscribing institutions.
  Always connect via the UQ Library catalogue if you are not on campus. This will make it easier to access subscribed content on Google Scholar.
• OAIster
  Academic resources, both text and audiovisual
• Google Images
• Yahoo! News
  Websites of newspapers and other news media
• Google Books
  Search millions of books online and view previews of their content. Some full-text books are available.
• Scirus
  Scientific web resources

Tip 6. Evaluation and Citation

Remember to carefully evaluate any information that you find on the web. See the UQ Library "How-to" guide on Evaluating Information Resources.

If you use any information that you find on the web, you must reference it in your paper. The UQ Library has a range of guides to referencing according to different style manuals (Harvard, APA, Vancouver, MLA, etc.).