Research Tutorial

Finding Websites

The simplest way to find websites is to use a search engine, such as Google.

Google can be a great place to start your research. If you're trying to get your head around your topic, Google is the place for you. It is also a good place to end your research—say you're trying to find this one last statistic to boost your argument, or you're curious if anyone has approached your topic from such-and-such a direction. Google is great for filling in the gaps.

However, when you deal with Google results, you're also faced with something like this:

Depending on the key terms you use, you will typically get millions (or even billions) of results from a Google search. That is WAY too many web pages for anyone to go through. There might be good, accurate information out there, but unless it happens to show up on the first page or two of results, you probably won't find it this way.

So what to do?

• Use more specific key terms.

• Find a web site about your topic, and see if they have an "additional resources" or "other web sites" page—something that will lead you to more resources.

In this example, the News Media Center section may provide additional resources. You may have to search around the website to find what you're looking for.