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Internet Research Guide

Learn to get better results with your searches

The Open Internet

The main issue with open-Internet content is the credibility factor: Who's behind the content?

As a student, you need to find content for your project(s). So, like we all do every day, you head for the open Internet and your favorite search engine:

Google, Yahoo, Bing … 

However, there can be big problems for you when searching on the Worldwide Web: 

  • The search engines (the companies) are in the business of selling ads, and
  • the content in your search results has no quality assurance whatsoever.

Due to these issues, you can waste a lot of time and you seldom get what you need. 

This Research Guide is designed to help you research more effectively on the open Internet.

Domains: .edu .gov .org

Domains are the letters that come after the name of a URL.

For example, www.easternflorida.edu

The ".edu" is the domain of this website.

Not all domains are the same in terms of containing quality sources for you to use in your papers / projects.

For academic research, to find the most credible and accurate sites, you can use:

.edu (schools and educational institutions)

.gov (U.S. government agencies)

.org (official organizations, mostly)