Web Search tips for Journalists

JOU 3110 Fact Finding | University of Florida | 11 September 2006

Tricks for Google

Can You Trust This?

  1. Who wrote it? What organization is the source? Who is funding it?
  2. When was it last updated? (No date? Then ... watch out!)
  3. Check the URL: Where is this page, really?
  4. Domains (see the InterNIC FAQ and the IANA database)
  5. WHOIS
  6. Quality: apperance, misspellings, poor grammar, fact errors, too many ads, other warning signs

Useful Sites That Are Not Search Engines

Blogs as Resources

This list is just a starting point. Remember, search does not begin and end with Google or Yahoo!