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internet search results

Search engines will list the results of your search by webpage titles. Each webpage title you find will display this sort of information.

Put your mouse pointer over the sections of the record to see what each one stands for:



Often there is a high number of results, but the most relevant sites may appear in the first two pages.

Here's how to use the information in your results list to decide which pages to look at in detail:

1. Look at the page title and the first few lines of text. Ask yourself this question:
Does it look like the web page deals with the right aspect of your topic?

2. Look at the URL (Internet address).
Is the organisation which published the web page likely to be a reliable source?

a quick guide to reliability

You can't always judge from the URL whether a source is reliable - but often you get a clue! The 3 letter codes such as com, edu, gov, int, org tell you the type of organisation that owns the website. Information published on edu and gov websites in particular, is likely to be reliable. See the Evaluating Information guide for more information.