The Internet can provide researchers with tremendous amounts of information in a very short time. In many cases, a researcher can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of information accessible. Since millions of documents are available over the net, ignorance of effective search techniques is not bliss. A researcher literally could spend days searching for information and never find exactly what he or she needs. Compounding this difficulty is the very openness of the Internet. Almost anybody with a computer can post almost any kind of information on the net regardless of its value or authenticity or accuracy. This makes it even more challenging to the researcher to identify ONLY those sources of information that can be judged reliable and accurate. There are a number of tricks to effectively locate information on the net.

The quickest way to find information on the Internet is to already know the address of a reliable resource that provides information on the subject you wish to research. Unless you are an old hand at Internet searching, you most likely will not have addresses that you can whip up at whim. In this case, the best way to search the net is to use one of the many web catalogs that are widely available on the World Wide Web. The catalogs are created using Web crawlers, electronic "robots" that figuratively "crawl" the Web searching for connections to different data sources. The links discovered by crawlers are then indexed by keywords so that Web surfers can quickly input subjects and gain access to the wealth of information available on the Internet.

No one search engine provides the complete story, though. Currently, the most comprehensive index of the Internet is provided by Google. Developed by students at Stanford University, Google currently indexes over 4 billion Web pages, the largest collection of any of the search engines. What really makes Google special among Internet search services is its uncanny ability to return highly relevant Web pages within the first ten or so listings in its search retrieval. Using complex algorithms that rank Web pages according to word frequency and link frequency, Google does an amazing job of providing users with the best sites in the top of its listings. Google has been so good at retrieving relevant Web pages that a number of other search services now partner with Google to expand their own search capabilities. A full history of Google can be found at their Web site.

Once you locate information on the Internet, you should make every effort to identify the source of the information so that you can try to judge its accuracy and reliability. One way to begin evaluating is to look at the composition of the Internet address. The following address extensions can help you to identify the source of the information that you retrieve.