Find good key words that describe exactly what you want to search for.

Example: Jose needed to do a report on Indians for social studies, and he was most interested in Indians of New York. Jose could do a search on INDIANS IN NY, but he might also get all kinds of information on people from India who live in NY or on Indian restaurants in NY. Instead, Jose might want to search for NATIVE AMERICANS IN NY.

Try different words that might mean the same thing but give you different results.

Example: Tamika wanted to learn about inventors who were African-American. She could type in the words AFRICAN-AMERICAN INVENTORS or she could type in BLACK INVENTORS.

Check the spelling of your key words.

Example: Jasmine wanted to find out how people become BAKERS (people who make cakes, etc.). But, she made a spelling mistake in her search and typed the word BACKERS. Jasmine didn't get what she needed. Note: Google will often catch your spelling mistakes and ask if you really meant something else, but it doesn't do this 100% of the time.

Narrow down your search by typing in additional words that describe exactly what you're looking for.

Example: George wanted to learn about different options for treating his son's asthma. When he typed ASTHMA into the search engine, he found almost 3 million sites (far too many sites to look at)!! George narrowed down his search and typed in ASTHMA TREATMENTS. This brought him to about 300,000 web sites (much better). If George knew he was mostly interested in natural treatments for asthma, he might type in NATURAL ASTHMA TREATMENTS or ALTERNATIVE ASTHMA TREATMENTS or HOLISTIC ASTHMA TREATMENTS. These searches would give him websites on vitamins and behaviors that might reduce asthma attacks.

Use words like "AND" and "NOT" to narrow your search.

Example: Francie wanted to learn about sewing. When she typed in the word SEWING, she got a list of about 2 million websites. What she really wanted, however, was SEWING AND HALLOWEEN COSTUMES. This search gave her a list of only those website that contained information about how to sew Halloween costumes.

When deciding which websites to visit, take a look at the web address (URL). This will give you an idea of where the information is coming from:

• .com sites are from companies or commercial institutions. In some cases, .com sites may be trying to sell you something.
• .edu sites are from educational institutions like schools or universities.
  .gov sites are from government agencies like the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) or the CDC (Center for Disease Control).
• .org sites are from non-profit organizations like PBS (public tv) or the American Heart Association.
• Websites from other countries usually end in the 2 letter initials for that country: ca=Canada; uk=United Kingdom; au=Australia; br=Brazil...

Example: Juanita, who lives in the Bronx, wanted help finding a babysitter. She typed FINDING A BABYSITTER into her search engine. One of the websites that came up was from www.webmaine.com. Should Juanita spend her time looking at this site? No! This site is about things related to the state of Maine-not the Bronx, NY.

Note: Thinking about the web address is also helpful when you're going directly to a website. Example. Henry wanted to find out how to become a spy, so he typed www.cia.com into his browser. When he got to that website, it didn't have anything to do with spying. What did Henry do wrong?? He should have typed in CIA.GOV.