Is this for real?

After following the prompts to search for "The White House" I discovered how even the most serious of subjects can be used as a hoax.  That is why it is so important to verify the information obtained and to make appropriate searches.  First lets discuss the steps to verify the information obtained.  You can start by reading the web address and taking notice of the directory and domain name.  For example, the official White House web page's address ends in the domain name of .gov which marks it as an official governmental or military site.  The hoax site ends in the domain name of .org which are usually host pages.  Such pages that end with .org could be from creditable non-profit organizations but one must look for verification.  In finding such verification, one must consider the author or publisher of the site, contact information, and update notifications.

The way you conduct your search will also affect the types of results you get.  The more specific you are in your keywords the better your results will be.  You can also use signs as + to ensure the inclusion of each word, the minus sign to exclude specific words, and quotation marks are just a few suggestions to employ when conducting searches.  Such suggestions can even be combined.  I tried this by simply searching for "astros" in which the Houston Astros were first to appear in my results.  I then combined the suggestions by typing in "astros" +astronomy -baseball.  This resulted in scientific results without the trace of baseball.  Personally, I was not aware that using the + or - sign was even accepted in searches prior to reading Bare Bones.  However, in LS 560 I was informed that if we included "quotation marks" around our keyword or phrase we would end up with a more defined search.  I have used such a suggestion when looking for articles and song lyrics.  Using Boolean searching, you can even include words such as and, or, and not. Such words should be in all caps and may require the use of quotations and/or parenthesis.  Another search suggestion that I will certainly benefit from is field searching.  This is when you specify the title, domain, host, link, or image you are searching for.  For example, while searching for information on teaching strategies I can specify that I want all results to be from a educational source.  Therefore, my search would look something like this: domain:edu AND "teaching strategies." These kinds of suggestions will definitely refine your searches. What search ideas have you tried?