Web Searching: Focusing & Filtering

Focusing & Filtering Your Web Search

Searching in Google will always get you results.  Controlling your search you get relevant results. 

Here are a few strategies for controlling your search and making it more precise.

Keywords 

Used your keywords to focus your search.

For the topic "how do COVID-19 variants emerge?" possible keywords might be:

• COVID, COVID-19, Corona Virus, Pandemic
• Variants, mutation, lineage
• Delta
• Protective measures, effective measures, treatment
• Vaccinated, unvaccinated, vaccines

Using different keywords will produce different results.

Filtering

Many of the same advanced keyword search tricks you use in databases will also work in Google:

• AND          COVID-19 AND Variants
• OR             COVID-19 OR Corona Virus
• Quotes      "Protective Measures"

You can also use Advanced Advanced Google Search Links to an external site. to filter your search by things like domain, last update, or region:

Use Recommended Websites

Your instructor will know who are the recognized experts on your topic. 

Here are some recognized scientific and health experts:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Links to an external site. The CDC focuses on protecting public health by controlling and preventing disease through research and information sharing.  
• National Institute of Health Links to an external site. The NIH is primary government agency for biomedical and health research 
• World Health Organization Links to an external site.  The WHO is the health agency of the United Nations. It focuses on monitoring public health, coordinating responses to health emergencies, and advocating for universal health care.