1. Mechanics of effective searching: Student handout
A curriculum for critical thinking and web research
Skill level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced
School level: Middle school (11–13 years old)
High school (14–18 years old)
Student tips: Internet web address endings and their meanings
♦ .com – “com” is short for company or a commercial business.
♦ .edu – “edu” is short for education and includes colleges, universities, and schools.
♦ .gov – “gov” is short for government sites.
♦ .mil – “mil” is short for military sites.
♦ .org – “org” is an abbreviation for organization. It was originally intended for non-
profit organizations, informational entities, and similar non-commercial web sites.
♦ .net – “net” is short for network. It was originally created for companies involved
in networking and technical infrastructure, but now, it’s mostly an alternative
to .com.
♦ .int – “int” is short for international organizations.
♦ A site with a (~) in the address was created by an individual rather than by an
organization, business, or school.
♦ .mp3 – “mp3” refers to audio files.
Top five tips for effective searching
♦ Use quotations marks to identify text required in search results, for example:
“Barack Obama”
♦ Add a plus sign (+) to include certain words or phrases in search results, for
example: “Barack Obama + Michelle Obama”
♦ Add a minus sign (-) to exclude certain words or phrases in search results, for
example, “Barack Obama – Michelle Obama”
♦ Be specific about what type of result you are searching for, like image, audio, or
photographs, for example: Click Images in the upper-left corner, and type
“Barack Obama”
♦ Use web address endings to narrow search results to a specific site type, for
example: “Barack Obama” site:virginia.edu.
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