Skip to Main Content

GEOG 2560: Introduction to Urban, Regional & Environmental Planning

Tips for searching the open web

Find your city's official website

  • Usually end in .org or .gov
  • Consider looking at sites for the county and adjacent municipalities (suburbs/townships/etc.)
  • Don't rely on the search bar within the website

Use Google to search within a website

  • site: allows you to limit search results to a single website
  • For example, to search for pages on transportation within the Kalamazoo website (kalamazoocity.org), use the following search:

transportation site:kalamazoocity.org

  • Make sure there are no spaces after "site:" or within the website URL

Use all the Google search tools

Google search bar showing advanced search tools

  • Click the Tools button under the search bar to see more filter options
  • "Any time" lets you filter by date
  • "All results" lets you toggle the "verbatim" option, which searches using only your exact search terms (no synonyms)
  • Advanced Search opens up even more options

Librarian

Profile Photo
Micaela Carignano
she/her/hers
Librarian:
1050 Waldo Library
(269)387-5971